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Apple's MacBook Air is a great value—even now, after the company significantly raised the price of the machine. The Air offers the best of both worlds: It's a lightweight laptop with a powerful Apple chip, without the expense that comes with the added features of the company's "Pro" line. Most of us could probably get by on an Air—if not a Neo—which explains why so many of us own these laptops, and use them every day.
But while you can get a lot done with the Air out of the box, there are so many ways to push this machine to its limits. Below, I've compiled 10 hacks, tips, and tricks that should help you get the most out of your Apple laptop.
Pick up an external SSD to avoid slowdowns and crashes
If you maxed out your MacBook Air's storage upon purchase, you might not need this hack. However, if you, like many of us, purchased a base model MacBook Air—especially when Apple still started the machines off at 256GB—you'll want to consider an external SSD.
Having extra storage is always helpful, but that's not the motivation behind this hack. By adding an SSD to your setup, you sharply reduce the chance of pushing your MacBook Air's storage to its limits, which, in turn, helps it run better. Like all computers, your MacBook Air needs a certain amount of accessible storage space to operate properly. If your MacBook has limited RAM as well, it'll tap into the SSD for "swap." The closer you get to a full drive, the greater the chance for slowdowns or crashes.
Due to the global demand for memory and storage, external SSDs are more expensive than they used to be, but you can still find good deals out there to upgrade your setup. Take this 2TB option from Seagate, for example. For $145, you can potentially octuple your MacBook Air's available storage, ensuring it has the free space on the internal drive it needs for optimal performance.
Upgrade your power adapter to charge your MacBook faster
MacBook Airs released in 2022 and later support power adapters up to 140W, but yours might have shipped with a power adapter as wimpy as 30W. If your MacBook spends most of its life on the charger, that might be just fine. But if you're frequently on the go and you need to charge up as fast as possible, you're going to want a power adapter as close to 140W as possible. Take note of the cable itself, too: If you want to take advantage of fast charging on your MacBook Air, you'll need a MagSafe 3 cable or a USB-C charging cable. (As it happens, not all USB-C cables are created equal. For more information, check out Lifehacker's explainer on USB-C charging cables.)
Set a charge limit to extend the life of your battery
Most of our discussions around batteries concern ways to make day-to-day charges last longer, but equally important is how to stretch the lifecycle of the battery itself. The lithium-ion batteries that most of our devices now use age over time, and, as they do, they lose their capacity to hold a charge. A three-year-old battery that has been frequently recharged won't last as long after being charged to 100% as it did when it was new. Slowing down that aging process can keep your MacBook Air's battery from losing its overall capacity too quickly.
There's no way to prevent battery aging entirely, but you can slow down aging by reducing the number of charging cycles you put the battery through. One of the easiest ways to do that is to set a limit to how charged the battery gets while connected to power, which prevents it from overcharging when you don't need that extra juice. Your MacBook Air tries to do this on its own through a feature called "Optimized Battery Charging," which analyzes how you use your computer to set charge limits accordingly. You can bypass these automated processes and set your own charge limit. That way, you can choose to cap charging at 80% all the time, so that no matter how long your MacBook sits on the charger, it almost never breaks 80%—except for the occasional charge to 100% for "accurate battery state-of-charge estimates."
But that's getting a bit in the weeds. The point is, you can set charge limits for anywhere from 80% to 95% to prevent your Mac's battery from charging when you don't want it to. Here's how: Open System Settings, then choose Battery. Here, click the (i) next to "Charging," then adjust the slider next to "Charge Limit."
Use a clipboard manager to improve copy and paste
Copy and paste is pretty straightforward: You highlight something, copy it, then paste it somewhere else. If you spend a lot of time on your MacBook copying and pasting, however, you know it can get tedious to jump back and forth every time you want to copy something new. Enter: clipboard managers. These tools are essential for frequent copy and pasters, as they save a history of everything you copy on your Mac. When you need to retrieve something, you pull up the clipboard manager, click the item in question, then paste it, eliminating the need to switch between windows all day long.
My clipboard manager is essential, and I've been using one for the past decade or longer. While you had to go third-party for years on Mac, Apple tried to implement its own clipboard manager with macOS 26 by embedding a Clipboard menu in Spotlight. I tried to replace my third-party clipboard manager with this native solution, but, in my view, it's too cumbersome and limiting. There are plenty of options out there, but my go-to is CopyClip. It's free and lives in your menu bar, so your entire clipboard history is accessible from anywhere in macOS.
Use a window manager to improve your workflow
On the flip side, a window manager has been indispensable for me when working across multiple windows at once. If you use windows side-by-side on your Mac, you should never drag and drop your windows again—a good window manager will let you quickly snap windows into place with keyboard shortcuts. I frequently use this tactic when writing: I snap my editor on one half of the screen, and my sources on the right. If you have a large enough screen, you might even want windows in thirds—I imagine having my chat apps on the third pane would be quite useful as well.
