Sierra (OS 10.12.1) Observations

Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
4,854
Reaction score
241
I have been using OS 10.12.1 since late last week, having done a "clean install" upgrade from El Capitan, OS 10.11.6. I'd like to offer some observations.

First of all, as most folks know, I have 2 Macs: a late 2012 Mac Mini with 4 gig of RAM, and a mid 2013 13" MacBook Air with 4 gig of RAM. I keep both machines "lean and clean", and in fact for both of the internal SSDs (256 gig on the Mini, 251 gig on the Air), I am only using about 80 gig or so of space. I just don't have much need to keep miscellaneous "stuff" on either machine. The extra space comes in handy, of course, in case I need to download a large file form the internet. If I did not need to occasionally do that, a 128 gig SSD should be enough. But, I don't like things so "tight".

Secondly, for both machines, start up is a "little slower", although not very noticeable since OS 10.11.6. But shut down does take longer. I cannot find any folder entitled "Shut Down Items" (or similarly named). Maybe a Preference setting was done when OS 10.12 was installed and/or after applying the OS 10.12.1 upgrade. I just don't know. If someone has any information about that, I would appreciate it.

Third, a "strange" icon change happened. For my MacBook Air, all the icons in the Dock look normal, including the one for Excel 2016 (part of Office 2016, which I have, including the latest version). But, on my MacMini, the icon for Excel 2016 looks different! It still functions like normal, in that when I click on it, Excel 2016 launches. All other icons in the Dock on the Mini look fine. And, I have just about similar software on both machines.

Of course, I have not yet done my weekly disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backup, processing yet with my machines running Sierra, as when I did it last week, I was still on OS 10.11.6, but I wanted a clean backup before I proceeded with the move to Sierra. (Also, the long-awaited upgrade for TechTool Pro finally came out late last week). I'll see what happens on Saturday when I do it. As it is, one of the things I do is use the excellent freeware program Onyx, and one of its tasks is to clear out the Font Caches, including those for Microsoft Corporation.

Finally, on my MacMini, I have an informative, free program called Memory Clean that I got from the Apple store. It runs all the time, including when I boot up. It indicates how much free memory I have, and since installing Sierra, that amount of free memory right after I boot up (not running anything else) is somewhat less than when was using El Capitan. Again, don't know why, and it's just about impossible to tell from Activity Monitor the reason (s) for that. I can free up some more memory any time I want with that app.

So far, that's about it. If I notice anything else, I'll post some more information.
 
Joined
Sep 17, 2014
Messages
4,854
Reaction score
241
As a follow up to this, first, after going through my usual disk cleanup/maintenance/repairs, and backup, processing this past Saturday for both of my machines (using Onyx, TechTool Pro, and SuperDuper!), Onyx did repair quite a number of permissions, but other than that, nothing really stood out, even with the disk-related tasks performed by TechTool Pro.

Secondly, start up "seems" a little faster, but shut down, most of the time, is somewhat slow. So far on my Mac MIni, the same is true after I just applied the OS 10.12.2 Combo Updater.

Third, got rid of the "strange" Excel icon issue in my dock on my MacMini, by just dragging the "strange" one to the trash, then dragging the normal Excel one from its location in my Applications folder to the dock. Just seems so bizarre that I did not have this minor issue on my MacBook Air.
 
Last edited:

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top