RonL
Level 1 (45 points)

Q: Speed up your OS... turn Autosave & Versions off globally

If you're experiencing slow opening apps or windows since upgrading to Mountain Lion... as I have... and you don't want your OS to automatically save your TextEdit files, etc. then simply disable Autosave and Versions via Terminal.

 

Open Terminal and enter this command which will turn off Autosave & Versions globally:

 

defaults write -g ApplePersistence -bool no

 

Now reboot.

 

Voila!

 

I experienced a very noticeable speed increase when opening apps and even opening some previously slow opening Dock folders after doing the above.

 

If for some reason in the future you want to turn Autosave and Versions back on just change 'no' to 'yes'

 

Feel the speed!

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion, 27" iMac 32" secondary monitor

Posted on Jul 30, 2012 8:17 AM

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RonL

Q: Speed up your OS... turn Autosave & Versions off globally

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  • by softwater,

    softwater softwater Jul 30, 2012 8:40 AM in response to RonL
    Level 5 (5,392 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 8:40 AM in response to RonL

    I suspect this command just stops apps from writing to the required folder. You're going to get a lot of error messages saying something like 'you don't have permissions to write to the folder that xxx is in' if you do that.

     

    Not recommended.

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 9:04 AM in response to softwater
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 9:04 AM in response to softwater

    Not getting any errors at all... and permissions look fine as well.

     

    Phil... you 'suspect' so you 'don't recommend?'

     

    I realize that a lot of people aren't comfortable with Terminal commands, but this does work.

  • by softwater,

    softwater softwater Jul 30, 2012 8:59 AM in response to RonL
    Level 5 (5,392 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 8:59 AM in response to RonL

    If it works for you, it works.

     

    Not sure that's going to be the case with everyone else though...

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 9:06 AM in response to softwater
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 9:06 AM in response to softwater

    If you're not afraid of the Terminal you should try it before you say...  "Not recommended."

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jul 30, 2012 9:22 AM in response to softwater
    Level 8 (38,049 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 9:22 AM in response to softwater

    It's not that kind of change. No permissions are modified. No folders Autosave or Versions relies on are moved or removed. It's a simple preference change. All you're doing is telling the OS not to use Autosave/Versions.

     

    The file altered is hidden because it starts with a period. The modification is added to the file .GlobalPreferences.plist in the current user account. So the only user affected by the change is the currently logged in account. Any other accounts will still have Autosave/Versions enabled. Very nice actually since each user can then decide how they want the OS to work.

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 9:28 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 9:28 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Right Kurt.

     

    And the lag times when opening apps are gone.

  • by Gnarlodious,

    Gnarlodious Gnarlodious Jul 30, 2012 9:30 AM in response to RonL
    Level 4 (3,243 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 9:30 AM in response to RonL

    This doesn't work for me so I had to reverse it. I get a dialog every few minutes "You don't have permssion to write to this folder".

     

    I suspect a daemon is still launching that tries to save the file.

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 9:45 AM in response to Gnarlodious
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 9:45 AM in response to Gnarlodious

    Gnarlodious

     

    Could you note the steps after you executed the Terminal command that gave you the error message.

     

    I'm not seeing them.

     

    Had you locked anything in your "Saved Application State" folder before doing this?

  • by softwater,

    softwater softwater Jul 30, 2012 9:56 AM in response to RonL
    Level 5 (5,392 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 9:56 AM in response to RonL

    Haha, no Ron, 'suspect' was just me being polite.

     

    This terminal command has been around for a while, at least since 10.7.3 as I recall. The only thing I don't know is exactly why it runs up against this error. My suspicion is that when Autosave and/or Versions tries to save (and they're not the same thing, BTW — Versions saves to /.DocumentRevisions-V100; Autosave saves to ~/Library/Saved Application State), that global default setting is conflicting with another CoreServices app or process.

     

    Regarding permissions, the problem with this is well-known and quite widespread, as another poster has already found out.

     

     

     

     

    Screen Shot 2012-07-30 at 23.44.46.png

  • by Gnarlodious,

    Gnarlodious Gnarlodious Jul 30, 2012 9:48 AM in response to RonL
    Level 4 (3,243 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 9:48 AM in response to RonL

    I rebooted.

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 10:02 AM in response to softwater
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 10:02 AM in response to softwater

    Phil... "Haha"...?

     

    So what have you done to your system?

     

    Is this your error message or is this a screenshot of an error someone else experienced?

     

    Have you hacked your OS in any way?

     

    Have you locked files that are in the "Saved Application State" folder?

     

    Some people did this as a kludge in the past and may have forgotten to unlock the files.

     

    I'm not experiencing that.

  • by RonL,

    RonL RonL Jul 30, 2012 9:57 AM in response to Gnarlodious
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 9:57 AM in response to Gnarlodious

    Gnarlodius,

     

    So you're getting error messages and you're not doing anything?

     

    Or are you trying to save files?

  • by softwater,

    softwater softwater Jul 30, 2012 10:01 AM in response to RonL
    Level 5 (5,392 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 30, 2012 10:01 AM in response to RonL

    Ron, I kinda know my way around my OS, of which I have many versions, clean, dirty, hacked and quite virginal.

     

    As I already said, if it works for you, fine. Don't get on a high horse demanding that anyone who doesn't agree with you must be doing something "wrong". I'm not the first nor the last who's observed this error.

     

    All I'm sayin is I wouldn't recommend it to others because I've seen it cause problems. Let readers decide for themselves whether they're going to take that on board or not.

  • by Steve Maximus,

    Steve Maximus Steve Maximus Jul 30, 2012 10:09 AM in response to softwater
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 30, 2012 10:09 AM in response to softwater

    What saddens me is here we are again, trying to find a work around for something that Apple could have given us a simple check box on/off option for. It feels so Microsoft. I recently read the Steve Jobs autobiography and another book about his simplicity philosophy, and this situation is so NOT Steve Jobs.

     

    Thanks to you all for trying to find a solution and warning us less knowledgeable users about the risks. I hope Apple provides their own solution to the problem that they have created.

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