Updates to system software. If it aint broken why fix it.

If it ain't broken don't fix it.
it sounds logical but reading through the forums it is clear that fixing is important.
Sadly for many people it is already broken and then they arrive here needing help. My apologies if that sounded negative. Afterall this is a place to obtain help.
Many Macs run for months on end without any sign of a problem. No sudden quits, no freezing or any other form of erratic behaviour.
However if one should take the time to allow utilties to check the health of our system and files we are often surprised to see that there are often many minor problems that could and should be fixed.
I make this point to emphasise that when doing a system upgrade we must run utlities first. What may be a minor problem for 10.2 may give serious concern when an upgrade is done to 10.3 or 10.4.
Macs in my opinion are extremely tolerant and can operate successfully even when there are hundreds of loose items emtpy folders orphaned aliases and corrupt files etc. With the present day luxury of high speed internet access and automatic updates Macs exhibiting erratic behaviour seems to be on the increase.
This would imply that Mac users need to check their system beforehand and then upgrade. Users of experience need to remember this ( I also forget ) and new users need to understand the importance of possibly fixing what does not appear to be broken.
With this said I wish all in the new year a happy Mac and a thankyou to all that use these forums, as I myself have received help and clear directions in the past.
powerbook 15" 1.5ghz Mac OS X (10.4.3) very happy

Well said John.
When I received my new PowerBook just over two months ago there were updates available and although my PB was new and just opened out of the box, before installing the available updates I ran Disk First Aid repair via Disk Utility when booted from the Tiger install disc that shipped with the Mac and lo and behold there was a minor directory problem discovered. Had I not done so, I may or may not experienced any problems but I'm in the habit of running DFA repair immediately before installing a major OS Update and I haven't experienced any problems after installing available updates when made available with Jaguar, Panther and so far with Tiger.

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I have an iMac 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo computer and have to update my system software from Leopard V 10.5.8 to OX Snow Leopard V 10.6. Where do I find it?

I have an iMac 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo computer and have to update my system software from Leopard V 10.5.8 to OX Snow Leopard V 10.6. Where do I find it?

Apple Store, Apple on-line store, or local computer store that sells Apple stuff.

I just updated my system software 10.6.8 and now preview cannot open my own PDFs

I just updated my system software 10.6.8 and now preview cannot open my own PDFs. Any ideas?

Before and after doign a system software update or upgrade Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility. You can find DU in Applications-Utilities-Disk Utilties. Run in 2x back to back.

Update from apple software - seems to have broken displays

I have just taken delivery of my mac pro (felt like christmas) - ran through the setup all of 6 minutes (eat your heart out Bill) - ran software update as it popped up to get it up to latest settings etc..
now monitors do not work they flash on and off and display signal not detected every three to four seconds then come on then go black etc.. and it continues
they setup from the base installation was sweet and this only started after the update ran and rebooted
i can't seem to find any detaisl on a rollback feature or after zapping pram and disconnecting everything and rebooting still no change
any ideas
monitors are benq 22" in res 1680X1050 and as i said they were working brilliantly till the update ran
any help appreciated - think it might be re install of system software to get it back to original settings

You might want to add more details in "Computer Model Information" lines.
Is there any source of interference nearby?
The Mac Pro - does it run on a dedicated line / circuit? UPS and/or line conditioner? It shouldn't be putting a real tax on the circuit, unless it is shared with a lot of equipment. They've been known to push the limits for some.
I've seen more than a couple threads reporting problems with ViewSonic (gladly my LCD VGA is older and seems safe).
Are they running off X1900 Radeon?
Sometimes a system ships and even DIMMs can be loosened, maybe video card needs to be reseated?
Hopefully it is just a loose cable somewhere.

