Can I review a menu bar message that has disappeared too quickly?

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Level 1

9 points

Can I review a menu bar message that has disappeared too quickly?

Once in a blue moon, a system message will be displayed at the right end of the main menu bar. For example, recently I've gotten warnings that apple no longer supports Snow Leopard. But the message disappears before I can finish reading it.

Is there a way for me to inspect the history of messages that have been sent to the menu bar so that I can fully read one I've missed. If not, is there a setting I can make that will cause such messages to persist longer ... or until I release them?

For reference, this is the same message area that's used to notify me that I have received new email.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 23, 2014 10:51 AM

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Answer 1

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

May 23, 2014 2:11 PM in response to fiddleaway

fiddleaway wrote:

I've gotten warnings that apple no longer supports Snow Leopard.

I've never received no such message. Growl is no longer free. If you have the latest paid version, you will be able to review all past messages.

Growl for Mac Adds a History Menu for Viewing Past Notifications, Is Now $1.99

http://lifehacker.com/5846249/growl-adds-history-drop-down-for-past-notification s-is-now-199

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Answer 2

fiddleaway Author

Level 1

9 points

May 24, 2014 1:19 PM in response to CMCSK

I only receive the message when I'm logged into my admin account, which is rare. I do most of my work in my non-admin account. If this is the way you operate, it may explain why you have not seen the message.

Clearly growl either collects such notifications as they come in (wence one would only be able to review notifications which arrive after growl is installed), or they are stored someplace in the system by OSX.

I'm guessing it is the latter. Do you know where. If so, I can use terminal to inspect it.

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Answer 3

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

May 24, 2014 3:48 PM in response to fiddleaway

fiddleaway wrote:

Clearly growl either collects such notifications as they come in (wence one would only be able to review notifications which arrive after growl is installed), or they are stored someplace in the system by OSX.

I'm guessing it is the latter. Do you know where. If so, I can use terminal to inspect it.

I only use my admin account. From Growls website only the latest versions can you obtain its past messages. I also noted the latest version is not compatible with Snow Leopard. You may be better off contacting Growls manufacturers regarding obtaining their past messages from the older version if at all possible. I tried searching for them myself and could not locate. Personally, I do not mess with the terminal.

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Answer 4

fiddleaway Author

Level 1

9 points

May 24, 2014 4:05 PM in response to CMCSK

After reviewing Growl's site, I see that my original question does not have anything to do with Growl. Growl is not the application that is generating the messages I'm talking about.

Snow Leopard already provides a notification service that's embedded in the system. The fact that both apple Mail, and Thunderbird use it to issue notification alerts (at the right end of the main menu bar) tells me that this is a system facility that is available to apps that want to issue a notification.

I need to know if OSX logs such messages, and if so, where I can find past messages.

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Answer 5

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

May 24, 2014 6:07 PM in response to fiddleaway

I referred your posting to the "experts" who reside elsewhere (The Lounge). Hopefully, they can shed some light on this for you.

I believe you are talking about Snow Leopard's Notification Center which for some reason I assumed was combined with Growl.

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Answer 6

MrHoffman

Level 10

148,081 points

May 24, 2014 7:19 PM in response to fiddleaway

You've been provided with correct answers.

Notification Center arrived with Mountain Lion. There is no Notification Center within Snow Leopard.

You're almost certainly describing Growl, or some other similar add-on software.

Growl was sometimes embedded in various application packages, it wasn't always obvious when it was installed.

Growl has integration with Apple Mail via a plug-in (and a plug-in which sometimes broke) and with Thunderbird, as well as with various other applications.

Growl usually has a preferences panel within System Preferences to control its operations. Please look for that control panel.

Growl can also be configured to appear in the menu bar, via the preferences panel, and the appearance of and positioning of the Growl notifications can also be varied.

The older version of Growl is (still) free for 10.6.

Apple has done a few popups flogging Mavericks. Those are unrelated to Growl.

