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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

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 10:32 AM

I don't think so.

696 replies

Sep 16, 2011 6:59 AM in response to softwater

I did that once and was forced to reboot because after the deletion of the .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder,

I was unable to save a document.

The reboot re-created a new .DocumentRevisions-V100 folder so the process needed to be repeated every day.

This is why I wrote this script for an user which wanted a clean scheme.

He saved the script as an application and inserted it in the list of items open on startup (in the Account Pref Pane).


--{code}

--[SCRIPT delete_versions]

(*

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France)

2011/08/29

*)

property redemarrageRequis : true


tell application "System Events" to set les_volumes to name of every disk whose local volume is true


repeat with un_volume in les_volumes


set ledossier to un_volume & ":.DocumentRevisions-V100:"

tell application "System Events" to set maybe to exists disk item ledossier

if maybe then

set cheminUnix to quoted form of POSIX path of ledossier



do shell script "chmod -R 777 " & cheminUnix with administrator privileges


delay 2

do shell script "chmod -R 777 " & cheminUnix


delay 2

do shell script "chmod -R 777 " & cheminUnix


try

tell application "Finder" to delete (ledossier as alias)

end try

end if

end repeat

if redemarrageRequis then

set redemarrageRequis to false

tell application "System Events" to restart

else

set redemarrageRequis to true

end if


--=====

--[/SCRIPT]

--{code}




Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 16 septembre 2011 15:57:34

iMac 21ā€5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.0

My iDisk is : <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community

Sep 16, 2011 7:15 AM in response to softwater

I thought that I was clear.


After deleting the folder documentrevisions-v100 as you described, I was unable to save documents.

So I was forced to reboot.

Doing that, the system create a new folder in which it store the versions.

At next startup, if the script is installed as I described, the folder is deleted, the machine re-start creating a new folder

Given that the folder never contain more than one day of versions.


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) vendredi 16 septembre 2011 16:15:09

iMac 21ā€5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.0

My iDisk is : <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community

Sep 21, 2011 5:22 PM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

Using 80+ images at a time in a single preview window used to work just fine: frequently rotating, adjusting color & contrast etc., and discarding the mess i made upon file close, Preview was the perfect tool for me. Autosave sort of killed it. The only thing approaching a workaround that i found so far, is to keep two sets of pictures (=several thousand x 2): one original set that i won't touch and one unlocked set to 'mess around' with. Copying the originals back into the sandbox once every while appears to be the fastest way of restoring all pics to their original state. The only thing left is having to unlock them but it's still the 'best' solution so far.

Several more issues with Lion popped up along the way, nothing to do with Autosave but a nuisance anyhow. Will try to get back to SL. I like Apple, but i like it more to be in control of my own stuff, and not have someone else decide for me how to work.

Sep 23, 2011 9:48 AM in response to putnik


putnik wrote:


You might like to read this. With the proviso that it is not a procedure for anybody not prepared to take the risk of needing to re-install if it goes wrong. You always need good external backup of your data.



http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110918051930924


Those don't do anything about Auto Save, those are for saved application states, which are easily turned off in the Genral pane of System Preferences. Well, except for the checkbox on reboot, but that isn't THAT cumbersome, and forgetting to do it doesn't really cause any harm. Unlike Autosave.

Oct 18, 2011 4:27 AM in response to softwater

softwater wrote:


Personally, I have an inkling that Apple don't see disabling Autosave as an issue with the OS, but rather an issue with the user... šŸ˜®


I've seen several apps updated to Lion that support the new features as a preference (the user can enable or disable autosave, versions, and resume from the app preferences). It seems that's the only scenario Apple considers (per-app preferences), and it also seems they're not willing to support such preference on TextEdit or Preview (too bad, because I no longer feel "safe" when opening a file with Preview).

Oct 18, 2011 4:52 AM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

After spending some more time with OS X Lion, I can work a little bit with the "lock"-feature. I set the auto-lock in time-machine preferences to 1 day. This prevents unwanted changes for me normally.


Still I sometimes use preview to resize/crop an image, then I copy and paste it into another application. I don't want to save the changes. Same for numbers, where I sometimes kill some rows and columns to c&p a small table to pages, but I want to keep the original file.


To do this I choose "Duplicate" from the auto-save menu (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4753 -> 3rd picture from top). In the duplicate I can do all changes, and when I quit the application I choose "Don't save" for the new document.


This helps for most issues, but I still have trouble with very big files, where the auto-save function interrupts my workflow by showing a beach-ball for a second or two each time a new version is created.

Oct 18, 2011 6:38 AM in response to MccoQy

MccoQy wrote:

To do this I choose "Duplicate" from the auto-save menu (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4753 -> 3rd picture from top). In the duplicate I can do all changes, and when I quit the application I choose "Don't save" for the new document.

It's not the auto-save menu, there is no such one. Duplicate is an item of the File menu.

This helps for most issues, but I still have trouble with very big files, where the auto-save function interrupts my workflow by showing a beach-ball for a second or two each time a new version is created.

The culprit isn't the operating system, it's the app which as other iWork applications was not coded with brains but with feet.

The save process requires the re-saving of the entire doc description.

We may just hope that when an iCloud aware version will be available, the app will be able to save small chuncks. After all, isn't it what was described as iCloud requirement during WWDC's technical conferences ?


Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 18 octobre 2011 15:38:22

iMac 21ā€5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.0

My iDisk is : <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>

Please : Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community



Oct 18, 2011 6:41 AM in response to lucafrombrooklyn

Whilst I admire the skills and knowledge of those who are able and willing to create scripted solutions to this issue, and whilst I acknowledge the helpfulness of those who are offering partial work-arounds, I think there is a risk we may be losing sight of the fundamental point here, which, for me, is very simply that:


As Lion stands at the moment, it does not allow me to control MY Macs and MY workflow in the way that I choose to.


If I either have to risk unwanted changes to or loss of my data, or spend time and effort running scripts or workarounds (that others have been generous enough to provide but which I am both nervous of using and have insufficient time in my day to spend on doing) to prevent that, then for me, Lion is a non-starter. It will remain so until Apple make changes to the out-of-the-box product that allow me regain proper control of my Macs and I will remain on SL either until those changes are implemented or I am forced to abandon the platform.


If the latter is the case then it will be with regret, but I rely on my Macs to earn my living and chose the Mac (way back when) because until Lion it offered by far the most elegant and unintrusive means of doing so. With Lion and its nanny-state assumptions about what is 'good for me', that is no longer the case, and I will continue to exercise my rights as a consumer by voting with my cash. Whether or not that remains as an Apple customer remains to be seen...

Disable autosave

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