Use the keyboard, mouse, or trackpad of your Mac to control up to two other nearby Mac or iPad devices, and work seamlessly between them.
When using Universal Control, each device shows its own screen and apps, but you can use a single keyboard, mouse, or trackpad to move the pointer, type, and even copy content between them.
macOS Monterey includes Erase All Content and Settings, a way to quickly and securely erase all of your settings, data, and apps, while maintaining the operating system currently installed. If your Mac includes this feature when using macOS Monterey, use it instead of other utilities to erase your Mac.
On a Mac with Apple silicon or an Intel-based Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip, use Erase Assistant to reset your Mac to factory settings before you trade it in or sell it. You can also use Erase Assistant to erase your Mac before reinstalling macOS. Erase Assistant removes your content and settings, and any apps that you installed.
Mac computers that have the Apple T2 Security Chip integrate security into both software and hardware to provide encrypted-storage capabilities. Data on the built-in, solid-state drive (SSD) is encrypted using a hardware-accelerated AES engine built into the T2 chip. This encryption is performed with 256-bit keys tied to a unique identifier within the T2 chip.
About encrypted storage on your new Mac
The advanced encryption technology integrated into the T2 chip provides line-speed encryption, but it also means that if the portion of the T2 chip containing your encryption keys becomes damaged, you might need to restore the content of your drive from a backup. This content includes system files, apps, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents.
Though the SSD in computers that have the Apple T2 Security Chip is encrypted, you should turn on FileVault so that your Mac requires a password to decrypt your data.
Mac models with the Apple T2 Security Chip
These Mac computers have the Apple T2 Security Chip:
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020)
iMac Pro
Mac Pro (2019)
Mac Pro (Rack, 2019)
Mac mini (2018)
MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020)
MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2019)
MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2018, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
You can also use System Information to learn whether your Mac has this chip:
Press and hold the Option key while choosing Apple menu > System Information.
In the sidebar, select either Controller or iBridge, depending on the version of macOS in use.
If you see "Apple T2 chip" on the right, your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip.
Apple File System (APFS) is a proprietary file system developed and deployed by Apple Inc. for macOS Sierra (10.12.4) and later, iOS 10.3 and later, tvOS 10.2 and later,[7] watchOS 3.2 and later, and all versions of iPadOS. It aims to fix core problems of HFS+ (also called Mac OS Extended), APFS's predecessor on these operating systems. APFS is optimized for solid-state drive storage and supports encryption, snapshots, and increased data integrity, among other capabilities.
The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), formerly AppleTalk Filing Protocol, is a proprietary network protocol, and part of the Apple File Service (AFS), that offers file services for macOS and the classic Mac OS. In Mac OS 9 and earlier, AFP was the primary protocol for file services. The protocol was deprecated starting in OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and AFP Server support was removed in macOS 11 Big Sur. In macOS 10.x, AFP is one of several file services supported, with others including Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and WebDAV. AFP currently supports Unicode file names, POSIX and access control list permissions, resource forks, named extended attributes, and advanced file locking.
AFP versions 3.0 and greater rely exclusively on TCP/IP (port 548) for establishing communication, supporting AppleTalk only as a service discoveryprotocol. The AFP 2.x family supports both TCP/IP (using Data Stream Interface) and AppleTalk for communication and service discovery. Many third-party AFP implementations use AFP 2.x, thereby supporting AppleTalk as a connection method. Still earlier versions rely exclusively on AppleTalk. For this reason, some older literature refers to AFP as "AppleTalk Filing Protocol". Other literature may refer to AFP as "AppleShare", the name of the Mac OS 9 (and earlier) AFP client.
Notable current compatibility topics are:
Mac OS X v10.4 and later eliminates support for AFP servers that rely solely on AppleTalk for communication.
Computers using classic Mac OS can connect to AFP 3.x servers, with some limitations. For example, the maximum file size in Mac OS 8 is 2 gigabytes. Typically, Mac OS 9.1 or later is recommended for connecting to AFP 3.x servers; for versions of original Mac OS prior to 9.1, installation of the AppleShare client 3.8.8 is required.
AFP 3.0 and later is required for network home directories, since Mac OS X requires POSIX permissions on user home directories. Single sign-on using Kerberos requires AFP 3.1.
APFS: AFP is incompatible with sharing of APFS volumes but is still usable as a Time Machine destination in High Sierra.
Early implementations of AFP server software were available in Mac OS starting with System 6, in AppleShare and AppleShare IP, and in early "1.x" releases of Mac OS X Server. In client operating systems, AFP was called "Personal File Sharing", and supported up to ten simultaneous connections. These AFP implementations relied on version 1.x or 2.x of the protocol. AppleShare IP 5.x, 6.x, and the "1.x" releases of Mac OS X Server introduced AFP version 2.2. This was the first version to offer transport connections using TCP/IP as well as AppleTalk. It also increased the maximum share point size from four gigabytes to two terabytes,[2] although the maximum file size that could be stored remained at two gigabytes due to limitations in the original Mac OS.
Changes made in AFP since version 3.0 represent major advances in the protocol, introducing features designed specifically for Mac OS X clients.
However, like the AppleShare client in original Mac OS, the AFP client in Mac OS X continued to support type and creator codes, along with filename extensions.
This version of the protocol is the version that was initially documented in Inside AppleTalk. The contents of Inside AppleTalk are now split between this document and Apple Filing Protocol Reference.
This version was a significant upgrade to accommodate System 7.0.
Added support for AFP over TCP.
Introduced in OS X v10.2, AFP 3.1 was a relatively minor release to tidy up some nagging OS X issues.
Introduced in OS X v.10.3, AFP 3.1+ added additional reconnection functionality and additional Kerberos support.
Introduced in OS X v10.4, AFP 3.2 added support for ACLs and extended attributes.
Introduced in OS X v10.5, AFP 3.2+ added better synchronization support for Time Machine.
Introduced in OS X v10.6. Mandates support for the AFP replay cache (described in AFP Replay Cache).
Introduced in OS X v10.8.
Ephemeral
Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite auto-switch to SMB issue on network connection to macOS 12 Monterey.
RAM parity checking is the storing of a redundant parity bit representing the parity(odd or even) of a small amount of computer data (typically one byte) stored in random-access memory, and the subsequent comparison of the stored and the computed parity to detect whether a data error has occurred.
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuitassemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is also sometimes called a semiconductor storage device, a solid-state device or a solid-state disk, even though SSDs lack the physical spinning disks and movable read–write heads used in hard disk drives (HDDs) and floppy disks.
