Yosemite problems

Ever since I've upgraded to Yosemite I've had problems after problems that I didn't have before the upgrade. I REALLY am sorry that I did this.

The latest problem is that I can't "move" any of my desktop ICONS. Click and drag just doesn't seem to work.

Again, I stress NEVER any issues with the ICONS when the OS was 10.6.

Perhaps I doing something wrong?

What happens when you try to click and drag? You can try right clicking on the desktop, then "Sort by" and pick what you want. Since you didn't say what you want, I can't help beyond that.

Going from Snow Leopard to Yosemite is a huge jump. The best option would have been backup Snow Leopard, download Toseimte and burn to a USB thumb drive, boot from that, erase and format the drive, install Yosemite on a nice clean hard drive, and use Migration Assistant to bring everything over.

Be aware any older PowerPC applications that ran on Snow Leopard will not run now ~ no more Rosetta since OS X.7 Lion.

Also how much memory is installed in your iMac and how much free space on the hard drive?

harryb2448 said:

Going from Snow Leopard to Yosemite is a huge jump. The best option would have been backup Snow Leopard, download Toseimte and burn to a USB thumb drive, boot from that, erase and format the drive, install Yosemite on a nice clean hard drive, and use Migration Assistant to bring everything over.
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Hmmm…??? Isn't all that except making a SL backup just a wee bit of an overkill harryb2448?

And especially for a small problem positioning desktop icons.

No doubt to solution can be found and fixed via the Finder View menu and view settings.

No as I believe all this upgrading is creating the problems we are seeing day after day with Yosemite.

Once upon a time, eight or ten years ago, ALL upgrades were down via erase and clean install.

harryb2448 said:

No as I believe all this upgrading is creating the problems we are seeing day after day with Yosemite..

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I agree, going from Snow Leopard to Yosemite is a huge jump. You asked two very good questions which everyone with an older Mac should ask themselves before they jump to 10.10; how much memory is installed - and - how much free space on the hard drive?

harryb2448 said:

No as I believe all this upgrading is creating the problems we are seeing day after day with Yosemite.

Once upon a time, eight or ten years ago, ALL upgrades were down via erase and clean install.

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Unfortunately, not even a clean install, even with a brand new iMac can go properly as I discovered with a client's new iMac with using Migration Assistant from their SL 10.6.8 iMac to the new one.

Apple Mail would not "import" their SL Mail until I used the latest 10.10.2 update. And not the only one according to many comments with the same problem on the 'net.

Apple Mail would not "import" their SL Mail until I used the latest 10.10.2 update. And not the only one according to many comments with the same problem on the 'net.

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Yep, that and the many connection problems which by the way still remain for some folks. Shades of a Microsoft Service Pack!

MacInWin said:

What happens when you try to click and drag? You can try right clicking on the desktop, then "Sort by" and pick what you want. Since you didn't say what you want, I can't help beyond that.

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First of all, the problem may have been related to computer's mouse. I remembered that I had installed a wireless mouse a short time before the problems seemed to begin, so I replaced the mouse with an "old" wired mouse and problem fixed!

Plugged the offending wireless mouse into my windows laptop and had problems, so it looks like an "offensive mouse" was the issue. Culprit mouse was placed in the round office file - waste basket.

I'm still having issues with my Mac Microsoft office Word and Excel in that when I start either program, instead of opening normally, it will either bring up an old file even though I may not have used the file in a while. Does this also in my Photoshop Elements program. This NEVER occurred in any version prior to Yosemite.

Sorry it took me so long to respond. Suffered an accident slipping on ice. Fractured skull, several days in the hospital, and a host of other issues that still bother me.

My kids remind me that they always believed I was hard headed.

WOW! So glad you are doing better.. Hopefully all will be good and you will have a full recovery.

I have had more problems with mouses (is a plural possible) or mice??? than I care to remember - especially wireless.