Cannot update any system software

I currently cannot update any system/apple software in any way.
If I run Software Update from the apple menu/system prefs, it informs me that my software is up to date, even though this is clearly not the case.
If I download the updates manually from Apple's website, they refuse to install. When I get to the Destination selection screen (i.e. "Select a Destination: <list of volumes>"), my startup disk is disabled! In the Installer log it says the following:
=== Starting check on volume /
Requirement: requires "certain file content criteria" PASS for root=/, domain=0
Requirement: requires "certain InstallationCheck criteria" PASS for root=/, domain=0
Requirement: requires "certain VolumeCheck criteria" FAIL for root=/, domain=0
=== Starting check on volume /
Requirement: requires "certain file content criteria" PASS for root=/, domain=0
_volumeAppeared: volumeCheckTool disabled Ti (this is the startup volume's name)
This first happened to me when I tried installing the QT 7.1 and Security Update 2006-003 updates back in May. It's still happening now with iTunes 6.0.5 and QT 7.1.2. The last thing I installed through SU was Security Update 2006-002 back in March.
Any ideas? This really, really *****.
PowerBook G4 867 mHz Mac OS X (10.3.9) 512 MB RAM, FireLite 80GB FW disk
PowerBook G4 867 mHz Mac OS X (10.3.9) 512 MB RAM, FireLite 80GB FW disk

hm, you used to be able to edit your own posts. not anymore i guess.
the thing i want to add is that i have repaired both my permissions and the disk itself on the startup volume, to no avail. neither console.log nor system.log say anything when Installer fails on its volume checks.

How do I update my system software without losing my older Adobe applications?

Hi. I purchased and own InDesign CS5.5, Illustrator 10.0.3 & Photoshop CS6. I want to update my iMac system software which currently runs Mac OS X version 10.6.8. But if I do this, I think it will render my expensive software unuseable.
I cannot reach a real human from Adobe to inquire about my options in this matter. Does anyone have any advice for me?
Thank you!
-Kathleen !

I cannot reach a real human from Adobe to inquire about my options in this matter. Does anyone have any advice for me?
Yes, lots
Your suspicion is correct. If you update your OS it is almost guaranteed to keep at least some of your old Adobe apps from functioning. This is especially true if you move to Yosemite. Telling us your target OS is important, because I think much (maybe all?) of your software would still work under Lion, although many people report issues when upgrading the OS while leaving Adobe apps installed.
In your shoes, what I'd do (and what I always recommend) is that you figure out some way to keep Snow Leopard going, to house your old Adobe apps. There are two common ways to do this:
1) Take a snapshot of your entire Snow Leopard install, back it up to external disk, format your drive, install Yosemite, then install VirtualBox or other virtualization host, and run your Snow Leopard snapshot there. The performance hit on running Snow Leopard as an app inside of Yosemite is not that bad, assuming you have enough RAM. "Enough" here is 16 gigs. It's probably doable at 8, but I can't say for certain.
2) Split your disk. You can take your current hard drive and split it in half, or some other fraction. Leave Snow Leopard as-is, then install Yosemite on the other half. You can hold down a key at bootup to choose which OS you want to run.
There are plenty of other options, but it's hard to guess what you need if we don't know what other apps you are running, the OS you want to upgrade to, why you're upgrading, and so on.

How do i update my system software if it says it's already updated?

I've been trying to download this app onto my computer and it tells me that I need the latest version of the system software downloaded. So when I go to software updates at the top of the apple drop box and click to to check for software updates, it says that my software is up to date. But then if I try to go back and re-download the app I want, it just says that the system software needs to be updated. Is it because my computer is kind of old and it can't update to the latest version? Or is there another place to go to download it or am I doing something wrong? I've been trying for three days and it still isn't working.

