Mac Routine Maintenance

Routine Maintenance

Weekly - Run Repair Permissions in Disk Utility
Once/month - Run "Verify Disk" in Disk Utility
If there are errors you need to run "Repair Disk". You can't run this while booted in to the system on your hard disk.
- Check support.apple.com/downloads/ for updates. You usually get notified of updates if you have "Automatically Check for Updates" checked in "Software Update" in "System Preferences" under the apple menu, but I think some things like printer drivers may not show up automatically.

Starting with 10.7 (Lion) you can boot from a recovery partition by rebooting holding down Command-R and keep holding them until the Apple icon appears.
You will be able to repair the disk from there.

Systems up thru Snow Leopard (10.6) required booting from an install disk. Startup and insert the "Software Install CD", hold down "C" until "Welcome to Mac OS" window appears in the progress bar box.
Select "Open Disk Utility" from the "Installer" menu.
Do a Verify or Repair.

Make sure Software Update in System Preferences is set to check for updates and install them.

a 2005 MacWorld article Prevent Mac Disasters says to do the following once a month:
A 2008 Mac artaicle Five Mac maintenance myths says that's not necessary. You should only do it if you are having problems.

Check preference files - "sudo plutil -s ~/Library/ Preferences/*.plist"
It didn't work on 10.6

Delete Cache Files - They can become corrupted.
System: Library: Caches folder

	~/library/Caches (2.8 GB)
	  com.apple.Safari (335 MB)
	  Google Earth (272 MB)
	  Firefox (59 MB)
	  com.google.UpdateEngine.Framework.502 (55 MB)
	  Others < 50 MB
	/library/Caches (1.4 MB)

Delete Log Files - Log files don't normally grow excessively large, so you can delete them only when you want to reclaim drive space.
/var/log and /Library/Logs
~/Library/Logs (132 MB)
```
	Some utilities which will do it are:
	Alsoft Diskwarrior
	Micromat TechTool Pro 4
	Titanium OnyX
	
```

Find saved passwords:
Open Keychain Access.app in Applications/Utilities
or type CMD-Space to open spotlight and enter Keychain

Open local Items on the upper left
Find mcbridecabin-5G 
or search for mcbridecabin in the search box

double-click it
Click the "show password" box

you have to enter your admin password

You then have to enter your Username and admin password
(Your username is in System Preferences under the Apple menu
in Users and Groups.
The name next the house icon in finder under Macintosh HD also worked)

Check microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx for Office Updates

Every couple of months - Battery Charging and calibration on laptops.

Run cron jobs manually:
1. sudo /etc/daily
2. sudo /etc/weekly
3. sudo /etc/monthly

Important Unix Files
/etc/crontab - Jobs that run automatically (usually at night)
/var/log - System Log files
/Volumes - External disks