The following section explains some issues unique to Maya for Mac OS X, and suggests workarounds.
Folders in the project folder beginning with a bullet character cause Maya not to start
If you have a folder in your /Users/username/Documents/maya/projects folder that has a bullet character (option 8) in its name, Maya will not retain the project as it is set. It will return to the default the next time Maya is run.
Maya may not find the shader library
The name of the Shader Library changed in Maya 7 and subsequent versions of Maya.
There are a couple of circumstances where you may find a mismatch between the location of the Shader Library and the shader library location environment variable that is set for you. This may result in an error when you open Hypershade.
If you installed the Shader Library before Maya 7 and did not migrate your old preferences to Maya 7 or Autodesk Maya 8, Maya is looking for shaderLibrary when the old name is Maya Shader Library.
If you installed the Shader Library in Maya 7 or Autodesk Maya 8, and did migrate your old preferences (pre-Maya 7), Maya is looking for Maya Shader Library when the new name is shaderLibrary.