You need to get a full version OS upgrade instead of checking for updates in the Software Update pane of System Preferences. Which one(if any) you need depends on your current OS and what Mac model you have.
If you're running 10.4 or 10.5 on a MacBook, buy a Mac OS X 10.6 DVD from the online Apple Store.
If you're running 10.6.8 on a Core Duo Mac, no further upgrades are available.
If you're running 10.6.8 on a Core 2 Duo or better Mac, install either Lion or Yosemite.
If you're running 10.7.5, try downloading Yosemite from the Mac App Store. If you're told that it's incompatible, no further upgrades are available; Mountain Lion has the same system requirements as Yosemite.
(122952)

HT1338 attempting to update operating system software on Macbook Pro with OSX 10.4.11 what is the cost and how

attempting to update operating system on macbook pro with osx10.4.11.
how is this accomplished and what is the cost ? is the worth the expense give the age of unit?

Start by checking if you can run Snow Leopard:
Requirements for OS X 10.6 'Snow Leopard'
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP575
OS 10.6 Snow Leopard is once again available from the Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
and in the UK:
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
but nobody knows for how long it will be available.
To use iCloud you have to upgrade at least to Lion, but some functions are only available in Mountain Lion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4759
You can also purchase the code to use to download Lion (Lion requires an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and 2GB of RAM, running the latest version of Snow Leopard), or you can purchase Mountain Lion from the App Store - if you can run that:
http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/
When you have installed it, run Software Update to download and install the latest updates for Snow Leopard.

Help - Fatal Error When Loading New Updates of System Software

Help please!!
I have a 8120 and just logged in to sync ( as I do weekly) and was alerted to a Latest Update of Software, so I clicked yes etc. and it all started well, then when the software was part way through the install - suddenly it issued me with a Fatal Error Please try to reload the software message .
Now I have no way of connectining to the BB as it appears I am now without any software (just a circle with a line through and the numbers 507 on the screen)
Can anyone suggest what to do please?
thanks
Gavin

Hi and Welcome to the Forums!
Ouch...that sounds not so good. Here is a KB concerning the 507 code:
KB02792 Error message "507" appears on the BlackBerry smartphone while upgrading BlackBerry Device Software
Good luck and let us know!
Occam's Razor nearly always applies when troubleshooting technology issues!
If anyone has been helpful to you, please show your appreciation by clicking the button inside of their post. Please click here and read, along with the threads to which it links, for helpful information to guide you as you proceed. I always recommend that you treat your BlackBerry like any other computing device, including using a regular backup schedule...click here for an article with instructions.
Join our BBM Channels
BSCF General Channel
PIN: C0001B7B4 Display/Scan Bar Code
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PIN: C0005A9AA Display/Scan Bar Code

"You must update your system software before using this setup assistant"

Hello,
I've installed the new Mac OS X on my MacBook (CoreDuo) and I'm receiving this error when trying to setup boot camp. I had a perfect installation of it on Tiger, and my system is fully up to date with all the latest updates from Apple so I'm a little perplexed as to the solution?
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj83/chrisageuk/bootcamp.png
Any help would be much appreciated.

Just to update the situation - I found the reason.
For some, unbeknown, reason, journaling was disabled on Macintosh HD. Enabling it resolved the issues.
Many thanks for the help.

I am running 10.4.11 tiger and out of nowhere firefox decides to crash everytime I launch it, I have submitted crash reports is there anything else I can do? It is a Power Mac G4, should I update my system software to Leopard?

Here is the details of the crash that was reported by my computer
Add-ons: {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}:3.6.23
BuildID: 20110920075126
CrashTime: 1320446136
EMCheckCompatibility: true
Email:
FramePoisonBase: 00000000f0dea000
FramePoisonSize: 4096
InstallTime: 1317698745
ProductName: Firefox
ReleaseChannel: release
SecondsSinceLastCrash: 976
StartupTime: 1320446122
Theme: classic/1.0
Throttleable: 1
URL: about:sessionrestore
Vendor: Mozilla
Version: 3.6.23
This report also contains technical information about the state of the application when it crashed.

Firefox 4.0 won't run on your system. See
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/4.0/system-requirements/
You can try this as an alternative:
http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

Using fastboot to update the system software

I own one of the early crippled ZTE Open devices and I have installed the fix from ZTE that is supposed to enable fastboot. Now I need instructions for using fastboot to update the OS. I have .img files compiled for my device but I don't have instructions for using fastboot to flash those images to my device.

