Problems? How Do You Fix Mac OS X When It Goes Bad?

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Utility Applications That Caused Grief
Not surprisingly, there aren’t many Mac utility applications (non-Apple) that have caused problems. There are some.

StyleMaster
This is the best of all the CSS editors and I could never get the Wizard to work right in versions previous to 4.0x. The new version works fine (I’ll have a review soon).

CocoaMySQL
This handy and free MySQL development application has been rock solid except that every now and again it will decide NOT to connect to our Mac OS X Server. And it never will again from which ever Mac it decides not to. From another Mac, no problem. And no fix, either. Now I use Navicat and have no problem.

PhotoToMove
An older version would lock up on my brand new PowerMac G5 with 4 gigs RAM. The problem was traced to PTM not working on Macs with so much memory. The developer fixed it within a day.

NewsFire
Only a pre-release version ever crashed, though I’ve had some slowdowns (and it takes awhile to quit) as I’ve built up RSS lists. However, David Watanabe, the developer, releases new versions regularly and the application is now open and running all the time. There’s no better way to get Internet news.

Solutions To The Problems
Frankly, Mac OS X is a VERY forgiving operating system. My main Mac is a PowerMac G5 and I throw every application at it I can find. I’m always testing applications and utilities, adding something new, updating, changing things, and throwing things away.

Still, the Mac just sits there and runs and the (full system) crashes I’ve had on this machine in a year can be counted on a few fingers. I may not be a full on “power user” but I push the system hard. It seldom complains.

When it does, I have a few critical steps that help solve the problem, or, get me back to a “clean” system quickly.

First, I backup regularly through the day and “clone” the system using SuperDuper!

Second, before trying something new, tricky, or dubious (yeah, what they hell… I’ll try it out), clone the system. Cloning back is MUCH faster than troubleshooting something stupid.

Third, when a new utility or application crashes two or three times in a row, out the door it goes (there are exceptions). I trash the application, trash the preference files, and check in Application Support (both system and user) for files and trash those.

As an example of the exceptions, I tried out FotoMagico. This is a fabulous application that does the coolest slide shows this side of PhotoToMovie but has moving text and a more intuitive UI.

It crashed every time on launch. I was pissed. I tried it on all my Macs. Some result. Crash, crash, crash. I’m ready to fire up the flames and crank up output on the blast-o-gram torpedoes.

My “SO” says there’s gotta be a problem because reviews are good and the application appears well designed. You can tell a lot just from how well organized a developers web site is.

So patience won out. It turns out “I” was the problem causing FotoMagico to crash. For whatever reason I have nearly 700 playlists (what? you don’t have a playlist for each artist in iTunes?) in iTunes and FotoMagico didn’t like that.

The developer was VERY responsive and found the problem. I trimmed my Playlists and he upgraded FotoMagico (boy, is that a sweet little application).

Mac applications and utilities run very well on Mac OS X. If they don’t, I don’t have much patience for them. Power of the press?

Applications That Have NEVER Caused A Problem
This is a growing list. AppleWorks is NOT on it. While it’s working OK now, I’ve had printing problems in previous versions of Mac OS X.

In fact, “printing” is the one area where I’ve probably had the most problems, but that’s another story.

Among Mac apps that have NEVER caused me a crash, a problem, or even a slowdown: BBEdit, Navicat, Photoshop Elements 3.0, ChronoSync, Portraits & Prints, Transmit, JAlbum, ImageCaster, Photoshop CS, Logic Express, Watson (RIP), Terminal, Activity Monitor, Console, and huge list of others that don’t make the Top List but get used from time to time.

What about you? What’s on your problem list for Mac OS X, Mac applications, other applications and utilities? Do you have favorites that cause you grief from time to time?

What do you do to fix Mac OS X when it seems to break? What issues cause you the most problems? What’s been rock solid, solid?

Share your knowledge and experience with other Mac users and click on the Comments link below.

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