Any reasons to be worried about upgrading to Snow Leopard?

I have a Mac book with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. I would like to upgrade to Snow Leopard to be able to run a piece of software that requires it. But, I'm nervous about doing the upgrade and breaking my machine in any way. My wife would kill me if something went wrong. Will Snow Leopard run well on my machine?

How to Install OS X Updates Successfully
A. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
Boot from your current Tiger Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger and later.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
B. Make a Bootable Backup Using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
C. Important: Please read before installing:
If you have a FireWire hard drive connected, disconnect it before installing the update unless you will boot from this drive and install the update on it. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update. While the installation is in progress do not use the computer.
D. To upgrade:
Purchase the Snow Leopard Retail DVD.
Boot From The OS X Installer Disc:
Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
Wait for installer to finish loading.
E. If updating:
Download and install update(s)
Use Software Update, or
Download standalone updater(s).

Similar Messages

App Launching Unresponsive After Upgrading to Snow Leopard

For reasons I do not quite understand, launching any app, and doing many things within them (basically, instantiating any process) is extremely slow after upgrading to Snow Leopard. For instance, opening a new window in Terminal takes a full 22 seconds (I've timed it) to go from "login" to the zsh prompt. Before, it was instantaneous. There is nearly nothing installed on this computer other than the bare essentials and some documents.
This is obviously very frustrating and detrimental to my productivity. Here is what I've tried:
- Reinstalling from scratch (I've now tried this two times). First, I backed up my home directory with SuperDuper and manually copied everything over. Everything was fixed, for about two days, and then it started doing the same thing again. Then, I cloned the entire disk with SuperDuper and restored from it. Again, everything was fixed for a little while and then I had the same problem again.
- Most recently, I tried "Verify disk" in Disk Utility. This returned that there were errors (an "invalid directory count"). Therefore I rebooted into the installation disc and ran "Repair Disk", which outputted that the disk was repaired successfully. However, I rebooted back and now have the same problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what is going wrong? My first thought was that perhaps the hard drive is failing, but I've dual-booted Linux on another partition and it works fine.
I am very confused. How can I fix this?

Have you updated iTunes?

Upgrade from Snow Leopard?

Adobe through a monkey wrench into my plans to sit comfortably with OSX 10.6.8 and not rock the boat with something that works. I'm a Creative Cloud member and utilize many of the CC apps including After Effects. The new After Effects CC now requires OSX minimum of 10.7.4. Lion).
I've been reading many of the comments about upgrading from Snow Leopard and am now quite uneasy about attempting it due to all the conflicting remarks about it. I do have AE CS6 and can operate on it for a while, but the new features in AE CC are not offered as updates to CS6 programs.
Questions:
Is there an automated approach to determine if my current NON APPLE applications will work with either Lion OR Mountain Lion ?
I have NO power pc applications
I do not use Boot camp, parallels or anything similar. Windows software does not exist on this machine.
I do use MS Office for Mac 2011, including Outlook.
I assume that Apple is probably working on the next OSX incarnation to succeed Mountain lion and that It may be timed to be coincident with the new Mac Pro release which is a hazy mirage of "sometime later this year". Point being, is it worth it to wait until that future incarnation settles down with the inevitable bugs blown off?
Any help would be appreciated,
Ken

