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lucafrombrooklyn

Q: Disable autosave

Hello, anybody figured out how one can disable autosave? I just *don't* want it, and I have my reasons.

Thanks,

 

l.

Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 10:30 AM

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Q: Disable autosave

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  • by RegimeChanger,

    RegimeChanger RegimeChanger Jul 25, 2011 12:38 PM in response to Altazon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 12:38 PM in response to Altazon

    Since I installed Lion, I start regreting switching to Mac... please tell me I'm wrong to think of switching back to Windows 7.

     

    Wish I could. But I am also considering the same move. As deplorable an idea I thought it would be when I switched to SL and said what I thought were a final good-bye and good-riddance to MS, it now seems less than ideal but very realistic.

     

    I regards to keeping SL, I still have it - cloned it on external drive. At this point, I refuse to do any document editing on Lion. But at the same time, I am not going to just reboot back and forth between SL and Lion for any length of time. I am giving them a week; after that I will change my business model as needed.

     

    And, as other people have mentioned:

    Tell Apple about it here:  http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

  • by topher1078,

    topher1078 topher1078 Jul 25, 2011 1:43 PM in response to RegimeChanger
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 1:43 PM in response to RegimeChanger

    I'm really quite confused as to why so many people are down on Auto-save. The whole point is to make all those moments when a document is lost because yo uforgot to save a thing of the past. You can still create duplicates (Save As...) of files you are working on, You can still explicitly save when you want. And the entire auto-save system is smart - it tries to save when you are not working or take a pause so you aren't interrupted. Plus, the changes that are saved ore incremental, so it's not making a copy of the file for each version. It's great!

     

    I highly doubt that Apple will make auto-save a toggle-able feature. It's too close of a core feature of Lion to give people the option to disable. I'm hoping for incremental updates (highlighted changes, easily distinguish user saves in Versions). So submit that feedback. But I'm honestly confused as to why people are considering leaving their Macs because of auto-save. It doesn't really take away anything from your current workflow, and instead adds a ton that's quite useful!   

  • by Marc Troy,

    Marc Troy Marc Troy Jul 25, 2011 2:03 PM in response to topher1078
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 2:03 PM in response to topher1078

    topher, I'm gonna keep this short.

     

    • try to work with big files.
    • try to work with files in your dropbox
    • try to work with files on a shared volume.

     

    There needs to be an off switch.

  • by topher1078,

    topher1078 topher1078 Jul 25, 2011 2:06 PM in response to Marc Troy
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 2:06 PM in response to Marc Troy

    I will admit I haven't worked with files on a shared volume yet - but large keynote files (and I mean LARGE, 400-800 MBs easy) work just fine. I haven't been monitoring the file size that much, but I know that auto-save works incrementally, so I'm assuming the file size differences aren't too great.

  • by papalapapp,

    papalapapp papalapapp Jul 25, 2011 2:18 PM in response to topher1078
    Level 1 (95 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2011 2:18 PM in response to topher1078

    The basic idea is good and no one would complain if there was a background feature to restore your documents in case of a crash, power loss or "not-saved" mishap.

     

    What we have here nothing like a fall-back or restore help but more like a forced saving procedure. A very hungry pussycat.

     

    For my part I am afraid to open documents because that might break my valuable content. Lion saves everything by default and so I am unsure what is saved now and what not. It might save things I don't want to be saved.

     

    I think people are a bit confused, or anxious about leaving the save decisions and procedure to the system. A computer can never know what the user has in mind.

     

    That's my personal impression and I'm still in the phase of trying out.

     

    Edit:

    Autosave interferes my typing (kicks me out for the save process) on 2 MB Numbers and Pages files.

    Working with Textedit on an active FTP connection is no good idea either.

  • by putnik,

    putnik putnik Jul 25, 2011 2:19 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn
    Level 3 (795 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2011 2:19 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

    lucafrombrooklyn wrote:

     

      (Believe it or not, "Revert to saved..." is not undoable right now, so that if you go back to a previous version, you loose track of your own changes.

     

     

     

    If you press <Cmd S> your current version will be saved, along with the normal periodic versions. It is in the stack, so yes it is "undoable".

     

    In fact if you make a mess, which I often do, you just need to save it and then "Revert to Saved" to restore the previous version.

     

    Simple isn't it!

  • by lucafrombrooklyn,

    lucafrombrooklyn lucafrombrooklyn Jul 25, 2011 2:50 PM in response to putnik
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2011 2:50 PM in response to putnik

    Putnik:

     

    if you press CMD-S your current version will be saved ALONG WITH THE OTHER ZILLION versions generated by autosave. . If you use "revert to saved", you do not go back to the previous version YOU saved, but to the full lists of versions automatically saved, among which you will never be able to pull out the one you actually saved.

     

    Simple, isn't it!

     

    l.

  • by putnik,

    putnik putnik Jul 25, 2011 3:01 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn
    Level 3 (795 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2011 3:01 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

    The versions are in a "star wars" stack, with tabs giving the time saved, as with Time Machine backups.  Of course, if you need a particular version you can make a copy.  You can "pull out" any version you want and it is very undoable. Yes, simple.

