Setting up a new MacBook: the first hour

The first hour with a new MacBook goes best in this order: let Setup Assistant move your old Mac over (or start fresh) and sign you in to your Apple Account, install updates, set up Touch ID, FileVault and Find My, choose your battery and display settings, then tidy the menu bar and set up Focus. Do the backup and security steps first, because they are hard to do well later, and leave the cosmetic choices for the second week.

This works for any MacBook, including the new models arriving from 6 November 2026, with a notch or without one. Menu names move a little between versions of macOS, so where a setting might sit somewhere else on your Mac, the text says so.

Before you open the lid

Two minutes of preparation saves an hour:

• Back up the old Mac if you are moving from one. Time Machine backups covers setting one up, and a fresh backup means nothing is lost if the move goes wrong.
• Know your Apple Account email and password, and keep your iPhone nearby in case a verification code is needed.
• Have the Wi-Fi password ready.
• Plug the new Mac in. Setup includes downloads, and you don't want the battery to run low halfway through.

Setup Assistant: move your data or start fresh

The first time you turn the Mac on, Setup Assistant walks you through your country or region, Wi-Fi, your Apple Account and a few privacy choices. Along the way it offers to transfer information from another Mac, a Time Machine backup or a Windows PC. That is the biggest decision of the hour.

Moving over keeps your files, apps, accounts and most settings. It is the easy choice and the right one for most people. It also brings along every bit of clutter from the last few years.

Starting fresh gives you a clean Mac and asks you to reinstall apps and sign back in to services. It takes longer, and it is the better choice if your old Mac was slow, full of things you never use, or prone to odd behavior. A middle way is to start fresh and copy your documents and photos across yourself.

Migration Assistant does the moving. If you skip it now, you can open it later from the Utilities folder inside Applications. Migration Assistant to a new MacBook has the details. Whichever way you go, expect some apps to ask you to sign in again afterwards.

Updates, Touch ID and security

1. Check for updates. Open System Settings > General > Software Update. A Mac that has been sitting in a box may not have the newest version, and updating now is easier than in the middle of work.
2. Set up Touch ID. Setup Assistant offers it, and you can add fingerprints later in System Settings > Touch ID & Password (you may need to scroll down the sidebar). Add the finger you actually use, then a second one. You still type your password when the Mac starts up, and Touch ID takes over after that.
3. Turn on FileVault if Setup Assistant offers it. It encrypts the startup disk, so a lost laptop doesn't mean lost files. Keep the recovery key somewhere other than the Mac itself.
4. Check Find My. It lets you locate, lock or erase a Mac that goes missing, and it has to be on before the Mac is lost, not after. In System Settings, click your name at the top of the sidebar, then iCloud, and look for Find My Mac (it may be under See All).

Battery: set it once

A new MacBook is the best moment to choose the charging behavior you want for the next several years. Open System Settings > Battery and click the info button next to Charging (or Battery Health).

• Optimized Battery Charging is the one to leave on. Apple says it learns your daily charging routine and can delay charging past 80 percent in certain situations, so the battery spends less time sitting full.
• Charge Limit. Apple's support page says later releases of macOS Tahoe added this for Macs with Apple silicon. It sits behind the same info button, and you pick a limit between 80 percent and full. Apple notes the Mac will occasionally charge all the way anyway, to keep its battery estimates accurate. If your Mac lives on a desk, plugged in most days, it is worth a look. If you don't see it, your Mac or its macOS version doesn't have it.

Neither needs attention after today.

Display comfort

Eyes are the part of a laptop day most people leave at the default.

• Night Shift. In System Settings > Displays, open Night Shift and set it to Sunset to Sunrise, so the colors warm up after dark.
• True Tone. Also in Displays, on Macs that support it. It adjusts the screen's color to the light in the room.
• Text size. If you lean in to read, choose a larger scaled resolution now rather than squinting for a month.
• Brightness. Keep automatic brightness on if your Mac offers it.

Tidy the menu bar and set up Focus

A new Mac arrives with a clean menu bar. Each app you install can add an icon, and after a month it is crowded. Decide now what deserves a place. In macOS Tahoe, System Settings > Menu Bar is where you choose what shows up there; in earlier versions, look in System Settings > Control Center. Organize your Mac menu bar icons covers the rest, including what to do if your Mac has a notch.

Then set up Focus, in System Settings > Focus. Do Not Disturb is there from the start, and you can add others. Make one for deep work, choose the people and apps that may still reach you, and schedule it for the hours you want to protect.

Where Notchpals fits

If you want reminders that look after you as well as the Mac, Notchpals is one to add at the end of the hour. On a notched MacBook, the M6 MacBook Pro or any MacBook Air from M2 on among them, the characters peek out of the notch. On a Mac without one, the MacBook Neo for example, they peek out of a black island it draws in the middle of the top edge of the screen. Blip, the alien who is always in your crew for Eyes, walks you through setup in four steps: hello, pick your crew, timing (bedtime, meals, calendar access, start at login), and done.

BlipEarth has faraway things! Look at one twenty feet off. Twenty whole seconds!

That eye break is the habit that goes with the display settings above. Notchpals needs macOS 14 or later.