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This month, I’m going to address a tech trick that is at the same time one of the most common maintenance problems for the Macintosh, and yet the easiest to fix.
If you’re seeing this icon on your machine, you may need a RAM upgrade, or you may be running out of space on your hard drive. But usually, the cause is errant permissions, in need of repair.
Each and every file on your Macintosh, whether it’s a program, a document, a folder, or a system file contains a set of three classes of permissions, which determine what user (you) and group of users (not a concern for most consumers) can access the files, run a program, install new programs, etc.
From time to time, depending on how you use your machine, these permissions will become confused, and will cause programs and their support files to become, well, uncooperative.
One major symptom of this condition is the spinning pinwheel, which we’ve all seen before. I’ve heard it called “the beachball,” and the “marble of death.” Some of us see it more frequently than others. Some of us see it so frequently that we can hardly get any work done at all. If this sounds familiar, you need to repair your permissions. When you run a permissions repair, your computer compares your current permissions settings against a database of correct permissions settings and restores them to their proper default settings.
There are many ways to perform this maintenance routine, and I would recommend one that’s easy to run and won’t turn your Mac into a piece of milktoast if you mis-type a command.
To this end, I strongly recommend a $15 program called Cocktail LE. You can download it from Version Tracker HERE. Install it on your Mac, and then follow these steps.
● Launch Cocktail LE
● Click on the Pilot Menu
● Click on all of the checkboxes that I’ve checked for this example (See screenshot)
● Click on Run
● Perform this process at least once monthly.
● And for the love of all that’s good in the world, be sure to run regular backups. If your permissions are extremely out of whack, certain functions and/or programs may stop running altogether, and need to be reinstalled.
Rules of Thumb:
● Backup often.
● Keep your install disks where you can easily locate them.
Repairing your permissions on a regular basis is the Macintosh equivalent of an apple a day. (wow, terrible pun. Sorry.) More importantly, performing this routine regularly may very well reduce the frequency with which you call on us to come out and fix things for you, so then we can spend that time helping you learn to better use your Mac to better do whatever it is that you do.
Next month we’re going to talk about backups, and how important and easy it is to protect your data from annihilation.
Until next time.
~ Chris
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