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In my experience, many Mac users become Mac users to express their creativity on a computer platform that is user friendly and doesn't require a lot of in depth maintenance.

Although that is generally true, there are some useful maintenance procedures that can help to keep your Mac healthy and happy. We all need a little tlc :)

The aim of this thread is to share our technical maintenance procedures (as well as old wives tales ;)...

So please feel free to contribute!

Here's some 0.02$ that I recommend often whenever people are having odd issues:

Repair Permissions

Close all app's and then:
1. Go to Applications/Utilities/disk Utility
2. Select your mac's volume
3. Click "Repair Permissions"
4. When finished, restart your Mac.

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hi again,

i was also advised to do this once a week by a friend who records on a mac. does it ever have any ill effects on saved projects? or anything at all? i am happy to do it but what exactly am i doing by "repairing permissions" ? should i do it routinely or as needed? thanks. -tim

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Hi Tim,

It's a safe procedure. I've not had any "side-effects" from doing so in 7 years...

App's on OS X need to have their permission status in good order.

Basically it involves checking the "permissions" of files on your boot up volume and comparing it to the standard and correcting as necessary.

It won't alter your project files, it's more of a "beneath the surface" filing and organizing thing.

Even I don't repair permission weekly... but it's good practice to do so! Definitely good to do it after and even before big installations...e.g. updating your OS version, installing Logic etc...

So, yes, I'd recommend doing it routinely. I do so about once a fortnight.

:-)

Rounik

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thanks. will start the routine. as i have done both the e.g.'s above. -Tim

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• 27" iMac i5 2.7Ghz
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This is a good general overview for keeping your mac happy =)
http://lifehacker.com/5252183/clean-up-and-revive-your-bloated-sluggish-mac

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• Maczilla 8x, 32Gig, Logic 9.1.1
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Greetings,

Well, I am new to Mac, only changed last year after nearly three decades PC. So my level of sharing is limited. However, for what it's worth, concerning Mac software updates.

For reasons I can not explain, I found it a safer bet to not use the automated software update when it comes to OSX specific updates, even security updates.

My proceedure is, repair permissions, download the file to my Mac, then install it, repair permissions again, restart. This has never failed me once since OSX 5.4, while the support fora were full of people in trouble who updated via the automated function.

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hi thank you for this learning here, Merry Christmas!