Question for jchuzi re: Checkmate...

[Dreambird]

Jon,

In another place, I forget where, you mentioned Checkmate. I checked that out on the site for it and see they have many thing. I used to run TechTools Pro quite some time back, I see it has many more features now. Do you feel that for one needs as a typical sort of user that TTP is just too much and Checkmate does all you need?
I see they also have a utility for the SSD's in a lot of Macs now, including mine... valuable tool do you think? SSD's can be a bit problematic I've heard but I'm not sure mine has ever caused me issues. What do you think of some of the free utilities they have? Maybe some that do what Disk Warrior doesn't or better than OnyX?

As for the paid for apps, I tend to agree that Checkmate is a good one. I think TTP might duplicate things I already have. I don't know about the free ones... does anything repair permissions? It seems that since that was removed from Disk Utility it's missing however OnyX does it, I imagine as well as the next thing. Can be run from the command line too w/o too much hassle.
I'm leaning toward Checkmate... 

Thanks

[jchuzi]

Checkmate will give you a diagnosis if something goes wrong, but it can't repair it. TTP will do that, however. You can use TTP to run diagnoses but, AFAIK, you have to do that manually. Checkmate does it in the background and you can tweak its preferences to have it run automatically when it wants, or at specific times. It warned me about corruption in my Time Machine drive so that I was able to take corrective action.

I don't know if permission repair is needed in El Capitan, but it is neither possible nor necessary (at least according to Apple) in High Sierra. (The HS version of OnyX does not include that capability, and neither does Disk Utility.)

I have two external SSDs and neither has caused me any trouble (they are clones of my internal drive). Personally, I rely on Disk Warrior above TTP, and I don't remember the last time that I used TTP. I have OnyX and Cocktail also, but again, I don't remember the last time that I used either one.

You might consider installing TinkerTool. It's free and doesn't do anything that isn't already available via the OS.

[Dreambird]

Thank you, Jon...
I appreciate your feedback... when it comes to choosing a few great utilities it gets a bit confusing. 
I'll think on the MicroMat software, probably don't really need it. DiskWarrior, IMO... is a "must have." It's proven itself over and over.

I believe I will give TinkerTool a shot... looks interesting... I also have OnyX and I really like that too.

As to verifying or repairing permissions in El Capitan from what I've seen and read it is not necessary as a general rule. However there are some times it comes in handy, the recommendation I've seen most is not to run it often... at all, just the odd occasion it might be helpful.

As suggested, this is not really something that should be run on a regular basis as any part of Mac maintenance routine, and it’s rarely necessary, which is likely why Apple pulled it from the Disk Utility application.

From: http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/
I like that site, it's quite helpful... that article explains how to run it from the Command line which is essentially what OnyX does I believe. The commands still exist in El Capitan, apparently they've removed them after that. I find that permissions in El Capitan are all over the place and to me that's always be quite abnormal... but as Paddy confirmed for me in another thread... it's normal in the new OS's.

I don't run OnyX really often, generally just when I think of it like when I run DiskWarrior now and then to check the disk optimization. I like that periodically you can unload some logs and Cache contents... things like that with OnyX.

In any case in El Capitan for permissions you have to use OnyX or the command line.