It’s inevitable. Sooner or later, no matter how well you take care of your Mac, you’re going to experience some slow performance and be confronted with the dreaded, spinning pinwheel, also known as the spinning beach ball, sometimes known as the spinning pinwheel of death. No one wants a slow Mac, so here’s this week’s 10 Second Tip for a Happy Healthy Mac.
Let’s look at how to Repair Disk Permissions.
I do this on my own machine at least once a month, and you should too.
NOTE: be sure that you’ve got a recent Time Machine backup before you run this process.
How to Repair Permissions
1. Launch Disk Utility.
This utility app lives in your Utilities folder, which is inside of your Applications Folder. The fastest way to get to it is to click on the Spotlight icon 
at the top right of your screen, and start typing the words Disk Utility.
2. Next, with the First Aid tab selected, locate and select your System Hard Drive in the list in the left-hand sidebar.
3. Click on the Repair Disk Permissions button. (See illustration below.)
Just let it do it’s thing, it will take up to 10 – 15 minutes, if you’ve not done this before, or if it has been a long while.
You’ll see a something like this:
Wrapping up
Ideally, you should run this once per month. And for best results, run it, restart your computer, run it a second time, and then restart your computer again.
You’d be shocked at how many problems this simple routine will fix for you.
For those who would like a more in-depth look at what Unix Permissions are all about, click HERE.
Cheers!
Chris
{ 2 comments }
These are fantastic suggestions that are easy to understand and implement. Thanks!
Thanks for stopping by, Robert. Anytime you need a hand, just let me know.