Printer repairing permissions?

[Jospehus]

I don't know if Thunderbird permanently deletes EMails that you delete.

Suppose you are using V10.2 of a piece of software, and that was via an update to V10.2. If the developer comes out with V10.3, and you install it, and it works, you can get rid of the V10.2 update file.

Yes, some software can update itself, but in most instances, one can download the update itself, apply it, and get rid of the prior one. For VLC Player, I have always downloaded the update and applied it myself.

By permanent delete you mean all the emails that are seemingly deleted are somewhere in system memory?

Update file... I'm sorry, I must sound like a total retard, but you are not talking about those dmg files that are like windows .exe installer files? Because those go straight to trash after I'm done with them.

Although I get the feeling you do not mean those and therefore I need to ask - where exactly should I look for to delete old one? I don't want ot og rummaging in folders I should not touch.

So you download new VLC player file, delete the old from App Folder, then install new one?

With you internal drive taking up only a bit over 50 Gig (how do you manage to keep it that small?), the 200 gig you have free on your external drive is more than enough for a backup. But, from what you are saying, that drive is rather old. While the drive should be OK, due to light use, I would be skeptical. That is where you need a product liek TechTool pro to check out that drive.

Yes, SSDs last longer, are much, much faster, and don't take up much desk space (assuming you put one inside an external enclosure).

It might be bit more, but I can't check right now as I'm not at home with my Mac. But it is new, I have relatively few third party apps (I think entire list I have added myself is Malwarebytes, GIMP, VLC Player, Firefox, Opera, LibreOffice and maybe something more I can't remember) and almost no personal files. I'm in the process of moving maybe 300 GB to Mac from external drive. I used to do some hobby photography and need to sort through of all those photos, but I've been pushing it to future.

I have never needed to use anything else besides Malwarebytes.

Thank you! Some say you need nothing, some posters say you must put in Sophos Home or else you'll loose everything. With Windows background it is a bit hard to change my own mindset and the fears.

Yes, most definitely! Not sure about security, though, unless such updates contained security fixes.

Thank you, that is very important for me to hear!

I have never liked Safari, because it is just too slow. Up until about 7 months ago, I was using Firefox, which was fine. But Google Chrome is definitely a speed demon, and I like it. Opera is good also, faster than Firefox, but not as fast as Google Chrome.

I actually don't know what you mean by "Firefox and Opera quarantine supporting apps like Safari or not?".

Personally I am Firefox man and Safari's layout just does not do it for me. It feels clumsy. I use Opera for some emails, but Firefox for most surfing. I just love the NoScript I can add there as well.

I tried Chrome two times, but ended up uninstalling it due to the layout just not doing it for me. It feels too alien for some reason.

Well, I heard that if you download files with Safari, Mac adds this quarantine flag that warns if it suspicious file. But I don't know Firefox or Opera do the same.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201940

• Quarantine-aware applications include Safari, Messages, iChat and Mail.
• These attributes include date, time, and a record of where the file was downloaded from.
  
  
  

 

[honestone]

First, I need to say that these exchanges, while helpful to you, are getting too long. I can lay out a detailed plan for you in a subsequent post as to what you need to do.

By permanent delete you mean all the emails that are seemingly deleted are somewhere in system memory?

Don't know about system memory, but when I was using Outlook 2011, such stuff was stored on a database, within a specific folder. Microsoft provided a way to permanently remove deleted EMails from that database, thus saving some space.

Update file... I'm sorry, I must sound like a total retard, but you are not talking about those dmg files that are like windows .exe installer files? Because those go straight to trash after I'm done with them.

Typically, they wind up in your Downloads folder, but myself I move such files from there to a folder entitled "Useful Software" ghat is contained within my Documents folder. It is easier to organize them that way.

Although I get the feeling you do not mean those and therefore I need to ask - where exactly should I look for to delete old one? I don't want ot og rummaging in folders I should not touch.

See above.

So you download new VLC player file, delete the old from App Folder, then install new one?

Yes, that is exactly what I do. And I do that for just about all my apps.

It might be bit more, but I can't check right now as I'm not at home with my Mac. But it is new, I have relatively few third party apps (I think entire list I have added myself is Malwarebytes, GIMP, VLC Player, Firefox, Opera, LibreOffice and maybe something more I can't remember) and almost no personal files. I'm in the process of moving maybe 300 GB to Mac from external drive. I used to do some hobby photography and need to sort through of all those photos, but I've been pushing it to future.

That's good that you know what third party apps you have.

Personally I am Firefox man and Safari's layout just does not do it for me. It feels clumsy. I use Opera for some emails, but Firefox for most surfing. I just love the NoScript I can add there as well.

I tried Chrome two times, but ended up uninstalling it due to the layout just not doing it for me. It feels too alien for some reason.

One's choice of a browser is definitely a personal one. What is good for one is not good for anotyer.

Well, I heard that if you download files with Safari, Mac adds this quarantine flag that warns if it suspicious file. But I don't know Firefox or Opera do the same.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201940

• Quarantine-aware applications include Safari, Messages, iChat and Mail.
• These attributes include date, time, and a record of where the file was downloaded from.

Don't know about that.

