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Sierra not remembering app window positions
#51014 01/26/19 07:18 AM
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After upgrading my Mid-2011 iMac to macOS Sierra from Yosemite (I skipped El Capitan), I have a couple of Mac apps that won't remember their window positions on my external monitor. So far, I've found that iTunes and Mactracker are two that don't. They always open on the iMac's screen.

Also, even after moving the iTunes window to my external monitor, all of its warning dialogs still appear on the iMac..

Oddly, the Messages app opens fine on my external, as does Activity Monitor and one of the two windows I have set to open there with Firefox.

Any idea where preferences for app window positions are contained or what I have to reset for the windows to open where I last closed them?

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51016 01/26/19 02:13 PM
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Well, I think I found the solution. If I move the app window to the external monitor, then go to the Dock, right click on the app's icon and under Assign Desktop, select None instead of This Desktop, the app will remember to open on the external monitor.

I've tested this for both iTunes and Mactracker, so far so good and the setting survived through rebooting.

I do have one other curious issue since upgrading to Sierra. At shutdown or restart, the iMac no longer gives the typical spinning circle it used to. I'm not sure what it's called (it's not the spinning beachball), it white on a black background that rotates clockwise and looks like the hash marks on a clock. My screen just goes blank, making it hard to determine if anything is happening until the restart or shutdown occurs.

Anyone have a clue what might cause that indicator to disappear?

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51017 01/26/19 03:21 PM
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Originally Posted By: Rick Deckard
I do have one other curious issue since upgrading to Sierra. At shutdown or restart, the iMac no longer gives the typical spinning circle it used to. I'm not sure what it's called (it's not the spinning beachball), it white on a black background that rotates clockwise and looks like the hash marks on a clock. My screen just goes blank, making it hard to determine if anything is happening until the restart or shutdown occurs.

Anyone have a clue what might cause that indicator to disappear?

I see the same thing in Mojave; I"m not sure when it began, but I"ve experienced it in the past few incarnations of macOS. (I call it a "work wheel", but I"m not sure if it's the correct term.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51020 01/27/19 03:22 PM
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Originally Posted By: Rick Deckard
I do have one other curious issue since upgrading to Sierra. At shutdown or restart, the iMac no longer gives the typical spinning circle it used to. I'm not sure what it's called (it's not the spinning beachball), it white on a black background that rotates clockwise and looks like the hash marks on a clock. My screen just goes blank, making it hard to determine if anything is happening until the restart or shutdown occurs.

Anyone have a clue what might cause that indicator to disappear?

I’ve always thought of it as a fast running clock - sort of a: “While you wait, we’re going as fast as we can.”

It may have disappeared from Apple, but it’s popped up elsewhere. Netflix uses the same indicator while a movie is loading ….so I wonder if it’s some sort of copyright issue.


ryck

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Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
ryck #51022 01/27/19 08:51 PM
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Originally Posted By: ryck
I’ve always thought of it as a fast running clock - sort of a: “While you wait, we’re going as fast as we can.”

It may have disappeared from Apple, but it’s popped up elsewhere. Netflix uses the same indicator while a movie is loading ….so I wonder if it’s some sort of copyright issue.

I forgot to mention that the running clock *does* appear on my 2010 MacBook Pro running High Sierra. In another forum I posted in, another user running High Sierra also reported that his MacBook Pro shows the spinner at shutdown and restart.

Something else must be going on here. The next time I need to restart, I'm going to switch to the other account on my iMac I use for troubleshooting purposes and see if it appears properly there. I keep it as clean as possible and install as little as possible on it in the way of extras. I should have tried that first before asking, but I didn't think about it.

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51023 01/27/19 11:12 PM
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I retract my earlier post.

I just shut down and restarted a few times, and with he exception of one instance in which it happened extremely quickly and the wheel didn't appear, I've seen it, albeit briefly enough to miss if I hadn't been paying very close attention.

I'm now forced to guess that I've been missing it on other occasions for precisely that reason.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
artie505 #51084 02/07/19 09:29 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
I retract my earlier post.

I just shut down and restarted a few times, and with he exception of one instance in which it happened extremely quickly and the wheel didn't appear, I've seen it, albeit briefly enough to miss if I hadn't been paying very close attention.

I'm now forced to guess that I've been missing it on other occasions for precisely that reason.

My 2010 MacBook Pro is like that since I installed a SSD. The wheel appears very briefly before shutdown.

I did finally test this on my iMac after booting into my other account and the same issue occurs –– no wheel on shutdown/restart.

Next time I have to restart, I'll try booting into Safe Mode and see if it appears properly then.

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51709 05/15/19 03:12 PM
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Just an update to this. After upgrading (and I use that term loosely) to High Sierra from Sierra, the spinning wheel at shutdown has reappeared.

However, several more annoying problems have popped up I've not been able to solve yet, one of which is a confirmed bug found by the develper of DragThing and PCalc, James Thomson. It's present in both High Sierra and Mojave and unlikely to be fixed.

However, I will detail those issues in other posts since they are beyond the scope of this thread.

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51710 05/15/19 03:35 PM
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Originally Posted By: Rick Deckard
However, I will detail those issues in other posts since they are beyond the scope of this thread.


Your statement reminds me of what the French mathematician Fermat wrote in the margin of a textbook, something to the effect that this margin does not afford him the space to provide the details of the proof to the question under consideration. No proof by Fermat was ever found and for nearly 300 years mathematicians tried to prove what Fermat said he had proved. Finally in 1995 British mathematician Andrew Wiles presented a complete proof of "Fermat's Last Theorem". The proof utilized mathematical concepts not (most likely) known to Fermat, so in all likelihood Fermat did not prove the theorem, regardless of the space in the margin.

Fermat's Conjecture: for n greater than 2 there are no counting numbers, call them a, b and c; that make a^n + b^n = c^n true.

Yes, this is the general variation of the Pythagorean Theorem. But I digress. smirk

Let's hope Rick provides the bug info in less than 300 years.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Ira L #51712 05/15/19 05:07 PM
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Originally Posted By: Ira L
Originally Posted By: Rick Deckard
However, I will detail those issues in other posts since they are beyond the scope of this thread.

Let's hope Rick provides the bug info in less than 300 years.


LOL! Thank you, got a good laugh from that one.

I know I go away for awhile sometimes and forget to update or post on these forums, thought I find them very useful when I need help.

I hesitated posting them right away, or at least the most annoying ones, because in the case of DragThing, I'm sure few people are still using it and I'm sure even fewer have run into the bug because of its nature. It is a confirmed and repeatable issue though.

The other two my be due to my configuration, corrupted preferences, etc., and I may be the only one having the problem.

Shall I post each bug/problem in its own thread? That was my plan since the conversations are much easier to track that way.

Re: Sierra not remembering app window positions
Rick Deckard #51717 05/15/19 07:16 PM
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Originally Posted By: Rick Deckard
Shall I post each bug/problem in its own thread? That was my plan since the conversations are much easier to track that way.

YES! Please post each bug/problem in its own thread. A suggested bug/problem format would be
Originally Posted By: Problem Reporting Template

PRODUCT:
example, appropriately adjusted for each forum

SUMMARY OF PROBLEM:
A brief statement of the problem


REPRODUCEABILITY
Always. Sometimes, Rarely, Unable, Didn’t try

DETAILED STEPS TO REPRODUCE:
Step by step instructions to reproduce the problem


EXPECTED RESULTS:



ACTUAL RESULTS:


PRODUCT VERSION:
Ie. Notes Version 4.6


CONFIGURATION:
Ie. MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports), MacOS Mojave 10.14.3


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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