Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Software, Macbook Pro, Mac Pro
Getting the little things right in Mac OS X
Mac OS X has been pretty much a dream for me. I can't ever remember getting the Apple blue or gray screen of death. My Mac Pro is up 24/7 and only reboots when I've done a software update. Most of the time it happily chugs along. The same is true for my MacBook Pro. It's been problem-free except for one bad battery that started to swell. Apple eagerly replaced it.That makes it all the more vexing when minor things go wrong that seem pretty unexplainable. One little problem is Apple Mail notification sounds. They seem to work about half the time. I have 3 email accounts, and the one that is the most unreliable is the MobileMe account. Even though mail sounds are turned on, I usually don't get any sound when mails comes in. I use the 'glass' sound, but it fails on any selection. My POP mail accounts seem to trigger the alert properly.
This same problem existed in Tiger, and has survived several Leopard updates. This minor but irritating issue exists on both my computers, and so far has eluded all my detective work to eliminate it. This bug is impervious to permission resetting, changing default mail sounds, playing with the sound control panel, (yes, 'play user interface sounds' is checked) and making sure that Growl and other 3rd party hacks are nowhere on my computers. The guys at the Genius Bar scratch their heads and smile.
The Apple support boards are full of similar complaints, and when you eliminate the people that had their sound turned down, or the other obvious fixes, there is a pretty large residue of people who have this problem. Apple must be aware of it.
Don't get me started on the error I get 2-3 times a week when Time Machine tells me a backup didn't work, and then the next hour everything is fine. This is another error that has survived several Leopard updates. Like a good citizen, I always do the larger combo updates to have the best chance of replacing any bad system components.
Every OS has a long list of issues. Actually, I find the current build of OS X the most reliable system software I have ever used. That said, I'd love to see some of these little bugs cleaned up. I'm sure you have your own lists and will share them.
Maybe Apple will read this and send me a fix for my notification sounds issue. The problem is, I probably won't notice the mail when it comes in. Grrrrr.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
moh said 2:34PM on 1-21-2009
What's the point of this post?
Reply
KA said 2:45PM on 1-21-2009
This is an Apple blog, no?
Zcott said 2:46PM on 1-21-2009
Couldn't agree more on the mail sounds issue; not only do they not play half the time but they're too quiet when they do play...!
Reply
PiperSon said 5:39PM on 1-21-2009
I have the same problem with my IMAP email accounts - the notifications only sound about 25% of the time. I've set the dock icon to bounce as a result, which at least helps if you aren't working on something fullscreen at the time... more often than not though, it's my iPhone that notifies me if I have new email!
Kalessin said 3:27AM on 1-22-2009
There's a possible fix for this at Mac OS X Hints:
Avoid Mail's 'no sound for new messages' bug
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081227031321447
Oliver said 2:51PM on 1-21-2009
The point is to voice some of the problems you have with the system and hope to get the point accross to somebody at help that there are problems with their os.
The Problem I have since 10.5.2 and isn't addresses that changing my network environment from one with only an active AirPort to one, where only the Ethernet Adapter is up is freezing the system.
Good thing that i need to change that almost every day, when switching from home to my office!
The workarround that help is sudo ifconfig en0 up before switching the environment.
Apple is doing nothing about it. There are sveral bug reports like mine describing the problem and it exists since i bought by MacBook and since 4 Updates Packs.
Very annoying.
Reply
righto said 2:56PM on 1-21-2009
The same annoying mail sound problem on my unibody MBP and 10.5.6. Only in my case the glass sound plays only 1-3 percent of the time.
Reply
Cowicide said 2:55PM on 1-21-2009
Email is the lifeblood of many businesses. This is absoutley unacceptable. Apple, wtf???
Reply
jthollister said 9:36PM on 1-21-2009
Yes, because a company is going to fall apart completely if the mailbox doesn't "ding" when they get new Mail.
This is a very minor issue, and it was properly phrased as such in the post. You, sir, are overreacting to the degree of near insanity.
Cowicide said 3:47AM on 1-22-2009
You are an idiot if you think email notification isn't a big deal for many businesses. Don't project your lack of important and timely contacts on others in the business world who actually have them. Everything isn't always about you and your job at walmart, my friend.
htiawe said 4:13AM on 1-23-2009
If you solely rely on the ding-sound to make your company check your mail then its not the sound that its the problem, its the lack of proper routines. If you don't have a routine of checking your mail without some mechanical aid (the ding) then you need to look into that. ASAP.
Cowicide said 8:49PM on 1-23-2009
If you think having an email app that doesn't reliably alert your staff of new email with the settings you choose (i.e., a sound notification they can hear while working on other things), then your company needs to fire you, stat.
Once again, some of us have businesses that have people that actually don't sit in a lonely, dark room and stare at the Mail icon all day long waiting for the unread email number to tick up. Some of us have businesses that have busy people who are multitasking... and receiving a sound alert for important emails is vital. Some of us are even real "high tech" and use special sounds assigned to high priority emails.
Good luck with your local neighborhood newsletter business in Nebraska.
Luke H. said 7:03PM on 1-25-2009
You know, Mr. Cowicide, I have the same problem with Mail, but instead of complaining about it, I decided to look for an alternate solution. I use GrowlMail which works 100% of the time and in can be programmed to "ding" for you.
welchb said 2:57PM on 1-21-2009
Odd, what's wrong with growl? I have great uptimes, etc. and I use growl for growltunes and adium status updates. Not to mention the other programs I use less frequently that have it integrated.
Reply
SkateJunk said 3:26PM on 1-21-2009
Nothing wrong with growl (personally I love it to death), but the author, Mel, was just trying to eliminate any possible problems that could interfere with Mail.app so as to show that there is a legitimate issue (and a very annoying one at that) and no easy/or available fix.
welchb said 3:32PM on 1-21-2009
Ah, I see. I just found it odd that what I thought was a pretty ubiquitous notification engine for OSX folks was being blasted as a "3rd party hack."
I was wondering if my use of it was foolish for those that knew something I didn't. heh
Bob said 2:58PM on 1-21-2009
What a whiny, trivial post.
Reply
THJ said 3:09PM on 1-21-2009
And a comment to match!
Jesse said 3:01PM on 1-21-2009
My problem with OS X? Finder, messy metadata files like .DS_Store that trash other network volumes, HFS+.
Reply
Tom said 3:02PM on 1-21-2009
Ignore the haters, the little things do matter. Like, for just one of my e-mail accounts with DreamHost (there are several configured in mail), I always get a certificate error, and every time I do the little "advanced" button to check the "accept every time anyway". It's always already checked, but it seems to ignore the fact that the checkbox means DON'T ASK ME ANYMORE.
"Petty posts" mean "I really want Apple to start fixing problems", so after I post this I'm gonna go hit the - next to "what's the point of this" and "whiney! you should accept that OS X will have some annoying flaws that Apple could easily fix, but doesn't" type posts.
Reply