kenackr wrote:
Adobe through a monkey wrench into my plans to sit comfortably with OSX 10.6.8 and not rock the boat with something that works. I'm a Creative Cloud member and utilize many of the CC apps including After Effects. The new After Effects CC now requires OSX minimum of 10.7.4. Lion).
It's B.S. like this that is forcing me to switch to Windows 7 which remain as is and get updates until 2020.
On a good monitor, Win 7 doesn't look nearly as bad as OS X, longevity and stability is key asset, I can always restore from System Restore Images if it gets seriously hosed, else System Restore reverts back to the last updated state.
Since it's expected that by 2015 tablets will outsell traditional computers in the consumer space, doesn't bode to well for many Mac's which chiefly target the consumer market and the professional market to a lesser degree.
Apple has already discontinued the MacBooks and the 17" MacBook Pro, so it might be shortly that only PC laptops will be the choice of professionals for their more versatility than consumer tablets.
Anyway the future isn't looking too bright.
I've been reading many of the comments about upgrading from Snow Leopard and am now quite uneasy about attempting it due to all the conflicting remarks about it. I do have AE CS6 and can operate on it for a while, but the new features in AE CC are not offered as updates to CS6 programs.
A professional setup is a whole different animal than a consumer machine where they can care less as it won't cost them money if the machine is down for some time.
It's likely best you buy a new MacPro and ease into it rather than take your chances on the Lions because they take some getting used to their strangeness.
I advise you also to join the chorus and complain on the Adobe forums about what they are doing to force upgrade you for their purposes.
Slightly over 25% of OS X version market share is on Snow Leopard and many of them because they are running PPC based apps they can't get anymore.
So I'm assuming there will be quite a uproar on the Adboe forums over this, or else you can be the first to kick it off.
Adobe is trying to push, but if enough people push back and start to look for alternatives, Adobe will have to cave in because their sales are down big time as the print media industry is dying, thus less need for artists and the CS suite.
Is there an automated approach to determine if my current NON APPLE applications will work with either Lion OR Mountain Lion ?
I have NO power pc applications
I do not use Boot camp, parallels or anything similar. Windows software does not exist on this machine.
I do use MS Office for Mac 2011, including Outlook.
Not automated, but user submitted information here.
http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
I assume that Apple is probably working on the next OSX incarnation to succeed Mountain lion and that It may be timed to be coincident with the new Mac Pro release which is a hazy mirage of "sometime later this year". Point being, is it worth it to wait until that future incarnation settles down with the inevitable bugs blown off?
I would if your planning on buying a new MacPro.
Don't kill your present money making machine with the Lions, it's just not worth it.
Now you CAN clone your present boot drive to a external powered drive, option/alt boot from it and upgrade that to the Lions to get you by until the new MacPro is released and you can get fully up on that.
Most people need Snow Leopard for some reason or another, installing it on a paritition or via a virtual machine is a bit of a pain.
Snow Leopard is really fast, the Lions are fully 64bit and act more like dump trucks, RAM gobblers 4-8GB+ and a SSD on a newer issue Early 2011+ laptop or 2010+ iMac/Mac Pro is better suited for them.
I think the new MacPro + Mavericks is the way to go, keep the Snow Leopard machine working while the bugs and Adboe issues are worked out, then of course is the new OS XI version coming after that is the more pernament solution for longterm.
Most commonly used backup methods
Plan your moves carefully, don't let the arses at Adobe push you off a perfectly working machine into a OS X upgrade that can fail horribly and brick your logicboard/firmware with no AppleCare coverage to fall back onto.
I had 10.7 kill a 2007 MacBook Pro I upgraded from 10.6, it was 4 years old and Apple wouldn't fix it.
So don't upgrade OS X out of AppleCare unless it's a spare machine, certainly not your working machine.

Anyone upgrade to Snow Leopard and runs CS3 or CS4?

Hi all. I'm looking to upgrade my Mac from tiger to snow leopard, but I wanted to make sure there weren't any problems beforehand. Has anyone upgraded to Snow Leopard? Have you had any problems running CS3 or CS4 since?
Thanks.

Works fine for me on a 2008 unibody MBP. Only a couple bugs that I can live -- neither affect workflow or CS4 functionality.
A) As with Leopard, some programs have an issue with closing. About half the time when you close Ai or Dw the program closes fine -- then it tells you it crashed. A bit annoying, but I just go ahead and send the error report, dosent affect much, although if you've changed any preferences they might get lost. Adobe's prob gotten several hundred crash reports from me on that one :∫
B) Occasionally when you switch from one app to another and you try to go back it only will switch only when you click the icon on the bottom -- otherwise the app you want will just switch back to the other app -- I think it's a snow leopard bug, but seems to affect Flash and AE. Very rarely however.
I've been using Snow Leopard w/ CS4 since release day for prob 14 hours a day 6 days a week and these are my observations.
Go for it dude, you'll love 10.6 -- Use CCC before that way if it's not functioning properly you can aways go back.
It should be noted, I have not tested any third party plug-ins yet. After Effects by itself 9.0.2 has no issues that I can tell.

Greetings: I have just acquired an older mini mac (2006 1.66 ghz core 2 duo) Anyway, it had Tiger 10.4 on it and the Bluetooth worked. I upgraded to Snow Leopard and everything works fine - except Bluetooth. The Bluetooth icon isn't there. Any ideas?

