Alternative to Repair permissions

Hi Daniel

The permissions repair procedure you seek may be this one: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support.

I don't know what causes them to become changed, but I have my suspicions. If you are using any non-Apple "cleaning" and / or "anti-virus" junk, don't. That just goes without saying.

If you have not done so already, make sure you are running the latest Sierra update. The "combo" update is here: Download macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Combo Update. If you cannot launch it due to the problem you're experiencing, restart your Mac in "Safe Mode" and determine if you can install the update while operating in that mode.

In addition to John's advice, the lengthy, bouncing application icons in the Dock, can be an indication that you need to reset your System Management Controller (SMC).

I had read a post by an Apple employee that stated the new Disk Utility will automatically repair System (but not user) permissions, if necessary, during the run of First Aid. I have not witnessed any visual clue that it is doing so, but Apple may have decided the user doesn't need to see permissions repair logging.

There is also an undocumented /usr/sbin/repairHomePermissions application that is new in Sierra, but unless I see clear documentation how this command is to be used, I certainly won't be running it from blind faith.

Disk Utility can fix certain disk problems—for example, multiple apps quit unexpectedly, a file is corrupted, an external device doesn’t work properly, or your computer won’t start up.

An article : Disk Utility for Mac: Repair a disk using Disk Utility

Bergerino wrote:

I do not agree in that statement, I've found it very helpfull when repairing macbooks. It has cured countless of times.

Perhaps in the past. The system is self-repairing now.

Note that, as Barney points out, repairing permissions with Disk Utility has never repaired the permissions on the user's home folder, which is a far more likely source of problems. If you need to deal with permissions issues on the home folder, here's Apple's current advice on that matter:

Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder - Apple Support

There is no need to manually repair permissions, because the OS takes care of it behind the scenes at this point. Further, repairing permissions has always been more of a ritual than a real solution. It rarely helped on older systems, but it was an easy thing to recommend, so people would recommend it for everything.

Whatever is going on, it's not due to permissions issues, but what it might be is hard to say without more information.

Danie,

Seems that your suggestion to look into issues caused by changed permissions helped resolve (at least part of) the issues I've been experiencing since I updated to sierra 10.12.3.

I Had tried all other options beforehand and nothing else helped.

Thanks,

Bergerino wrote:

I do not agree in that statement, I've found it very helpfull when repairing macbooks. It has cured countless of times.

But what it could have repaired then is currently protected from change, so there is nothing to repair. It never repaired home folder permissions, and it only repaired things that had a BOM in the Receipts folder. If you needed to actually repair system permissions that were altered by crappy software you installed, it could help with that. It never did help fix any problems in the Home folder.