Repairing Permissions - How often and when?

[iownamac?me?]

Hello Forum

How often should I repair permissions? Should I be using my mac whilst repairing? Do you repair when things start to act a little weird?

Thanks
Jesse

 

[fryke]

The most important rule is to repair permissions before stating a problem in this forum - and to state that you repaired permissions. Because if you don't, you'll get the tip to repair permissions. ... It's not all it's thought to be, in my opinion, but it certainly doesn't harm your system to do it once in a while. Repairing permissions doesn't take hours, so I'd do it like this:

Stop working.
Close all open applications.
Open Disk Utility.
Repair permissions.
Reboot.

Do it once a week, month, from time to time... Doesn't really matter. But if you _do_ have a problem with Mac OS X, I'd certainl repair them _then_ at the latest.

 

[Mikuro]

You shouldn't need to make a habit of it. I do it as a precaution before and after system updates (when I remember, anyway), and if something goes wrong, I give it a shot. I've yet to see it actually solve anything, though.

It's safe to use your system as it goes.

 

[iownamac?me?]

thanks, i will keep that in mind.

yeah it SIGNIFICANTLY improved my iPhoto responsivness when I repaired premissions. I was like w00t!

 

[OrganLeroy]

Do it once a week, month, from time to time... Doesn't really matter. But if you _do_ have a problem with Mac OS X, I'd certainl repair them _then_ at the latest.

I can attest to the value of this. I was having some very annoying problems with Mail: messages saved as drafts were losing their attachments and even some of their text. Also, I BCC'd myself on several e-mails that contained images, and those images wouldn't display properly.

I was just about to post the problem here when I found this thread, smacked myself in the head, and repaired permissions.

That seems to have solved the problem, at least for now.

I don't understand why. But then I suppose that really doesn't matter.