Peripherals
Thinking inside the box to refresh the parts other tips can’t reach
Quick-fire questions >
Why does my M1 Mac crash when waking with a dock?
> This wasn’t unusual in early Big Sur, so upgrading to Monterey could cure it. If these are actually kernel panics rather than crashes, after your Mac has restarted it should show a panic log giving clues. Otherwise, work around this by disabling sleep when attached to that dock.
Can M1 Macs use Blu-ray and other optical drives?
> Yes, most remain compatible although you won’t see the CDs and DVDs pane in System Preferences until the drive is connected and powered up. Insert an optical disk in the drive to pick the options as to how your Mac responds to that. To play Blu-ray disks you’ll need a player app.
All good UPS sport a USB port to connect them to your Mac, but that can’t shut down a second device like a NAS as well.