Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-10-22T10:38:52+01:00

Installation. These hints may appear pernickety or obsessive, but will help to avoid weird and obscure “isn’t working” problems. Installing a new OS version on top of a current, and perhaps poorly maintained one, is asking for trouble. Clean installs with healthy up-to-date Clone backups will avoid most issues, and careful preparation is, as in painting and decorating, everything. You want a quiet life? Shoo the kids off to their Grandparents, protect your work space from excited pets, and be ready with a good book for the download and cloning longueurs (these can be done in advance, Yosemite fresh installations might take about 30mins). 1. The Drive Health Spa Do all housework and health checks on your existing installation (of, say, Mountain Lion or Mavericks). This should include Disk Utility repairs to Disk Permissions as well as verifying the disc data structure (Verify Disk). If Disc Utility reports (in red) that a repair is required but not possible on a running disc, then restart with the Option key held down (or cmnd + R) before the chime. You should see a row of available startup options including Recovery Disk. Choose Recovery Disc if available — it’s on a hidden partition. Otherwise an external drive or another partition will do if it has a recent OS X version installed. Now run Disk Utility from there for the Repair Drive function. NB. Permissions should be repaired from within the active disc or partition you are running, and preferably not from Recovery Disk or other setup. For the best possible system health do a “safe boot” as well, before cloning: start up with the Shift key pressed until a progress bar appears. This will be slow, as will the next, normal, startup. The words ‘Safe Boot’ will appear somewhere in the login screen. Log in, then don’t forget to restart normally. Among many other things, Safe Boot wipes software caches which are sometimes the corrupted ‘little offenders’, and these will be re-established fresh at the next normal startup. (When in Safe Boot, Finder windows will ‘shake’ as you scroll them (Mavericks), or show random foreground-background horizontal display stripes at late startup (Yosemite) which stop when startup is complete. This is a deliberate reminder that you are in Safe Boot. Don’t forget to restart normally afterwards.) 2. Your Backup Clone Why not use Time Machine? Use cloning to avoid migrating lots of historic data that you may not want in your new installation. Tm/C is useful, but not a “solution to everything” for a very wide range of reasons. Look it up on Wikipedia, or visit > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html <. Don’t ever be lazy about backups. Make a clone of your drive or partition on a freshly erased partition or drive, preferably an external one. Carbon Copy Cloner (www. Bombich.com) or SuperDuper (www.shirt-pocket.com) will do this, I use CC Cloner. If in doubt, clone “everything”. Check that the clone software acknowledges that you are about to create a “Bootable” clone. If there are big files or folders that YOU have created (and you don’t want to clone) you can exclude them, BUT files with “.” in front (invisible files), and files with weird names such as “Var”, “Usr” “Tmp” etc, etc, are essential parts of your OS and SHOULD be cloned. Until you are quite clear about settings it is better not to use cloners for auto-backups. You don’t want to overwrite or erase important data by mistake. Stick to basic cloning to freshly-erased partitions, drives, etc. 3. The Fresh Install process Laptops: make sure you are connected to a reliable power supply. With Disk Utility, erase a partition or your internal drive so that it is ‘clean’ “MacOS (extended) Journaled”. Download, and make a backup of, the “Install MacOSX 10.10” file from your Applications folder (the original may disappear after installation is complete) then install a fresh copy of OS X Yosemite from the downloaded installer. Let the Installer restart your Mac to complete the process. It will choose the correct drive/partition, and may chime a second time during the restart process. Don’t shut down, or close the laptop lid until this restart is complete and everything has settled down. 4. Migrating Data Use Migration Assistant to transfer your older settings and files from your fresh Clone. If Yosemite install or migration seems to stall, don’t panic — just walk away and be very patient (that’s “very, very", and sometimes even more "very” patient). Enjoy Yosemite, it’s good, and virtually all my Mavericks software runs just fine, the rest needed the odd update.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-10-23T12:03:13+01:00

And I thought that the odd click or three after doing a back up would do. I am now terrified and will stick with Mavericks until my nerves settle down.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-10-24T10:17:21+01:00

