Thanks again, Turboladdade, but I'd rather cut off my leg and eat it than have any kind of Apple account. Furthermore, I don't believe I'd get a straight answer out of Apple.

Whoops, must have hit the button twice.

Thanks for reply, Turboladdade. No, I've not been having a problem. I'm just trying to understand the subject.

I believe your answer (re logging out / shutting down) is right as far as it goes, but I strongly suspect that there's more to it. Surely the computer is not going to wait hours on some ...

On a Mac, in what circumstances does write caching apply, and in what circumstances is the write cache flushed?

For example:

1. Does write caching apply whenever any writing is involved? Or only when a file is edited? Does write caching apply when a file is being copied?

2. Is the write cache ...