"Save As" Causes Spinning Wheel

Question

"Save As" Causes Spinning Wheel

I just installed OS X (10.4.2), using Archive and Install, on a new internal hard drive, and everything seems in order, with one interesting exception, which occurs in both Photoshop CS2 and Microsoft Word 10.1.1. The problem is that my first "Save As" attempt results in a spinning wheel for as long as five minutes before the "Save As" navigation window appears. The time varies, however, and is sometimes only about 20 seconds. If I then cancel out of the navigation window and repeat the "Save As" command, the window appears immediately. Then, if I quit Photoshop and reopen it, the problem recurs. Also, if I restart or shut down and reboot, the problem also recurs.

So I did some basic troubleshooting and found that trashing the "ByHost" folder in my Preferences and then restarting solves the problem, at least for a while. Eventually, though, it comes back; then the only thing that works is to move "By Host" to the trash and restart. This seems to work every time. But then the problem always comes back sometime later.

I hope I have described this clearly enough.

Oh, yeah, I'm running a dual-processor G5 and I have plenty of RAM and hard-drive space.

Posted on Oct 5, 2005 9:04 AM

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Answer 1

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Oct 5, 2005 11:06 AM in response to Robert Ludlow

Robert, in addition to Tuttle's excellent advice,
two other easy things come to mind.

1. Did you repair permissions & the HD after you A&I?
2. You now have a "Previous System Folder" which is taking up room on your HD. If you have all your files on your new system, I would trash the Previous one.

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Answer 2

Colin P.

Level 2

489 points

Oct 5, 2005 12:34 PM in response to TildeBee

On Word crashing...I had the same thing happen to me with saving documents on Monday night. I'm running Word 2004 (v11.2.0). This is a known bug that still isn't fixed. I don't know about v10.1.6, though...

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Answer 3

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Oct 5, 2005 3:05 PM in response to iBod

I had been having the same problems with Appleworks (not being able to Save As...) and I couldn't figure it out. I turned off automatic synching to the iDisk a while ago for another reason, and I haven't tried to save in Appleworks since then. I'll have to try it out when I get home to see if your idea helps. I'm giving you a + for reminding me.

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Answer 4

Oct 5, 2005 6:22 PM in response to Robert Ludlow

Hi, Robert. Welcome to the Discussions!

I just installed OS X (10.4.2), using Archive and Install, on a new internal hard drive

Out of curiosity, in System Preferences/Energy Saver, what setting do you have for "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"?

Good luck!

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Answer 5

Oct 5, 2005 6:36 PM in response to TildeBee

Hi,

Yes, I'm making progress, and one positive side effect is that I have a much better understanding of how to troubleshoot OS X. So far, so good, but it's still too early to say the problem has been solved. Like I said in my original post, trashing the "By Host" folder in Preferences always corrected the problem, but only for a while. I'm hoping that one of the other things I corrected thanks to the good advice from you and others on this forum will provide a permanent fix.

Thanks again.

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Answer 6

Oct 5, 2005 6:39 PM in response to Michel the drycleaner

Hi Michel,

I have it set to put the hard disk to sleep after one hour; but I just did that last night, so I'm quite sure it's not related to my problem with "Save As."

Is it not a good idea to set Energy Saver to put the hard drive to sleep?

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Answer 7

Oct 5, 2005 7:27 PM in response to Robert Ludlow

Hi, Robert.

I have it set to put the hard disk to sleep after one hour

Hmm.... I don't have that option! In System Preferences/Energy Saver, I have two sliders: one to put
b the computer
to sleep, and one to put the monitor to sleep. I don't have one for the disk.

Then, underneath those sliders, I have a checkbox for "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible". With NO parameters at all, just ON or OFF. That's the one I was referring to.

At any rate, I would question putting the computer (or the hard disks for that matter) to sleep, given that what you have is a desktop machine (doesn't run on batteries), and a high performance one at that!

In addition, I personally had a nasty "beachball" problem that appears to have been solved by precisely unchecking that parameter. (I say "appears" because it may be a bit soon to pass final judgment on my problem).

Don't you have that checkbox? And what is it set at?

Also: have you looked at system.log around the times you were having the trouble?

Good luck!

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Answer 8

Oct 5, 2005 7:30 PM in response to Robert Ludlow

Alan wrote this:
Is it a delay in the amount of time that the save dialog takes to pop up? If so, do you have any network volumes mounted or did you recently make a change to the sync settings for your iDisk? If you can answer yes to both questions, try dismounting the network drive or changing the iDisk settings back to the way they were two weeks ago.

It might also have to do with Apple increasing the iDisk storage to 1 GB. That happened within the timeframe of your problem appearing. Try going into the iDisk preferences and, after the sizing information is retrieved from the iDisk server, saving the preferences. You may have to turn caching off and then back on if you currently have it enabled.

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Answer 9

steve626

Level 6

13,953 points

Oct 5, 2005 9:58 PM in response to PanchoLopez

You may want to check your Startup items folder (and also check startup items in users/accounts preference pane). The reason I mention this is that I had recently installed some HP printer driver software for a new printer we had at work. Somehow, the installer also installed some sort of HP printer utility that loaded during startup (I could see this briefly during booting up when the words appeared on the screen). I saw symptoms like those you describe and they went away when I deleted that items from the Startup folder. I think we experienced different specific problems, but the principle is the same -- that sometimes, incompatible startup items can cause these freezes/delays.

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Answer 10

Nov 2, 2005 4:18 PM in response to Antonio Aguila

Hi Antonio,

Are you using a local version of your iDisk? That was the problem on my G5 dual; I just disabled the local iDisk and haven't seen the problem since. Of course that's not the real solution--why should I have to give up local iDisk, which is much faster than using internet iDisk? Fortunately, there are workarounds for the local iDisk--I'm making my own.

Is anyone using the local iDisk with Tiger OS who does not have this problem?

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Answer 11

Tuttle

Level 7

29,565 points

Oct 5, 2005 9:59 AM in response to Robert Ludlow

One thing you might consider doing wrt to Word X is updating to v10.1.6.

Tuttle

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Answer 12

iBod

Level 7

29,351 points

Oct 5, 2005 12:35 PM in response to Robert Ludlow

Also, if you use iDisk you might want to turn off automatic synching as some people have noted it can slow down the open/save as dialogs.

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Answer 13

Oct 5, 2005 3:02 PM in response to Tuttle

Thanks Tuttle, I took your advice. I rarely use Word, so I have not kept up with the upadates.

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Answer 14

Oct 5, 2005 3:05 PM in response to TildeBee

Hi ~Bee, I had already done #1; and after reading your message, I did #2. Then I downloaded and ran the 10.4.2 Updater, which is something Apple recommends for problematic apps. Thanks.

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Answer 15

Oct 5, 2005 3:08 PM in response to iBod

Yes, iDisk has been a pain ever since I installed Tiger. I took your advice and turned on Manual syncing in System Preferences.

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