Mac

Fix Mavericks: 5 ways to prevent OS X headaches

We’ve had some time now to tool around with OS X Mavericks. I had an issue with Final Cut Pro 7 (old version, yes!) but I managed to get it fixed. You can read about some other frustrations with Mavericks on a recent post. Here are some quick tips and how to fix Mavericks by tackling problems as they arise.

Downloading Takes Years

Yes, it’s annoying to wait for downloads to, well, download. But Mavericks is free – so we can’t complain too much. Open Launchpad and you’ll get the current status of the download. If for some reason the download paused, you can click on the grayed-out icon to restart it and get it moving again.

The download timer isn’t always accurate. At one point it said 7 hours and 54 minutes. It didn’t take that long (thank goodness). It took more than an hour for sure, though. And that’s just the download. Installation you can expect another 30-50 minutes depending on speeds. If the download doesn’t seem to work, hold down Option and the app icons will begin jiggling like they do in iOS. Click on the tiny x that appears on the Mavericks update to delete the download. Head to the App Store and start the download over. This seems to be a nifty fix.

Grab some coffee. This could take awhile.

Grab some coffee. This could take awhile. This is the App Store download page. You’ll see a lot of it, trust me.

Check out my recent tutorial and gallery of images on how to upgrade to OS X Mavericks.

What’s up with Gmail and IMAP?

Apple has somewhat fixed the way Gmail works with IMAP — hopefully. If you use IMAP with Gmail, you may notice some weird things when you upgraded to Mavericks. If your IMAP was turned off and you moved files and they suddenly appeared where you DIDN’T want them, you’re going to need to turn IMAP back on for All Email. In Gmail, click Settings > Labels > and turn on Show in IMAP for All Mail under System Labels. You’ll notice the messages will now stay where you put them. However, emails will be saved on your computer, so you may want to use Gmail’s web interface to save some face, I mean, space. (Sorry, had to).

My Scroller Won’t Scroll!

This one has been driving me nuts, until now. If you find that your scroller in Chrome isn’t visible and/or won’t scroll at all, there are actually two ways to fix it. The first is simply deleting and reinstalling Chrome. Or you can make the scrollers always visible. In the Finder, navigate to System Preferences > General > Show Scroll Bars > and click Always. It’s not smooth and silky like having the scrollers show up when you want them to, but it works.

Why is my computer starting and shutting down so SLOWLY?

Waiting for anything just sucks. So you shouldn’t have to wait longer for your Mac to start up or shut down – especially if you’ve ‘upgraded’ the technology with a new OS. You have to get a little technical on this one. Head to Terminal and copy and paste the commands below one at a time. After the first command, you’ll be prompted to enter your password.

Add these lines to Terminal

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.coreservices.appleevents ExitTimeOut -int 1

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.securityd ExitTimeOut -int 1

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder ExitTimeOut -int 1

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.diskarbitrationd ExitTimeOut -int 1

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication ExitTimeOut -int 1

After you’ve run all these commands in the Terminal, open up Disk Utility from /Applications/Utilities folder. Select the drive you’ve installed Mavericks on and select Repair Permissions. If you need some help running Repair Permissions, check out our handy How-To Video. After Disk Utility is finished, you should be able to select shutdown and restart with no more lagging or stalling problems.

Mail won’t remember passwords

Do you like re-entering passwords for email? Me neither. If Mail keeps forgetting your password every time it starts up, head to the Menu Bar and select Mail > Preferences. Click on the Accounts tab. Select the iCloud email account you’re having issues with. Select the Advanced tab. Under the Authentication, select Apple Token. Boom. Fixed. Let us know of other annoyances you’ve come across with Mavericks and any fixes you’ve discovered. Good luck and happy Mac’ing.


Surfer Image: Alastair Humphreys

Josh Benson

Josh Benson

Josh is the Editor of GeekLift.com and supreme geek to boot. He spends much of his time learning new software, coding languages, gadgets and more. He loves helping people figure out tech problems - big or small. Josh is a former television news anchor and tech reporter. He spends his days developing websites and producing videos.

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