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Answer 7

fiddleaway Author

Level 1

9 points

May 25, 2014 12:38 AM in response to MrHoffman

Understood now. If it is indeed Growl, you are correct that it is 'indeed not obvious' that it is installed.

It does not show up in my system preferences. And it does not show up in Thunderbird's add-on inspector.

The original purpose for my inquiry was to be able to fully read the pop-up notice, apparently from apple, that support for Snow Leopard was being discontinued. I already knew that .... but there was some additional information in the notice and I wanted to see if it shed any light on the moth-balling of SL .... the three times I've seen the message, it disappeard before I could read it all.

Beyond that, I just wanted to know if I could access old pop-up notices just in case I get another one in the future on a separate subject, and that also doesn't persist long enough to be read.

This issue is not that critical, so if I cannot find what's putting up the notices without too much more effort, I'm gonna let it slide .... but if you (or anyone else) knows anything specific to look for in the system files .... even if I have to poke around with Terminal a little .... please advise.

By the way, MrHoffman, are you one of the experts from The Lounge, that CMCSK referred this inquiry to?

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Answer 8

MrHoffman

Level 10

148,081 points

May 25, 2014 7:27 AM in response to fiddleaway

There have been occasional Apple pop-ups entirely unrelated to Growl that have been suggesting the Mavericks upgrade, and the EOL of Mavericks. I haven't looked at how those were implemented, nor around the schedule being used for those; whether those were installed by a patch, or if those are being triggered from Apple's servers.

Etrecheck is the usual tool for investigating and listing the plug-ins and extensions. It'll install and run as far back as OS X 10.6, and will provide a list of what sorts of extensions and add-ons have been installed.

If these are the Apple pop-ups, you likely will not find any extensions.

If your system is supported by Mavericks then that upgrade can be appropriate here — do check for PowerPC applications, do some research on the changes, then create one or preferably more external backups, then perform the upgrade.

If you do have PowerPC (PPC) applications, that can mean mean you'll be using Snow Leopard until you can upgrade or can replace and retire those applications; booted either natively or booted via Snow Leopard Server running as a guest in a virtual machine. About This Mac > More Info > System Profiler > Software > Applications will get you the list of applications. The "kind" column will generally show Intel, Universal, PowerPC or maybe Classic, and it's the PowerPC and Classic that'll be trouble, if you depend on those particular applications and there's no upgrade available. (You're very likely not using Classic apps on Snow Leopard — support for those ended with OS X 10.5 on PowerPC systems IIRC, and those apps would not work on OS X 10.6 with Intel, but I did find one lurking on a 10.6 server box that I just checked, hence the mention.)

If you're at a minimal hardware configuration for Mavericks, then I'd look to add memory and storage, but then that's normal — the environments I work with tend to see expanding memory and storage requirements over time.

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Answer 9

fiddleaway Author

Level 1

9 points

May 25, 2014 9:49 AM in response to MrHoffman

The only thing I had time to read in the pop-up was that it warned about the demise of Snow Leopard, I don't think it said anything about Maverick's. The pop-up comes up, and appears to be formatted in exactly the same way as the Thunderbird 'new mail' notices .... though there is no email message associated with it. I'll see if anyone in the Thunderbird community knows how Thunderbird posts these notices.

Neither etrecheck or the System Profiler software component lister revealed anything obvious, although you have taught me about some very useful tools I wasn't aware of, so I thank you for that. I see nothing in the application, extension or framework lists that has a name that might give me a clue.

I'm one of the gen1 Intel MacPro owners that apple decided to abandon when they graduated to Mountain Lion. I don't have the time or inclination to make the EFI and hardware changes in order to use a boot-legged ML that apple won't support. If I stick with this machine, I may try the Linux route. I'm very disgusted that apple won't support a machine that, with a few minor fw/hw upgrades can handle ML and Mav ... and the open source community provides some attractive options that will allow me to extend the life of a machine that's more than powerful enough for the uses I put it to.

Thanks for your help

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