10/27/23
9:00 am

New Settings You Can Customize In macOS Sonoma

There are a few new System Settings and app settings you should know about in macOS Sonoma.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's take a look at some new system and app settings in macOS Sonoma.
MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about it. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts.
Now with every major update of macOS comes some new settings. Both in System Settings and some of the built-in apps. So to look at these we're going to go to System Settings here. The first one we're going to look at is one where I've changed it from the default myself. This is when you click the Desktop background it will move all windows out of the way. This is the equivalent to what we had before and it still works if you use F11 or sometimes the fn key and F11, depending upon your settings. That will do the same thing. So this functionality isn't new. It is just clicking the Desktop to make it happen that is new. To turn this Off all you need to do is go into System Settings to Desktop & Dock and then there is a setting for this under Desktop & Stage Manager. Here you'll see Click Wallpaper to Reveal Desktop. You can switch it from Always to Only in Stage Manager. Stage Manager was new in  macOS Ventura and it has this functionality in it. So you can go back to how it worked in Ventura where this only happens in Stage Manager or have it switched to Always where it will work in Stage Manager and also in regular Desktop mode. 
While we're here in Desktop & Dock there is a whole new section here for Widgets. Of course widgets are the new functionality where you can put things like clocks and calendars and notes and stuff on your Desktop. You can choose to have these widgets shown on the Desktop, Stage Manager, in both or neither. So you can basically turn widgets off by turning off both of these. You can choose the widget style. Have it be full color always, monochrome always, or switched depending upon whether the Desktop is focused on. You can also choose whether or not iPhone widgets are allowed in addition to Mac widgets. 
Another change is what the Lock Screen looks like. If you go and lock your screen you'll see a big clock now at the top. But you have the option to turn this Off. So for that you want to go down to Lock Screen and then you've got a new setting for Show Large Clock. You can have it on Screen Saver and Lock Screen, Only Lock Screen, or Never. So if I switch it to Never and lock the screen you can see it is gone. 
Now let's go to Accessibility Settings. Under Vision, if you go to Display, there's now something new under your Text Size. You can go to a submenu here and it lists some of the major apps, like Calendar, Mail, Messages, and such. You can set a size for the fonts inside of those particular apps to something different than the default size. So changing this will actually change it in other places, like notice how it is changing there in System Settings. But if I wanted this to stay as the default and maybe Calendar be larger I can set Calendar to something like that. All of these, of course, have either the default or use the preferred reading size here to obey the System Settings. Right now we only have these apps here but third party apps may be able to add themselves to this list and in the future Apple may add other apps as well. 
If we go back to the top level of Accessibility, under Zoom now, you're not going to see anything new here. But, Zoom actually has changed because now when you turn Zooming on each display has its own zoom level. So here I'm going to show you both of my displays. My Pointer is over one display and I can zoom in on that display. Now my Pointer is over in the other display and I can zoom on that display. Displays can have separate zoom amounts. 
Also in Display there is a new setting here for Auto Play Animated Images. So, if you have this turned Off, things like animated GIF's won't automatically animate. You have to click on them to do so. 
Now let's switch away from System Settings for a minute here and go into an app. Safari has some new settings. So if we go into Safari and then we look at Safari settings here then let's first start by going to Search. Search allows you to pick a search engine just like before and you've got these five to choose from. What's new is there is a second choice of Search Engine. This is for private browsing windows. So you can choose one for your regular windows and then when you open a private browsing window you can have a separate Search Engine for that. 
Now if you go to Privacy there is a button here for Advanced Settings. One of the new things in here is Use Advanced Tracking & Fingerprinting Protection. Then you can set it for All Browsing or Private Browsing. So this will try to prevent websites from tracking you from site to site. Note that the word Fingerprinting here is very confusing for a lot of people. It has nothing to do with your actual fingerprint. It's talking about trying to figure out who you are or what site you've been to based on things about you. Like, for instance, that you're a Mac user using a certain version of Safari with a certain screen size and other settings and it can kind of match that from site to site to figure out if you're the same person or not. So turning this on will hide a lot of that information.
Now if we go over to Passwords here there is a new setting if you go into Password Options. That is to Cleanup Automatically. So the idea here is when you get verification codes in Messages or Mail, these are the two-factor codes that you will use one time and then they are not valid for anything anymore, you could have those messages and emails automatically get deleted when you're done with them. 
If we go to Privacy here you've got Private Browsing require Password to View Locked Tabs. So, when you have a private browsing window open and, say, you don't use Safari for awhile or you lock your Mac then you go back to that private tab you're going to need to enter in your Mac Account Password in order to open those up again. 
