Can Repairing Permissions Harm Regular Operation

I have read many times that repairing permissions cannot harm normal operation of your mac and .... it's certainly never caused me any problems as I run permissions repair every so often.
The reason I ask though is because of a buddy of mine whose mac, running OS 10.5, was running sluggishly. Out of curiosity I asked - "have you ever repaired your permissions" and he said - "what's that?" So I decided to run "Verify" permissions just to see what came up and it was a huge list. I told my friend that I did not know if this was a cause of his computer's sluggishness but that if he wanted I would run "Repair" permissions. He said to go ahead. So I did.
A few days later he was trying to update through "software update" iTunes and Safari ... and he tried to install "App Delete" as well. His mac would not install any of these apps. When he took his mac to the the Apple store they asked if he had recently repaired his permissions and he said "yes." they said that was the problem and that he shouldn't repair permissions unless he had a problem. (To me "sluggishness" is a problem.) Since he had all his stuff backed up the proceeded to wipe his computer and do a clean install. Seems a brute force fix to me. Personally I would have loved to sleuth a more subtle remedy, even if for nothing more than learning more, about the workings of OSX.
So, did I mess up my friends mac?
Any opinions?
Message was edited by: riverside

There is no reason to repair permissions unless there is a permissions related problem. Repairing permissions is not a troubleshooting or maintenance procedure. Repairing permissions will not fix "sluggishness." That would be caused by any number of things, but not permissions.
You did not mess up your friend's Mac. It was already messed up, and it's still messed up for some other set of reasons.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.5.1 or higher are Intel Mac compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. Versions 1.5.1 or later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts had been significantly reduced in Tiger and Leopard. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc. Other utilities are also available such as Onyx, Leopard Cache Cleaner, CockTail, and Xupport, for example.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack (not compatible with Snow Leopard.) If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the commandline. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack is not compatible with Snow Leopard.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
9. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware)
10. MimMac (Commercial)
11. Tri-Backup (Commercial)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.
Message was edited by: Kappy

Similar Messages

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    OS X automatically defrags files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
    I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc. Other utilities are also available such as Onyx, Leopard Cache Cleaner, CockTail, and Xupport, for example.
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    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
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    Silver Keeper
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    Retrospect
    Super Flexible File Synchronizer
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    Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
    Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.

  • What disk and when do I repair permissions?

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    Carolyn Samit wrote:
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    I'm posting this separately from the previous thread I saw somewhere, because my situation is a little different.
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  • Can not repair permissions

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  • Can't repair permissions for Python

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  • Problem:  I have to run repair permissions to access the internet using safari, firefox or chrome on my mac pro.  What can I do to fix the problem once and for all?

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    Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
    Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pl.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt_PT.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt_PT.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt_PT.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt_PT.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/pt.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/sv.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/sv.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/sv.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/sv.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/ru.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/ru.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/ru.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/ru.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/no.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/no.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/no.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/no.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/fi.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/fi.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/fi.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/fi.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/da.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Permissions differ on “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/da.lproj/MainMenu.nib”; should be -rw-r--r-- ; they are drw-r--r-- .
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/da.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Repaired “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Su pport/LockScreenLeopard386.app/Contents/Resources/da.lproj/MainMenu.nib”
    Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent” has been modified and will not be repaired.
    Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent” has been modified and will not be repaired.
    ACL found but not expected on “private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd”
    ACL found but not expected on “private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd”
    Repaired “private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd”
    Repaired “private/var/db/launchd.db/com.apple.launchd”
    Permissions repair complete
    Permissions repair complete

    Would you care to tell us which version of Mac Pro, and which version of OS X, you are running?  (It's not always safe to assume that a User is running Lion just because he posted in the Lion Forum.)

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