Apple hasn't fixed maint routines?

[Schtibbie]

I've read elsewhere about the problem OS X "used" to have regarding scheduled maintenance not running due to your computer sleeping or being off at night.. Well, my brand new MacBook had this problem, so Apple hasn't fixed it. YES, I'm aware that I can go into a terminal and run some command to make those jobs runs, but COME ON!! I don't have my computer geek hat on. I'm at home, not at work.

So, I've had this computer for a month now and only daily has run - not weekly or monthly. I've even tried leaving the computer on all night long and not letting it sleep for a few nights in a row. Doesn't help. Lame.

 

[rdowns]

If you can't be bothered to type in 3 commands in Terminal, download MacJanitor from VersionTracker and run them whenever you wish at the click of a mouse. I'd post a link but I left my geek hat at work.

 

[Schtibbie]

If you can't be bothered to type in 3 commands in Terminal, download MacJanitor from VersionTracker and run them whenever you wish at the click of a mouse. I'd post a link but I left my geek hat at work.

Yes, yes. I get the point. MY point is that there shouldn't be any routine job Mac OS has to do that requires me to run terminal commands or download freeware to fix the problem. This isn't Linux.

No, this isn't a big deal, I know..

 

[OldCorpse]

Yes, yes. I get the point. MY point is that there shouldn't be any routine job Mac OS has to do that requires me to run terminal commands or download freeware to fix the problem. This isn't Linux.

No, this isn't a big deal, I know..

Um, actually, you are right. All commercial OS should come with a maintenance utility that works. Because Apple hasn't stepped up to the plate, that need is force filled by third party utilities. And that's a mess. Frankly, many such utilities are garbage - including such holy cows (i.e. folks on mac boards raving about them) like Cocktail and Onyx... I've looked at Onyx - it's an overstuffed pig which actually gives you very little info about what it does: one example, and I dare anyone to dispute it, is when it allegedly clears browser caches - well, it doesn't tell you which caches it clears, and sure as heck doesn't clear all. And so on. Meanwhile they often cause instability of the system - Cocktail is notorious for that... just go to macupdate and read the reviews. Bottom line, Apple should provide a maintenance utility that works - it's basic! Apple knows their systems best, and should be able to come up with the best way to keep it healthy. That said, I do like DiskWarrior for repairing the file and directory structure, and use it occasionally... but otherwise, I've still not seen a good maintanence utility.

 

[Macky-Mac]

I suspect the vast majority of Mac users NEVER run a maintanence utility and probably would be surprised to find out that some people think it's even necessary

 

[tempques]

Try MainMenu. You can run whatever maintenance command you want with just two clicks before you turn it off/put it to sleep at night. And at 865 KB, I'd hardly call it bloated. Best of all, you can leave your geek hat at work.

http://www.santasw.com/

 

[Eusebius]

Try Anacron. Once it's installed, it takes care of maintenance jobs in the backround. You don't have to do a thing.

http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html

 

[mkrishnan]

Maybe you should also ask, though, what evil things happen to my computer when weekly and monthly do not run. And eep. Erm. Not too much. The things they do are not very critical at all.

 

[Coheebuzz]

I've even tried leaving the computer on all night long and not letting it sleep for a few nights in a row. Doesn't help. Lame.

Well if you let it run overnight then most probably the maintenance did run and you didn't notice it. It happens on the background so you won't notice anything.

Btw i find it lame that you find an OS that doesn't need maintenance lame. . Did you experience any problems and you are trying to fix them or are you just being paranoid in advance?

If it ain't broke do nothing!

 

[Mr Skills]

It always makes me cringe just a little when hardened mac users start telling beginners about all the maintenance scripts they have to run, because a) it's really not necessary for most users, b) it can make things worse and c) you're selling a mac to someone on the basis of it being easy then saying "you have to run all these esoteric shareware utilities for it to work properly".

This was my advice when a new user asked about running cocktail-type things on another thread:

If I have one piece of advice for keeping OSX running smoothly, it would be this: let it be. Every time someone says "hey, try out XYZ disk-cleaning/cache-emptying/coffee-making utility," I end up regretting it just a little. It's well designed; don't repair it until it's broken.

(I know that it doesn't entirely apply to this thread, where everyone seems to be more experienced)