That has the instructions for recovering a bricked device https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/Developer_phone_guide/ZTE_OPEN#I_bricked_my_phone bricked device using images made by ZTE. What I am looking for are the instructions for are the instructions for flashing the resulting images created when one follows the developer documentation for compiling Firefox OS. The resulting image names are different and I don't know what needs to be flashed, or in what order they need to be flashed.

You must Update you system software before using this setup

Hi guys, I checked I saw that I am not the only one to have this problem but didn't find any solution.
Everything is up to date, bootcamp 3.01, OSX 10.6.2 and the main partition is journalized.
So what can I do ?
Please help me!
Thanks

Just to update the situation - I found the reason.
For some, unbeknown, reason, journaling was disabled on Macintosh HD. Enabling it resolved the issues.
Many thanks for the help.

Why cant i update date my software(ipod touch 4 generation, why cant i update date my software(ipod touch 4 generation

WHY cant i upgrade my software to 6.1.6 i have a ipod 4

See the chart below to determine whether you can upgrade your device and what you can upgrade to. If you do not have a Software Update option present on your iDevice, then you are trying to upgrade to iOS 5 or higher. You will have to connect your device to your computer and open iTunes in order to upgrade.
IPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad iOS Compatibility Chart
     Device                                       iOS Verson
iPhone 1                                      iOS 3.1.3
iPhone 3G                                   iOS 4.2.1
iPhone 3GS                                 iOS 6.1.x
iPhone 4                                      iOS 7.1.x
iPhone 4S                                    iOS 7.1.x
iPhone 5                                      iOS 7.1.x
iPhone 5c                                     iOS 7.1.x
iPhone 5s                                     iOS 7.1.x
iPod Touch 1                               iOS 3.1.3
iPod Touch 2                               iOS 4.2.1
iPod Touch 3                               iOS 5.1.1
iPod Touch 4                               iOS 6.1.x
iPod Touch 5                               iOS 7.1.x
iPad 1                                          iOS 5.1.1
iPad 2                                          iOS 7.1.x
iPad 3                                          iOS 7.1.x
iPad 4                                          iOS 7.1.x
iPad Mini                                      iOS 7.1.x
iPad Air                                        iOS 7.1.x
=====================================
Select the method most appropriate for your situation.
Upgrading iOS
   1. How to update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch
   2. iPhone Support
   3. iPod Touch Support
   4. iPad Support
     a. Updating Your iOS from iOS 5
          Tap Settings > General > Software Update
     If an update is available there will be an active Update button. If you are current,
     then you will see a gray screen with a message saying your are up to date.
     b. If you are still using iOS 4 — Updating your device to iOS 5 or later.
     c. Resolving update problems
        1. iOS - Unable to update or restore
        2. iOS- Resolving update and restore alert messages

Why did you ruin the perfect phone with an update to Lollipop? It wasn't broken---why did you feel the need to "fix" it?

The S5 was PERFECT until Lollipop installed. Now? I have no end of glitches and it drains my battery much faster. What is the obsession that companies have with "improving" something when, in fact, they rarely do? When my last phone went to Kit Kat it was, essentially, a paperweight which is why I switched to the S5. I HATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! iPhones but at least you only have to deal with the update nightmare once a year with them. STOP! Or at the very least, make it an option. If people are happy with the OS they have...leave us alone!

I agree. Verizon and Samsung both blamed each other and then they blamed Google. In my eyes, shame on all of them for releasing and rolling out an update that clearly wasn't ready, nor was it properly beta-tested by ANY of the companies. It's completely preposterous in this day and age to release a product of such subpar standard! I've worked for engineering companies where anything happening like this (even HALF as bad) would result in heads rolling (immediate job loss). Everyone I know that updated to lollipop is suffering

Updates to system software. If it aint broken why fix it.

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