[iTunes] Importing Screwed Up Without Warning

[Michael Prete]

On Mar 16, 2010, at 1:41 AM, Kirk McElhearn wrote:

>
> On Mar 16, 2010, at 9:24 AM, Michael Prete wrote:
>
>>>> I've always had my Preferences set in iTunes to "import cd, then  
>>>> eject", which has always worked in the past.
>>>>
>>>> Is my iTunes Preferences file trashed? And if this is the  
>>>> problem, what's the least painful way to remedy it. Run  
>>>> AppleJack? Throwing the file away (I'm not sure where it lives)  
>>>> and restarting?
>>>
>>> "Run AppleJack?" And how is that supposed to fix anything?  
>>> AppleJack is no miracle tool...
>>
>>
>> Scott asked previously if his preference files might be corrupted  
>> (he said "trashed"). And AppleJack does, in fact, verify preference  
>> files ( .plist ) and isolate those suspected to be corrupt. So it  
>> is quite logical to run AppleJack to deal with the possibility that  
>> Preference Files are corrupt. AppleJack also performs 4 other  
>> functions that are frequently useful as well: Disk Repair,  
>> Permissions Repair, clear cache files and swap file removal.
>
> Corrupted preference files are extremely rare. Permissions repair  
> does basically nothing. Swap file removal serves no purpose.

None of these statements coincide with my own experience and those of  
others posting on various lists and help websites.

Note this on preference files from MacFixit:   <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10331328-263.html 
 >

And here The X Lab talks about repairing permissions as a regular  
maintenance procedure:  <http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintainingmacosx.html 
 >

As for swap files, they do take up space. And, if swap file removal  
serves no purpose, I find it interesting that there are 25 different  
programs (in addition to AppleJack) that include swap file removal as  
part of their function. Take a look here:  <http://delete.software.informer.com/download-delete-swapfile-mac/ 
 >

> Utilities like that give a false sense of security. It used to be,  
> "I repaired permissions, and that didn't do anything," because in  
> 99.9% of cases it doesn't. Now it's, "I ran ApplJack/Onyx/Cocktail  
> and it didn't do anything."p://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/ 
> mailman/listinfo/itunes

Perhaps you might include some references to back up your allegations  
that all these functions are useless? It seems, at the very least,  
debatable.


------------
Michael Prete

More will be revealed.