Hurrah, hurrah! Lady Luck must be on my side! Two brandies and a Valium and I could contain my impatience no more. I clicked on 'have Yosemite for free', watched the rather sluggish progress bar so had some whisky and two more Valiums. Hey presto, I am now a Yosemite user. I don't particularly like the look of it but so what, I am now with it! I did do a Back Up as advised by Euan so I will be able to follow his detailed instructions should my cheery outlook be dimmed by experience and I have to return to Mavericks and start all over again. But I don't really expect this. The only hiccup was that the printer wouldn't print at first but did quite happily after a night's rest. I suspect someone up there let me have a new driver.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-10-31T10:42:50+00:00

HI EUAN. Back from holiday Wed installed Yosemite. Wonderful they have improved export settings in imovie. Something I have wanted for years. NOW THE BAD NEWS. My WI FI is rubbish. Hard to get on, keeps shutting down. Mac Rumours discussions suggest I go back to Maverick till Apple sort it out. Any comment? MacBook Pro mid 09.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-10-31T23:05:26+00:00

Hi Graham. Did you do a clean install of Yosemite on a freshly erased drive or partition? Or did you install Yosemite "on top of" your Mavericks setup? Did you do "careful due diligence" before you cloned or installed? See Option Six (the second Six -- there is a typo) on this MacIssues page. Topher Kessler is vastly experienced Mac problem fixer, and was behind the essential MacFixit for many years until it was taken over and trended to the less useful. However, you should be very cautious about meddling with your system and network settings because a small misunderstanding can lead to far worse results if you aren't as skilled as he is. I would strongly suggest that you Keep It Simple (the KISS principle) and start over, with a freshly erased partition, and a "Known Good" clone (preferably not of the setup that is causing you problems). On the erased partition install Yosemite, then migrate your data from your "known good clone". Your Router will require its password to be entered, and your Mail preferences will need to be set up -- although my POP account preferences are all included in my User>me>Library>Mail folder (press the Option key when accessing the 'Go' menu in the Finder). Not sure about IMAP accounts, but I would guess they are included as well. I backup my email and my Mail settings periodically by copying the whole Mail folder to another drive. If you need help get in touch.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-01T09:12:32+00:00

OSXDaily's advice on this topic is here. They also suggest starting with a clean install as an option. Where this WiFi issue is a problem (and is due to a pre-existing oddity before upgrading) there is a possibility that other problems from a non-Clean Install may arise as well. Pre-existing problems may not manifest themselves until after an upgrade - depressing though that may be - which is why a Clean Install is almost always the best option, followed by migration from "known good" sources.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-01T10:34:20+00:00

Hi Euan. You have avoided my question Look for the ? Its an Apple problem. Its all on the discussions boards.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-01T15:05:28+00:00

Yes, I know about the discussions. Would you may like to try my answer... ?

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-01T17:19:23+00:00

If you're reading the OSXDaily article Euan points you to, at first glance it looks as if there's a download to help you solve the problem. There isn't! Both download buttons are adverts - one for a photo program and one for a zip utility.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-08T11:11:30+00:00

After reading these posts I don't feel so sorry that my Macs won't run anything later than Lion

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-08T12:14:10+00:00

Let's be positive here - Graham has fixed his wi-fi issue (posted elsewhere) and I have experience of at least 30 people who have upgraded without issue. Oh, and none (other than Graham) who have encountered notable problems.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-08T17:26:44+00:00

I've upgraded 4 systems here and at work there's another 4 Macs I know of upgraded without issues. As always, for the more nervous types it's always best to wait for the first 0.0.1 update to flush out any of the more common issues. Still, I think this update has been far better than most 1.0 releases due to Apple offering the beta to the general public this year.

Re: Yosemite "Warnings": how to avoid problems

2014-11-17T22:52:43+00:00

Thank you Euan; I followed your advice and have completed the Yosemite download successfully. Still to test the printer & ageing scanner but looking good. I use ethernet connection for internet, but can use printer wifi or cable ( will be testing both). Thanks again, David Chaplin