Greetings:
I have just acquired an older mini mac (2006 1.66 ghz core 2 duo) Anyway, it had Tiger 10.4 on it and the Bluetooth worked for the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse. I upgraded to Snow Leopard and everything works fine - everything except Bluetooth.
The Bluetooth icon does not exist in the System Preferenc screen.
I tried to download Bluetooth from Apple site but the message I got told me that I didn't need it.
Under Finder, Utilities, I found Bluetooth File Exchange but the message I got was that I had to connect a Bluetooth device to my computer.
I have to admit that I have no idea what's going on here. I am hoping to avert the need to try another complete re-install of Snow Leopard.
Any ideas?
Thanks
javaminit

Puzzled is a polite word for it.
Thanks Barry - I found the file and trie to send it to trash. The response: (This item cannot be trashed as it it owned by the system).
After dancing around with PRAM and SMC and turning on while holding the power-cntrl-option-shift and heavens knows what else, I now have the Bluetooth symbol on the top of the menu bar but it is ghoseted and has a squiggly line through it. This, I didn't have before so I read this as some progress. It notes that "Bluetooth is not available">
However, the Bluetooth icon is still missing from the System Preferences window - you know, between "network" and "sharing".
You note that you reckon the issue is not software based and you may be correct. The reason that I wonder about that though, is that before I installed Snow Leopard, the keyboard and mouse both paired with the box under the Tiger 10.4. That leads me to conclude that hardware is functional and that there is some screwy little bit of software that is not cooperating.
If I could delete Bluetooth from the system and re-install a fresh version, that might help. Or, is there a way I can use the Snow Leopard install disc and only load in Bluetooth?
I'm stumped.
Thanks for your time
/Bill C.

Upgraded to snow leopard, now safari scrolls a page down when space bar is hit and sometimes crashes. Any ideas for a fix?

I just upgraded to the new snow leopard, now my Safari is acting loopy. At times, the page will scroll down when I hit the space bar. As I type this discussion the screen isn't paging down, but if I go to the tab where I have facebook loaded and hit the space bar, it acts as a page down key. I've had safari crash about 5 times tonight for no apparent reason. The delete key sometimes will act as a page back key. I really have no idea whats going on.
I've had keyboards go wacko on me before due to something being spilled on them or a wireless problem, but this keyboard is a wired keyboard and nothing was spilled on it. It's rather new and I'm quite certain it's not a keyboard issue.
No settings have been changed on the computer. The only thing different today from yesterday, is the fact that I upgraded to snow leopard.
Help would be pretty sweet.
Thanks,
Jason

I just upgraded to the new snow leopard, now my Safari is acting loopy. At times, the page will scroll down when I hit the space bar. As I type this discussion the screen isn't paging down, but if I go to the tab where I have facebook loaded and hit the space bar, it acts as a page down key. I've had safari crash about 5 times tonight for no apparent reason. The delete key sometimes will act as a page back key. I really have no idea whats going on.
I've had keyboards go wacko on me before due to something being spilled on them or a wireless problem, but this keyboard is a wired keyboard and nothing was spilled on it. It's rather new and I'm quite certain it's not a keyboard issue.
No settings have been changed on the computer. The only thing different today from yesterday, is the fact that I upgraded to snow leopard.
Help would be pretty sweet.
Thanks,
Jason

I'm running snow leopard. The try to open any .mov file in Quicktime, and I get an error message that says, "The document xyz.mov could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that Quicktime player understands. I'm a recent upgrade to Snow Leopard.

I'm running snow leopard. The try to open any .mov file in Quicktime, and I get an error message that says, "The document xyz.mov could not be opened. The movie is not in a format that Quicktime player understands. I'm a recent upgrade to Snow Leopard.
Help!
Thanks, Mark

