kmosx: Regular Maintenance / General Troubleshooting

In Mac OS X, there are a number of steps that can be taken to ensure that your computer functions to its full potential. Specifically, these include:

a) Repairing Permissions - Repairing permissions is an extremely simple task to perform, yet it is imperative to the smooth running of Apple computers running OS X. Repairing Permissions involves the application "Disk Utility", which can be found in the "Utilities" folder on your hard drive. Once Disk Utility is open, select your internal HD from the left, and then click the "First Aid" tab. Then click the "Repair Permissions" button. This can take a considerable amount of time if you do not do it often.

b) Repairing the hard disk -This function cleans up the directory of your hard drive, making your computer run faster overall. To perform this task, find your Mac OS X Install CD #1, or your "Software Restore" CD #1, or the "Software Restore DVD" depending on your computer. Put that into your computer, and restart while holding the "C" key down. This will cause your computer to boot off the CD. Once it is booted, you will see the "Mac OS X Installation" window. Disregard that completely, and click the "File" menu. Select "Disk Utility" from the File menu. Then select your hard drive on the left, and click the "First Aid" tab as done in section A. Click "Repair Disk". This will generally take around ten minutes to complete. It is recommended that you perform this twice.

c) Running an application to clear caches periodically and clean up the system -There are several 3rd party applications that can be freely downloaded off the internet that aid in the regular maintenance schedule. These include MacJanitor, Cocktail, and Onyx. A compiled review and comparison of Mac OS X Utilities can be found Here. It is a good idea to occasionally run one (or more) of these applications. Which you choose is entirely up to you.

All three of these regular maintenance functions should be run before determining there is a problem or issue with your computer. Most of the time, one of these tasks will solve the problem with your machine. In the event that they don't, and the problem is related to a single application, you can try the following troubleshooting procedure.

d) .plist files - These are used in Mac OS X to store commonly used preference data. Usually these files can be deleted in order to return to a default state in that application. Often, this can fix problems related to a single application. .plist files most likely take this state:

"com.(company).(application).plist"

For example, the plist for Apple's Safari browser would be labelled:

"com.apple.safari.plist".

To find these files, navigate to your Home folder --> Library folder --> Preferences folder. You can search for the files name, as detailed above. Then simply drag it to the Trash.
( Note: Deleting .plist files can cause you to lose information saved in applications. For example, in Apple's Mail, if you delete the .plist file, you may lose the passwords and such saved in Mail. Therefore, delete .plist files at your own discretion, and never delete them unless you know all important data such as passwords.)

These four simple troubleshooting techniques usually save a lot of problems, and fix a lot of problems that have already occurred. If your problem is not solved after performing all these tasks, please post on the Apple Discussions forums, where your issue will be rectified.

Thank you,

--Trav