Some macOS Hacks

My love for macOS comes from BSD based POSIX compliant OS running efficiently on a decently modern hardware. However, the walled garden approach of apple and certain things do rub me the wrong way. However my portable work device, Apple certainly makes the best hardware. Here are some hacks that I found that helped me with something:

Mouse Speed Override

For some mice, specially Magic Mice, the maximum speed was not enough for me. However a simple CLI trick can do the fix for me. The default values are from 1 to 5, but we can even add higher values like this:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling -float 6.0

Dock AutoHide Delay

Similarly for dock, we can have the command like below. We do kill the dock. Notice the missing sudo.

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.5;killall Dock

WiFi 6E SSID not visible

Unfortunately, some governments like in India, have dragged thier feet on allowing 6GHz spectrum officially, while still being able to purchase the devices. I was able to enable the  First we need to disable Location Services → Networking and wireless.

Then we just need to run the command:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist Country -string "US"

Now turn the WiFi off and on, and we should see 6GHz SSIDs. Notice the speeds show a lower number, but it actually performs much better. I also use a different SSID for 5 & 6 GHz bands, which is not as per Apple, but works fine for me.

Handoff not working

This one was most curious and stupidest of all. My "Magic Features" like Apple Watch unlock and some other things, slowly stopped working. The trick is to simply logout and login back your iCloud account.