Of course while we're looking at new settings here it should be noted that we have an entire new section called Profiles that allows you to setup different profiles in Safari. So you could use this to, say, have your cookies be separate. So you could be logged in to a website using one account and then in a profile be logged in using a separate account. So this whole new section here deals with creating profiles and managing them. I'll be looking at Profiles in detail in a future video. 
Now another thing that you could find in Safari, but also in System Settings, is the ability to Share Passwords. So, I'm going to do it in System Settings here. I'm going to go to the Password Section and you could see here Shared Passwords and Passkeys. So you can use the Get Started button here and you can set this up. 
So now that we are back in System Settings here let's go to Wallpaper. This looks very new because it is centered now on the new arial wallpapers. You've got a variety of those here. Now one thing about these is that you don't have them on your Mac by default. You need to Download them. So if you were to switch to one and you see there's a little download arrows here, it would actually download it and then it would take up space on your Mac. The question that everybody has got is once you've downloaded one of these dynamic wallpapers how do you get rid of it? There's no delete button or offload button. Well, there's no way to do it here in System Settings. You have to actually go to the location on your drive these are stored and delete them manually. So to get there in the Finder I'm going to choose Go and then Go to the computer level, so the top level. Go into your hard drive and then into Library. So now you're at the top level Library Folder, not your User Library Folder. From there you're going to go into Application Support and look for com.apple.idleassetsd. Go in there and then you'll see Customer. Go down into that and you'll see a lot of folders. These are for different resolutions for these. So you can do Command J and then Calculate All Sizes here. For me it shows that it's got the largest one. So the 4k 240 frames per second versions of those. Now, if I want to get rid of them I can just dig down in here and I'm going to find them all. There are going to have names that you can't really use to identify them. But if you select one in QuickLook you'll see it. Yes, these are standard videos that you could, say, take and play around within iMovie if you wanted to. If you want to get rid of one of these just drag it to the Trash and Empty your Trash. Or, if you want to clear them all out and redownload just the ones you need, select them All and then drag them all to the Trash and Empty Trash. Now note if you do that this will not update System Settings. So System Settings doesn't know in the Wallpaper Section that you manually deleted these. So what you want to do is simply just a quick Restart or Logout and Log into your account and that will then update what's downloaded and what's isn't. 
Now another new thing in macOS Sonoma is Game Mode. So whenever you run a game, whether it is a casual game or a super hardcore massive triple A title, it's going to go into Game Mode. So here I am. I've got a simple game running and you could see Game Mode up here. So note the you've got the setting to turn Game Mode off. Game Mode, of course will optimize everything centering on the game. So a lot more processor memory is going to go to the game that you're playing, which you would probably want if you're playing the game. But if for some reason it's a casual game and you're also switching back and forth from it to other apps and you don't want Game Mode, you can always just switch it off like that. 
So back in System Settings there is something new if you look under Mouse. There is now an option under Advanced for Pointer Acceleration. So you can now set Pointer Acceleration for the mouse separate from having that going in the trackpad. 
Also, under Bluetooth you're going to find different settings for some Air Pods. So under Air Pods Pro here I've got those that have been previously used on this Mac. If I click the i button notice I've got a bit better control over whether or not the Air Pods connect to the Mac. You can set it to connect Automatically or Only When Last Connected to this Mac. 
Now a big setting that gets lot of attention is under Siri & Spotlight. That is the ability to set what Siri listens for. So now it can listen for its name or its name preceded by the word Hey. Or you can go to the older setting where it always has to be proceeded by the word Hey. Or, for course, you can switch this off so you have to use the Menu Item here or keyboard shortcut to trigger Siri. 
There aren't really many new settings in the Productivity Apps but Reminders has one. Remember now we have the new Grocery List in Reminders where we can set a list as the type Groceries and then when we add items they will immediately be categorized in different sections. You also have the ability to change where something is. So, for instance, if I were to add cookies here, it puts it under Snacks & Candy. If I say hey I want cake to be under Snacks & Candy as well it is going to remember that. So next time I type cake it should put it under Snacks & Candy. You can reset that by going to Reminders, Settings and you'll see Grocery List, Reset Grocery Categories. 
I want to end by showing you one System Setting that actually isn't new because it was added in Ventura. But not originally in Ventura. It was added in the middle. I think the .3 version of Ventura. That is if you go into System Settings and then General and then Software Update, then under Automatic Update click the i button there. There are separate switches for what gets automatically updated. Of course I've got these all checked. But now there is a separate item here for Install Security Responses in System Files. That is for Apple's Rapid Security Response. When there is something very important that needs to be updated in order to protect you. So you definitely want to make sure you have that turned On. 
There's a look at a whole bunch of new settings that you could checkout once you've updated to macOS Sonoma. Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 14 Responses to “New Settings You Can Customize In macOS Sonoma”

