"Repair Disk Permissions" might be the most commonly given Mac troubleshooting advice.
And yet, in all my years of using Mac and dealing with their problems it has never actually solved any problem. I though it was essentially a placebo that made you feel better just because it is something you can do.
I mainly use just like how people with beards stroke them when they think -- it's a reflex and staring at that progress bar helps me think about what I'm really going to do to solve the problem.
Well, today it actually worked!?!
I was trying to save an email receipt as a PDF and I got strange error messages. I was actually in Disk Utility to verify the disk but of course clicked "Repair Disk Permissions" while I was in there. And the problem was gone.
So: here's to you, "Repair Disk Permissions". Once every decade or two you're not just a placebo but a useful system repair tool!
And yet, in all my years of using Mac and dealing with their problems it has never actually solved any problem. I though it was essentially a placebo that made you feel better just because it is something you can do.
I mainly use just like how people with beards stroke them when they think -- it's a reflex and staring at that progress bar helps me think about what I'm really going to do to solve the problem.
Well, today it actually worked!?!
I was trying to save an email receipt as a PDF and I got strange error messages. I was actually in Disk Utility to verify the disk but of course clicked "Repair Disk Permissions" while I was in there. And the problem was gone.
So: here's to you, "Repair Disk Permissions". Once every decade or two you're not just a placebo but a useful system repair tool!