[iTunes] Importing Screwed Up Without Warning

[Kirk McElhearn]

On Mar 17, 2010, at 8:04 AM, Michael Prete wrote:

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

Lots of superstition in these things.
> 
> Note this on preference files from MacFixit:   <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10331328-263.html>

Sure, it happens, but it's rare.
> 
> And here The X Lab talks about repairing permissions as a regular maintenance procedure: <http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintainingmacosx.html>

As it says: "There is considerable debate about performing Repair Permissions as part of regular maintenance." Yep; I debate it. Plenty of others do too. 

Even back in 2005, Unsanity wrote an article about this: http://unsanity.org/archives/000410.php. And Daring Fireball followed up shortly after that: http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repair_permissions_voodoo.
> 
> 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/>

Removing swap files can simply be dangerous, as they are used by the system. If you want to remove them - and I don't know why you would, because if you don't have a couple of GB free on your drive then you'd better upgrade your drive - just reboot. There's a reason why you can't remove swap files easily (though you could simply go to /var/vm and remove them manually if you want).
> 
>> 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.

Debatable, because people are always looking for solutions to problems. But I read constantly how people have run <utility-name> and that didn't resolve their problems. There are lots of these utilities because lots of people _think_ they make a difference. It took years for people to stop "updating prebinging", long after it was no longer necessary. But, hey, there's still programs that do that too.


Kirk

Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Writings about more than just Macs