Again, for years you had to pick a third-party app to get these features on macOS. But in recent years, Apple also added a new window management system to the mix. You can now hover over the green button on any window to reveal quick resizing options, but you should definitely use the keyboard shortcuts instead. It definitely works better than Spotlight's clipboard manager, and I encourage you to give it a try if you've never used a window manager before.
But, again, I still prefer third-party here. I find the keyboard shortcuts a bit glitchy at times, and some app shortcuts override the macOS shortcuts, so you end up doing things you don't mean to. There are plenty of options to try, but I've used Magnet for years. It costs $4.99, but I've certainly gotten my money's worth, and it's definitely the option for anyone who needs more options than macOS' built-in solution can offer—like window thirds. Before you commit, however, give the built-in shortcuts a try, and see if you like moving windows around with your keyboard.
Use Safari for a private browsing experience
One of the first things most of us do when setting up a new computer is download a third-party browser. Chrome is the world's most popular option, so perhaps that's your go-to as well, but I'd argue that you should give Safari a chance. Apple's browser comes with some great built-in privacy tools, including tracker blocking and preventing extensions from accessing your browsing history. If you have an iCloud+ subscription, you can use iCloud Private Relay to shield your MacBook's IP address from sites as you browse. I also find Safari much more efficient than alternatives like Chrome, so it ends up draining my battery less. I have to use a few different browsers in my line of work, but in my personal use, I'm almost always using Safari.
Use an ad blocker to make the internet more manageable
The internet runs on ads, but that doesn't mean you need to live with that. I'm all for supporting websites that rely on ads for financial support, but that doesn't extend to every corner of the web. There are way too many obnoxious and malicious adverts out there, pining for your clicks, that I find it nearly impossible to browse the internet without an ad blocker in place. Even the FBI recommends using these tools to keep yourself safe online.
Safari plus an ad blocker is an excellent combination. While options used to be limited, there are plenty of choices these days, including a version of uBlock Origin—though I've been using AdGuard for some time. I'd recommend whitelisting the sites you'd like to support with ads, though some may prompt you to do so themselves. (Most will let you continue reading while using your ad blocker, but some might deny access until you disable it.)
Use Voice Isolation for clearer video calls on your MacBook
This is one of my favorite features Apple has added in recent years. If you frequently take video calls on your Mac, either for work or via FaceTime, Voice Isolation is a must. It reduces background noise and focuses on your words, so that others on the call hear your voice, rather than your dog, kids, or the people chatting away in the coffee shop. It works well, too, at least in my experience. My dog has decided to start screaming at a passing car while I'm on a call, only for me to be met with confused looks when I apologize for the disruption. "Oh, really? I didn't hear anything."
To turn Voice Isolation on, open a video calling app like FaceTime to activate your MacBook's camera. Then, click the FaceTime icon in the menu bar. Here, you'll find all your system-level video call controls, including "Mic Mode" at the bottom. Click this, then choose "Voice Isolation." (You'll also see "Wide Spectrum," which does the opposite, by emphasizing all noise that hits the microphone.) This feature is available on iPhone and iPad as well, so I highly recommend enabling it on those devices as well.
Disable 'Reactions' to save yourself embarassment during important video calls
While you're at it, I strongly suggest disabling "Reactions," if enabled. Someone at Apple thought it'd be fun to roll out animated reactions tied to specific gestures for video calls: holding your thumb up displays a 3D graphic of a thumb up emoji in a thought bubble above your head; holding up a peace sign sends balloons rising up from the bottom of the screen. There are a number of these reactions available, and some may enjoy using them. The issue, however, is they apply not just to FaceTime, but to all video calling apps on your Mac. That means if macOS thinks you're holding two thumbs up, it's going to start shooting out fireworks, whether you're on a FaceTime call with a friend, or a Teams call with your boss. Save yourself some future headaches, and disable this feature now.
Double the number of fingerprint scans for Touch ID
On macOS, you get three fingerprint scans for Touch ID. That might be plenty for most, but there is a hidden way to double the number of scans you can make. This goes back to the days when Touch ID was standard on iPhone, before Face ID took over. Apple's fingerprint scanning system seems to still support it on Mac.
First, open System Settings, then choose "Touch ID & Password" from the menu. Under Touch ID, choose "Add Fingerprint." Once the scanner pops up, scan two of your fingers instead of just one. Place one finger on the scanner, lift it when macOS tells you to, then place the second finger down, and repeat. Once the scan completes, you'll have two fingerprints stored on one entry. Do this for all three entries, and you'll be able to unlock your Mac with up to six of your fingers.
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