Unfortunately, the error message gives no details about what codec might be missing or what it needs.
If the file can't be opened in QT, it only means you cannot use the QT "Inspector" window to check what compression formats were used to create the file. It does not mean you can't use the Finder "Information" window to check on the compression formats or use a third party media information window (e.g., like VLC which will open many compression formats not supported natively by QT) to determine what kind of data is included in the MOV wrapper. If the file cannot be opened in any app, it is usually a good sign that the file itself is corrupted.
It's a stupid error message. Apple should do better than that.
Error trapping is quite extensive but there are still many areas which require human oversight. The message is telling you that either the container has a problem (e.g., not properly terminated, non-standard, or corrupted) or that one or more of the compression formats used is not supported by your current codec component configuration or that the data was encoded using non-standard settings or preferences not supported by QT or that the fourCC code does not match the data contained in the file or that there are timecode inconsistencies, etc., etc., etc. In short there are a near infinite number of possible problems for which it would be very difficult/nearly impossible to program error trapping depending on your sourcing of content and how you process it before it reaches the player app. Think of it like trying to play a BD disc in an DVD player.
I'll call Apple support when I get a chance.
Chances are good that they will end up sending you back here. In any case, it is often a good idea to post a sample file for examination by other QT users. At the very least, they should be able to tell you if the sample file will play on other systems which would indicate whether or not the file itself is bad and under the best of circumstances whould allow them to examing the file in detail for various common problems.

I have a MacBook 5,1 (13.3" aluminum from 2007 or 2008). Automatic updates will only let me get to OSX 10.5.8. Can I upgrade to Snow Leopard, Lion 10.6 or even 10.6.8? Also, will I have any issues with my iPhone if it's updated to iOS 7.1?

I have a MacBook 5,1 (13.3" aluminum from 2007 or 2008). Automatic updates will only let me get to OSX 10.5.8. Can I upgrade to Snow Leopard, Lion 10.6 or even 10.6.8? Also, will I have any issues with my iPhone if it's updated to iOS 7.1?

The 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD is in the Apple online store. You can get it for $19.99. You will need to be running 10.6.8 to access the App Store to order Lion or Mountain Lion. http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
System Requirements for 10.6:
Mac computer with an Intel processor
1GB of memory
5GB of available disk space
DVD drive for installation
Some features require a compatible internet service provider: fees may apply.
You can upgrade direct from 10.6.8 to 10.8 Mountain Lion without going through 10.7 Lion with the Late 2008 model 5,1 Aluminum Unibody. The Model 5,1 will probably run 10.9 Mavricks when it comes out.
10.8 Mountain Lion is a download from the App Store, the price is $19.99.
Mountain Lion will require at least 2gb of RAM but really needs 4gb to run smoothly.
As for third party programs see this list for compatibility with 10.8 http://roaringapps.com/apps:table
Also Mountain Lion doesn't run any Power PC programs. To see if you have any Power PC programs go to the Apple in the upper left corner and select About This Mac, then click on More Info. When System Profiler comes up select Applications under Software. Then look under Kind to see if any of your applications are listed as Power PC. Universal and Intel will run under Mountain Lion.
Before Mac switched to Intel processors in 2006 they used Power PC processors from 1994 to 2005. Power PC 601 through 604, G3, G4 and G5. Applications written for the Power PC processors need the application called Rosetta to run on Intel processors. This was part of the Operating System in 10.4 and 10.5 but was an optional install in 10.6. With 10.7 Lion Apple dropped all support for Power PC applications.

TS2998 After upgrading to Snow Leopard, Mail will not let me archive any mail. All archived messages re-appear in my inbox (I have tried archiving and placing in the trash bin).

After upgrading to Snow Leopard, Mail will not let me archive any mail. All archived messages re-appear in my inbox (I have tried archiving and placing in the trash bin). How do i regain control of my inbox?

The main differences that can cause a problem are scripting additions (64-bit vs 32-bit and security reasons) and the usage of dates (it is not as forgiving). AppleScript itself is basically the same, so if empty paragraphs are what caused your problems the update would have just been a coincidence.

I want to upgrade to Lightroom 5, but I'm concerned about compatibility with my 2008 intel Core 2 Duo iMac with only 4G of Ram. Will I be able to run Lighroom 5 if I upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion?

I want to upgrade to Lightroom 5, but I'm concerned about compatibility with my 2008 intel Core 2 Duo iMac with only 4G of Ram. Will I be able to run Lightroom 5 okay if I upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion? What will happen to the applications that aren't 64-bit compatible? Also the Eye-one Display 2 colorimeter to calibrate the monitor will not run on Lion, so that will be an expensive upgrade to an i1DisplayPro. Is the upgrade important enough to offset the expense? I have an Epson R2000 printer. Will there be problems with the drivers if I upgrade to Lion? It would be great to hear from other mac users who are also photographers and who print their own photos.

