A couple of questions if anyone can help?

[Andy007]

Hi guys,

Its been a couple of weeks since I got a Macbook now and its all sinking in fairly well, learning my way around it quickly now. There are a couple of things that have me a bit baffled and I wondered if anyone can shed some light please?

I have read alot about OSX running maintenance scripts at 2am and I wondered why it is that specific time that this happens? Im not often using the Mac at this time and its either asleep or shut down. Will it run them when I switch it on without notice, or am I supposed to manually run them?

Also (and I appreciate you may need a screen shot of this but im at work right now so can send one tonight if need be) in Mail, I have set up a Gmail account and Hotmail account. They are sending and receiving just fine, however there is another section for Gmail or Googlemail at the bottom and it updates just like the one at top that I created manually, but I dont know whether to delete it or not? Is it something that comes standard with Mail and I have just doubled it up by creating a new Gmail inbox manually instead of just inserting the send/receive settings in the pre installed one?

The layout is something like this:

Inbox

Hotmail
sent

Gmail
sent
Trash

Googlemail
sent
junk
trash

This is just from memory so there may be parts that arent right, but hopefully you get the idea?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

 

[chas_m]

I have read alot about OSX running maintenance scripts at 2am and I wondered why it is that specific time that this happens?

It's a throwback to the days of mainframes. Mac OS X is based on UNIX, which is an OS that has been around a very long time ... over 40 years now, and there are still things in it that have been with us all this time.

Back in the day when UNIX was mainly found on mainframes, getting to use them was a privilege reserved for the few. As computers made their way into universities, however, students needed to put in time on the mainframe as well as professors, so time was carefully allotted. The self-maintaining scripts and "garbage collection" the OS needed to do was thus hard-scheduled for (variously) 3:15am and 4:30am local time (the monthly script runs at 5:30am), it being likely that the machine would be unused at that time (and of course in those days such computers were never turned off).

Today, these scripts will run by themselves if the Mac happens to be on at those times. Improvements in the power of the CPU means that you'd be unlikely to notice it happening even if you were doing something fairly intense. The scripts will only run at that time if they can -- if the machine is off or sleeping, the scripts are just delayed until the next cycle.

There are several maintenance utilities for Mac (most of them free) that will induce or reschedule the running of these scripts, but it should be noted that they don't actually have to run every day anymore (one of the main reasons for the scripts in the first place was to rotate logs, because back in the day storage was more precious, for example). You can go months without running these scripts to no ill effect whatsoever.

Bottom line: this is not something you need to spend any time thinking about. As part of your complete Mac OS X maintenance breakfast, you'll likely be running a utility program that will take care of this for you.

Is it something that comes standard with Mail and I have just doubled it up by creating a new Gmail inbox manually instead of just inserting the send/receive settings in the pre installed one?

Yes, it sounds like you accidentally doubled up on your accounts. Just go into Preferences -> Accounts and delete the extra one(s).

 

[Andy007]

Interesting read - thanks Chas! Knowledgeable as ever

 

[Andy007]

Hmmm not so sure I have doubled up now....

Attached are 2 screenshots to try and help. You can see the Gmail and Hotmail accounts at the top and then there is this other Gmail part at the bottom for some reason. The message on the screen is when i tried to delete it, which suggests its part of the other Gmail on there, but why? Also why is there only 2 Gmail and not 2 Hotmail?

Very confused if anyone can help please?

Thanks

 

[Andy007]

Oh and I forgot to say when I click on the Gmail towards the bottom of the screen, nothing appears in the inbox screen, even though it says 16 next to it?

Thanks

 

[TattooedMac]

If you click the arrow @ gmail you will be presented with more mail boxes and this is where the 16 could be sitting , sent, trash, personal etc
If you get my drift ??

 

[Andy007]

Yes thats correct TattooedMac, I found that just before reading your post funnily enough!
Not quite sure how I missed that, but anyway......

Still has me baffled as to why Gmail is there twice though? I see its the same on yours, why is this? Is it because Gmail is Imap and the other section is the syncing part or something?