Monitor settings
The Monitor settings page: how many live connections to keep, saved history, the location database, where this Mac is on the map, the shortcut, and hidden connections.
The Monitor page sets what the Network Monitor remembers: how many live connections it keeps, how long saved history survives, where places on the map come from, and the global shortcut that opens it. The window itself is on Network Monitor. The shortcut is suspended while the Settings window is open, and works again when Settings closes.
When settings are locked, the Network Monitor, History and Map sections are disabled. Hidden Connections stays readable: its filter field still works, and Show Again stays disabled until the lock is lifted.
Network Monitor
Section titled “Network Monitor”Remember: “N connections”, with N the current value, and a stepper from 1,000 to 50,000, in steps of 1,000. Default 5,000. This is how many distinct connections the live list keeps.
Update the location database automatically: on by default. Its description is “Updates an installed database when a newer month is available.” While it is on, and the main Outbound window is open, Outbound checks at launch and every six hours. A missing database is downloaded unless you removed it yourself. An installed database is refreshed when its build date is missing or its month in UTC is not the current month. DB-IP publishes one City Lite build a month. Remove on the location control marks the database as removed by you, so the automatic check will not fetch it again until you download it yourself. The description mentions only an installed database. The check above is what actually runs: a missing database is fetched too, unless you removed it.
Show Network Monitor: a shortcut recorder. It has no default; nothing is recorded until you set one here. See Mini Monitor and the shortcut.
History
Section titled “History”Keep connection history: 1 day, 7 days (default), 30 days, or Off. The description is “Off deletes saved history and stops recording.” Saved history is what the longer ranges in the Network Monitor, the Connection Log and the traffic chart read after you quit. When your organization sets the period, the picker is disabled and says so.
This section holds the location database and where this Mac is on the map.
Location Database is the offline database that places destinations on the map and in Activity:
- Not installed: “Places every destination on the map and in Activity. The database is downloaded once from DB-IP (60 MB); every lookup happens on this Mac.” with Download Locations (60 MB).
- Downloading: a progress bar, “Downloading locations…”, and Cancel.
- Installed: “Installed · updated” plus the Mac’s abbreviated date and no clock time, or “Installed” when no build date is known, with Update and Remove.
- Failed: the reason, with Try Again. A remove that fails reads “The location database could not be deleted:” and the reason.
Under it, the credit “IP Geolocation by DB-IP (CC BY 4.0)”, a link to https://db-ip.com.
Location: where the map and the globe centre, and where arcs start.
- System Time Zone places this Mac by its current time zone. It is the default.
- Determine Automatically asks Location Services, after macOS asks you for permission. Update Location finds it again later. If access is denied, Open System Settings opens the Location Services page.
- The rows below are time zones from the Mac’s zone list, shown by city.
- A spot set with Set This Mac’s Location Here on the map appears at the top by name.
While Location Services has not found this Mac, or access is denied or unavailable, a line under the picker says the map is using the system time zone.
The footnote: “Location Services is optional. When used, only a location rounded to about 10 km is saved on this Mac and shared with its map widgets.”
Hidden Connections
Section titled “Hidden Connections”This section appears only when an app or a domain is hidden. One row per hidden app (its name, from the end of the path) and one per hidden domain, each with Show Again.
- Filter apps and domains appears once more than 8 apps and domains are hidden. It stays for that visit once it has appeared, and a query keeps it visible. Apps match on the name the row shows and on their path.
- A host name or a web address also finds a hidden domain that covers it. “cdn.tracker.example” or “https://cdn.tracker.example/x” finds a hidden “tracker.example”. The query has to be one token, with a dot in the host.
- When the query matches nothing: Nothing hidden matches “…” with your query in quotes.
- The footnote: “Not recorded from the moment they were hidden. Rules still apply to them.”
Hiding is done from the Network Monitor; see Hidden connections.