  • by joaomcarvalho,

    joaomcarvalho joaomcarvalho Jul 25, 2011 4:21 PM in response to topher1078
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 4:21 PM in response to topher1078

    If it's core feature it made me switch back do Snow Leopard. But I have to upgrade again soon since I do  development. I could live with versions as long as it doesn't eat up all my limited SSD space. But auto-save is really annoying: when I crop some photo in the old Preview  it's instantaneous, but on Lion it takes several seconds and it ends up with lots of useless duplicates files. Sure, I can use third party apps... And system really feals slower in my 2009 macbook air.

  • by coocooforcocoapuffs,

    coocooforcocoapuffs coocooforcocoapuffs Jul 25, 2011 5:17 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn
    Level 3 (853 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 5:17 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

    Luca, stop spreading misinfo:

    If you use "revert to saved", you do not go back to the previous version YOU saved, but to the full lists of versions automatically saved, among which you will never be able to pull out the one you actually saved.

    That is absolutly NOT how it works. Revert to saved only gives you a display of saves that YOU made. People are getting really confused over autosave and versioning...

  • by RegimeChanger,

    RegimeChanger RegimeChanger Jul 25, 2011 11:07 PM in response to coocooforcocoapuffs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 11:07 PM in response to coocooforcocoapuffs

    People are getting really confused over autosave and versioning...

     

    I am not sure if people are confused about them or confused about Apple's logic in making them universal to the OS.

     

    It is really a deal breaker for me ... just cant ascertain if Apple crew is victim of some group conspiracy where they were fed paint chips in Lion design process, have a touch of megalomania, or are just part of the dumbing down of society.

     

    Aside from the autosave / versions, not sure why the need to make a macbook pro appear to be like a 17" iPhone. The whole thing is just rediculous and without merit; in lieu of a fix, want nothing to do with the mentality, which means goodbye to Apple.

  • by coocooforcocoapuffs,

    coocooforcocoapuffs coocooforcocoapuffs Jul 25, 2011 11:20 PM in response to RegimeChanger
    Level 3 (853 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 11:20 PM in response to RegimeChanger

    Ha that's funny! But even u seemed confused. I think what Apple has decided to do is to make versioning systematic across the OS. As a creative who has tried so many pitiful attempts to do this on a filetype or product by product basis, I think Apple is making the right decision. Even with what the got today, it looks like it has the potential to solve a problem that's been around since the IBM/370. I have no clue why people compare Lion to an iPhone and shy away. That's just smart marketing by Apple and has nothing to do with the OS. Just ignore launchbad, it's eyecandy for the masses. Ignore swipes and wipes and triple-bypass taps, it's not even needed, and again, it's there to sell magic trackpads. But saying that this effort is without merit is a tad unfair, no?

  • by putnik,Solvedanswer

    putnik putnik Jul 25, 2011 11:48 PM in response to coocooforcocoapuffs
    Level 3 (795 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 25, 2011 11:48 PM in response to coocooforcocoapuffs

    I don't think you are right. "Revert to Saved" just brings up the star wars thing with the versions listed, all of them.

     

    Anyway, when I'm working on my best sellers, I used "Save As" at the end of each chapter and added a ch1, ch2 etc onto the file name. I can do exactly the same now, using "Duplicate". The versions thing is more of a recovery aid or for forensic analysis perhaps.

     

    If they hadn't renamed "Save As" to "Duplicate", this thread would probably not exist.

  • by coocooforcocoapuffs,

    coocooforcocoapuffs coocooforcocoapuffs Jul 25, 2011 11:58 PM in response to putnik
    Level 3 (853 points)
    Jul 25, 2011 11:58 PM in response to putnik

    The versions thing is more of a recovery aid or for forensic analysis perhaps.

     

    If they hadn't renamed "Save As" to "Duplicate", this thread would probably not exist.

    Love it...CSI Cupertino! And on the rename, I bet ur right. Apple could have never mentioned it in the marketing blurb, few would have ever noticed.

  • by lucafrombrooklyn,

    lucafrombrooklyn lucafrombrooklyn Jul 26, 2011 2:18 AM in response to putnik
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 26, 2011 2:18 AM in response to putnik

    |If they hadn't renamed "Save As" to "Duplicate", this thread would probably not exist.

    |

     

    Well well well.

     

    The question of this thread is: can we switch off autosave? The answer is, as it appears, no.

     

    Then the issue is: is it good or bad? I am saying that it is bad. You are saying it is good. Good for you; it means that you can exploit the advantages of this novel feature without seeing its disadvantages -- it basically means that you are not working as I do. The disadvantages are many and are described in the thread. So the question is: should an OS impose some novel feature in a way that it damages the workflow of several people (in particular, of somebody like me who is a discrete power user and uses Macs since 1985), withouth letting them decide whether to use them or not? Then the answer is: It depends. Windows does it all the time. Mac OS was not, before Lion.

     

    l.

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