A clean install may clean up the issues you are having. I agree with Harry, a lot of app's .plist and apps themselves might not have transferred as smoothly as they should. Opening apps and having older files open with them sounds like corruption issues.

There are others who can give you more details about this. I know I have fixed issues by forcing a program to rebuild it's plist file but I do not feel confident enough to tell you to do what I have done. I tend to drag all the apps offending plist's into a "Bad plist" folder, restart the program and go from there. Someone else may have a more delicate suggestion that might be better.

Lisa

Reloading Yosemite

lclev said:

WOW! So glad you are doing better.. Hopefully all will be good and you will have a full recovery.

A clean install may clean up the issues you are having. I agree with Harry, a lot of app's .plist and apps themselves might not have transferred as smoothly as they should. Opening apps and having older files open with them sounds like corruption issues.

Lisa

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Been "off-line" for a while, but I do have a question.

First, when I reformated the system back in Feb or Mar, I loaded OS 10.6 and then installed my programs. When that was done, I upgraded to 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 and finally 10.10 (Yosemite). Version 10.10.3 is my current level.

It sounds like the more prudent thing to do was reformat 10.6 and get to 10.10 BEFORE loading any outside programs like Microsoft Office etc. Is this correct?

The problems I had back in March with the computer are still here and in many cases are worse. I'm seeing more long term "beach balls" and in some cases (10%) requiring shutting off the main power and then restarting. In some cases I've let the "beach balls" run for 15-20 minutes before I shut it down.

So it sounds like a reformat is necessary. I assume my original 10.6 would be the place to start. Should I go directly from 10.6 DIRECTLY to 10.10 or must I "creep" up the ladder from 10.6, to 10.7, 10.8, 10.9 and 10.10?

My medical condition got worse after my last post, which is why there's such a big gap in posting dates. Had an operation to have a small hole (called bur hole) drilled into the left side of my skull and a small plastic drain inserted so the blood that was in the area could slowly drain out. Last CT scan indicated no residual blood.

Slow recovery but doing better. Have not been able to drive a car since the operation - 7-8 weeks ago - but this Tuesday will be my first day back behind the steering wheel. :Blushing:

Anyway, thanks for whatever information you can provide.

Sorry to hear about the medical issues, but good to hear you are almost back to driving!

You CAN reformat and reinstall 10.6, then jump directly to 10.10, I believe, if you've already been once through the intermediate. And when you go to 10.10, go ahead and do a full install, reformatting again and installing instead of upgrading by overwriting. Then you can add your external programs back.

However, another way to get to a clean install of 10.10 is to boot into the Recovery Partition by holding down Command and "R" keys while rebooting, selecting the recovery partition and booting from there, then in the resulting menus select to reinstall Yosemite and let it go.

The only problem with Office would be if you are using Office 2004 as it is not compatible with anything fter Lion OS X.7. Office 2008 and 2011 are fine.

MacInWin said:

However, another way to get to a clean install of 10.10 is to boot into the Recovery Partition by holding down Command and "R" keys while rebooting, selecting the recovery partition and booting from there, then in the resulting menus select to reinstall Yosemite and let it go.

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Regarding this excellent suggestion by Jake: No insult intended to the OP, but it is important to stress that there are two different forms of "Recovery" which can be accessed by the Command + R option and they behave quite differently. You want Local Recovery which will reinstall the current version on your Mac, that is, Yosemite. Don't choose "Internet Recovery" which takes forever and reinstalls the OS with which the Mac was shipped.

(If you want a detailed explanation of this and the differences between the two options, then read this article which, although headed Internet Recovery, deals with both. How to Re-Install OS X with Internet Recovery on a Mac | OSXDaily

I only mention this because it can be confusing if one has not come across this before.

Ian

harryb2448 said:

The only problem with Office would be if you are using Office 2004 as it is not compatible with anything fter Lion OS X.7. Office 2008 and 2011 are fine.

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Thanks for the tip. Good information.

I have Office 2011.