 

[Jospehus]

First, I need to say that these exchanges, while helpful to you, are getting too long. I can lay out a detailed plan for you in a subsequent post as to what you need to do.

Thank you for all the help!
As you looked over my printer-scanner software saga and confirmed it's all good (and I didn't do something idiotic and dangerous with the downloading and installing - I'm always worried I end up going to wrong site and installing malicious software. Though this was good old Canon so I should be okay. Especially as it FINALLY WORKS! MY PRINTER WORKS! ), you did more than needed already!

I apologize for dragging this too long. When confronted with specialist, I tend to... ask too much.

 

[honestone]

That's OK, but I think you still need to do disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backups. I think I have mentioned before that besides daily cleanup on my own (ie, getting rid of unneeded stuff, deleting EMails permanently, etc.), my weekly script involves the use of Onyx, TechTool Pro, and SuperDuper!. That is always served me well, for both of my Macs. There are a number of steps you need to take to do that, and if you want, I can lay out a detailed plan for you to follow. It will, though, involve investing some funds, plus quite a lot of time. But in the end, you should have a clean, "lean" system. And if you follow that same script week in and week out (including daily cleanup), you'll be a happy camper!

 

[Jospehus]

That's OK, but I think you still need to do disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backups. I think I have mentioned before that besides daily cleanup on my own (ie, getting rid of unneeded stuff, deleting EMails permanently, etc.), my weekly script involves the use of Onyx, TechTool Pro, and SuperDuper!. That is always served me well, for both of my Macs. There are a number of steps you need to take to do that, and if you want, I can lay out a detailed plan for you to follow. It will, though, involve investing some funds, plus quite a lot of time. But in the end, you should have a clean, "lean" system. And if you follow that same script week in and week out (including daily cleanup), you'll be a happy camper!

You don't have to, but if you have time, I would appreciate recipe for happy Mac!

 

[honestone]

To do that, it would be good if I knew up front how much you want to invest. You will definitely need a robust third party utility program, and I recommend TechTool Pro for that. It costs $99.99:

https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro

You'll get the latest version, and it is compatible with Mac OS 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, and 10.12. And the eDrive "feature" is really good!

Next, you should download Onyx. It is free, excellent at what it does, and is available from here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Note there are different versions of it for each Mac OS. At first, given you are using El Capitan now, you need to download version 3.1.8. I have been using that software for so, so long that I depend upon it. One of the things you will do with it is "Repair Permissions", and I suspect that in your case, it will take a few "tries" to repair just about all the permissions.

The other thing is, what about your external drive? If you have stuff on it that you need, how much space does that take up? And, do you absolutely need all of it? Answering that question, along with confirming how much disk space you are currently using on your internal drive, will help determine how big (in terms of capacity) a drive you need to get. Again, I would recommend an SSD, and the ones made by Samsung are the best. You might be able to get by with a 500 gig Samsung 850 EVO SSD and a nice, slim Orico external case for about $180. Unfortunately, this is not Black Friday, when I saw the drive for as low as $110 (they are now about $170)! I actually have 2 Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs, and they are fabulous! They are more expensive than the EVO model (but I was able to get them for a SUPER price!), with the main difference being the number of hours of MTBF, ie, Mean Time Between Failures. I doubt it, though, that either you or I will get anywhere near such a figure in the reasonable future.

Finally, there is the backup software. I've already mentioned SuperDuper!:

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

It definitely does the job, and as I also said, it makes a bootable backup.

For now, the minimum number of steps, in order, are:

1. Do disk cleanup now on your internal drive. Also, although I think you have done this already, make sure any third party software you has been updated for at least El Capitan compatibility.

2, Insure that you have the files "Install OSX El Capitan" and "Install macOS Sierra" in two places on your drive.

3. Obtain/purchase Onyx, TechTool Pro, and SuperDuper!, and install each of them.

4. Use Disk Utility to Erase, Format, and partition your new external drive.(I would think you'll need 2 partitions, one for your backup of your internal drive, and the other for copying the "stuff" from your current external drive).

5. Copy your needed "stuff" from your current external drive to one of the partitions on the new drive.

6, Run SuperDuper! and make a backup to your other partition on the new drive.

7. Run Onyx and TechTool Pro on your machine to "clean-up/repair" your internal drive.

8. Use you machine for a couple of days to see if everything is OK.

9. Repeat step 7, and then use SuperDuper! to backup your machine to that same partition on your external drive that you did earlier (don't worry, SuperDuper! takes care of erasing what is there).

That should give you a stable, "lean and mean" system. With that last backup, and as long as you have the file entitled "Install macOS Sierra", you could "upgrade" to OS 10.12.x and see how it works. That will not, though, be an upgrade "in place". (Of course, you'll need that newer version of Onyx in case you stick with Sierra). If you are not pleased, and/or there are issues, with that last SuperDuper! backup, you can boot to it, use Disk Utility there to Erase and Format your internal drive, do a clean, "virgin" installation of El Capitan (you did insure that you have the file entitled "Install OSX El Capitan), then use Migration Assistant to "migrate"/copy your needed stuff from that backup.

There are a few more details you'll need to be made aware of, but that is enough for now. Again, though, I'll need to have answers from you for the questions I stated above, and especially the one about disk space.