Sheldon

2 years ago

Thanks bunches

Mike

2 years ago

One item that you discussed was to increase the font size - specifically in System Settings/Accessibility/Display/Text Size/Mail ... I set my to Arial size 10 - so when I compose an e mail it automatically defaults to 10 - which is what I want. Unfortunately I have difficulties seeing size 10 on my screen (MacBook Pro) - is there any way that I can increase the magnification of the letters (say to 14) and keeping the actual compose font size to 10. Without degrading the screen resolution?

Gary Rosenzweig

2 years ago

Mike: If you can't see size 10, then why are you composing emails in that size?

Chris Phillips

2 years ago

Thanks for the update Gary. I listened to it all and in my dotage (87) shall never be able to remember any of it. I'll try though !

Gerry

2 years ago

A setting that has been removed in Sonoma is the switch for Auto Save. I turned off Auto Save a couple of years ago and now I want to turn it back on, but can't. There must be a parameter I can control with the DEFAULTS command in Terminal. Does anyone know what it is?

Gary Rosenzweig

2 years ago

Gerry: Do you mean "Ask to keep changes when closing documents?" That's in System Settings, Desktop & Dock.

Gerry

2 years ago

Thanks Gary. Yes, that's the setting I was looking for.

Don Cadwallader

2 years ago

Regarding the deleting of dynamic wallpapers and desktops, after I turned these off, and as a matter fact after shutting down my iMac entirely, I noticed a big improvement in my TV streaming services’ speed and video quality. I had not realized what a bandwidth hog my new Sonoma OS had caused!

Paul

1 year ago

Regarding the display of Widgets: I would like them to be restricted to Desktop 1. Is that possible? If not, do you think that is a good addition to propose?

Gary Rosenzweig

1 year ago

Paul: No, you can't do that. There is only ONE "Desktop." When you create a new Desktop Space in Mission Control, you are seeing the same one Desktop on that Space as well. The only difference is the app windows. The one-and-only Desktop itself is shown on all Desktop Spaces. So to change this macOS would need to have multiple Desktops. Seems like a good idea but then you'd have to manage everything: what is available on which Desktop. So it would make some people happy and confuse the heck out of others. Consider what would happen if you set up Desktop 1 like you want, then Desktop 2 like you want, then delete Desktop 1? Or should there be a whole system of saving Desktops? It gets complex very fast.

Kerrie

1 year ago

Thanks for all this information, Gary! I just tried Stage Manager in Sonoma with the open apps on the side of the screen. At first it was OK as I could still see the apps. Only problem is that when I tried to plug in & open an external drive, it doesn't show on the desktop, and I can't easily move files from iCloud Drive into the external folders, as iC vanished. Too messy a process for me. I like clear drag n drop without much effort. Also, the browser vanished! I think I'll go Zen on this one.

Gary Rosenzweig

1 year ago

Kerrie: Instead of putting the drive icon on the Desktop, just drag and drop into the drive in the Finder sidebar.

Deborah

9 months ago

These darn (beautiful) Sonoma video screensavers take up a HUGE amount of storage (40 GB!). One problem: THEY CAN'T BE DELTED! I've tried all the solutions by digging into the system library. Every time I delete them there, they re-download! Even changing to the basic "flurry" screensaver ad restarting they will come back. I resampled them down to 720p and replaced them with the same names and they seem to work but low quality. Why doesn't Apple allow them to be removed completely?! Insane!

Gary Rosenzweig

9 months ago

Deborah: Try this. First, make sure you switch away from the wallpaper you want to delete. If you are currently using it, then it would download again right away. So switch to another one. Then quit System Settings. Then delete the wallpaper in the Library, it sounds like you know where those are (/Library/Application Support/com.apple.idleassetsd/Customer/). Now you need to go to Activity Monitor and search for the "wallpaper" processes. Quit all of those. They will restart instantly, but that should refresh the status in System Settings. See if that works.
Also, I believe that there's no need to do this normally. I think if you are low on space, then wallpapers you aren't using will automatically offload to make room. They are considered "purgeable" in other words.

Comments Closed.

New Settings You Can Customize In macOS Sonoma

Comments: 14 Responses to “New Settings You Can Customize In macOS Sonoma”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information