Before upgrading to Lion be sure to read this link:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6271
Adobe lists these requirements:
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom/tech-specs.html
Looking at http://www.everymac.com/ even the earliest 2008 iMac was fully 64 bit, even though Boot Camp doesn't support 64 bit Windows on that machine.

I'm about to install snow leopard on my 2006 macbook, OSX 10.4.11. I read that I'm supposed to copy my old OS to an external drive before hand. Why is this? What does it accomplish? If I upgrade to 10.6.3, why do I need a copy of my old 10.4.11?

I'm about to install snow leopard onto my 2006 macbook with OSX 10.4.11. I read that I should copy my old OSX to an external drive before I start. Why? What is the purpose of this? Once I have snow leopard, why do I want a copy of 10.4.11? Won't I be able to import what I need while installing?   Also, what is the point of partitioning my disk? I don't understand what that's for if I'm only going to run one OS on there. Any experience or advice is greatly appreciated.

It is always wise to have a copy of your latest working system ... preferably on an external drive.   As Neil says, you may run into trouble and if you do you can always return to the original situation and start again.
Once you have installed Snow Leopard (an excellent system if I might say so) then you probably won't need 10.4.11 though you can never have enough back ups in my opinion.   It's amazing how often a need arises.
Having a backup on an external drive allays the need to partion your hard iMac drive for the same purpose..

After hard drive crash, Pages app brought over, and upgrade to snow leopard installed, Pages would not launch. Re-downloaded the 3.0.3 update and Pages launched, but will not open any documents or start new document.

After a hard-drive crash, Pages application was brought over from the old hard drive, and upgraded to snow leopard. However, Pages would not launch. I do not have the disks and the computer was given to me by my son with iWork 08 installed, so I do not have the ability to re-install using Purchases. I re-installed the update 3.0.3, which I already had, but thought it worth a try. That enabled Pages to launch, but it will not open a new or old document. I can see in preview the document, but it will not open. Any suggestions besides repurchasing Pages. I've just put out a lot of money for a new hard drive and retrieval of apps and docs from the old hard drive and would like not to have to put more money in it.
Thanks for any suggestions.

You can not simply drag over Pages, particularly if it was perhaps damaged in a crash.
As it was only Pages '08 it may be time to upgrade to Pages '09 from the App Store. It is not that expensive and will allow you to install it on any Mac sharing the same Apple I.D. and protect you from a repeat of this problem.
There are free alternatives to Pages if you are hard strapped, it depends on what you are using Pages for, it is not the only option by far.
Peter

I just upgraded to snow leopard and some of my printers disappeared and I am unable to get them back any ideas

I just upgraded to snow leopard and some of my printers disappeared and I am unable to get them back any ideas

Hello DaveDue
Start your troubleshooting with the article below, you may need to download the printer drivers directly from the manufactures website.
Troubleshooting printer issues in OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3147
Regards,
-Norm G.

Hi, I am trying upgrade to Snow leopard 10.6.8 from 6.3(trying to install Lion). After downloading the software i m getting a message "can not install on the HD, install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand. Any suggestions, I appreciate.

Hi, I am trying upgrade to Snow leopard 10.6.8 from 6.3(trying to install Lion). After downloading the software i m getting a message "can not install on the HD, install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand. Any suggestions, I appreciate.

install 6.5 before proceeding further. I coud not understand.
Just what it says - install os 10.6.5 before proceeding further. You can either do so through Software Update or use the Combo update from Apple's download site.
You should repair permissions and restart your computer prior to updating and upgrading.

Should I do any "maintenance" before upgrading to Snow Leopard?

Are there any simple things I should do before doing a direct upgrade to Snow Leopard? I have gone through and deleted a ton of files that I don't need, but that's not the maintenance I mean. Should I do a disk repair, clear cache, etc? Anything?

I verified the disk, but it's fine. I also did a permissions repair.
For backups I've used Time Machine (to a 500gb external). I know it's not the best solution, but I like it. It's been working fine since Leopard came out, and I have done one restore from it.
Actually, just tonight I've been experiencing a lot of beachballing, I'm not sure what's causing that. One thing I should point out is that I recently installed some new ram, and I've heard that can occasionally cause issues (but I doubt it's the problem).

Any reasons to be worried about upgrading to Snow Leopard?

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