iPhoto 5.02 crashing fix: reinstall

ExtraBITS

A very methodical dissection of a fairly common bug with Tiger and iPhoto 5.02: failure to start up. This fix was most unusual, remove the pre-installed iPhoto app and reinstall.

Test for corrupt plist files in OS X

Via - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

I was surprised to only learn this maintenance tip now, especially because pref file corruption is a relatively common cause of OS X problems. I don't recall this being a part of any of the usual maintenance utilities, yet it's a shell utility that's present in 10.3.9 (at least).

Like all sudo commands you must run it from an administrator account (sudo gives admin users transient superuser/root like powers)

sudo plutil ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist -s

Plutil checks all the preferences inside your User folder for any corruption. The -s handle in the command suppresses any reporting of preferences that check out, so only ones with errors show up.

I would usually delete any pref file that failed this test.

-36 error when syncing iPod in iTunes

-36 error when syncing iPod in iTunes

via Macintouch. This is the iPods "something's wrong but I don't know what" error. The kb article suggests how to investigate.

Tiger: fixing Spotlight gone bad

Macintouch- Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger (Part 12)

Spotlight may malfunction with future-creation-dates and if interrupted during initial index building. See note below. I've now decided 10.4.2 is a better bet than 10.4.1.

Jeff Hirsch

I can confirm that there are issues with Spotlight hogging the CPU under certain circumstances. In particular, the mds (metadata) process and mdimport process can eat up a huge chunk of available CPU and RAM. Upwards of 80% at times, causing a very noticeable slowdown on even the fastest of machines.

A quick search for "mds cpu" in the 10.4 Discussions over at Apple shows that a number of users are dealing with the same issue. Here is what I did to fix the problem and some thoughts on possible causes. First the fix:

1) Using the mdutil command-line utility in Terminal, turn off indexing for each of your drives. example:

$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

2) Then use mdutil to remove the indexes from each drive

$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

3) Physically remove the .Spotlight directories from the root of each drive.

$ cd /
$ sudo rm -fr .Spotlight-V100

(do the same for your second or third drive) BE CAREFUL WITH THAT RM COMMAND! One typo could ruin your day.

4) Use mdutil again to turn indexing back on for each drive

$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1
$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

5) Spotlight will now re-index all drives and should behave in a normal fashion. (No longer uses 60%-80% of your CPU)

Finally a couple of quick thoughts on possible causes:

1. My initial indexing process after installing Tiger was interrupted by a couple of reboots I had to do while installing third-party apps. This may have left me with a funky index when Spotlight tried to pick up where it had left off. I suggest letting it fully index your drives before rebooting the machine at all.

2. A few users in the Discussions over at Apple noticed that they had files on their hard drive with modification dates AFTER the current date. i.e. days/months/weeks into the future. These files may have been causing Spotlight to choke as it tried to make sense of a date that hadn't happened yet.

I did a quick search for files modified "after" today and found a handful of them on my hard drive. (A few were dated 2031!) I used the touch command in Terminal to give these proper dates. If you have a lot of these files, you might want to create and Automator script to touch them all for you.

Hope this saves some of you a headache or two.

Saft - increasingly essential for Safari

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Saft is pretty amazing. I'm afarid I'm going to have to buy a copy.

Saft, the must-have plug-in for Safari, has just been updated to version 8.0.1 and the long list of features just keeps getting longer.

In light of our recent discussion of the problem with widgets, it's nice to see that the new version of Saft features both the option to stop download warnings (while keeping the option to auto-unpack 'safe' downloads) and adds warnings before Safari auto-installs Dashboard widgets.

Biggest Tiger bug thus far: Sparse Images

MacInTouch Home Page

This is why I don't make major system updates until some time is passed. This bug might have cost me very dearly (ok, so I have multiple backups). Tiger is unusable for me until this is fixed.

It looks like Tiger has a serious problem with disk image data integrity:

[Dave Nanian, Shirt Pocket Software forum]
We've just reproduced a bug in Tiger's image handling that any SuperDuper! users should be aware of.

Basically, if you create a sparse image in Tiger and back up to it, everything is fine. You can unmount it, and the file size is as you'd expect.

If, however, the image is larger than about 1GB and you try to mount it, Tiger will destroy it, and set its size to 1008MB.

I cannot recommend that you rely on any application, including SuperDuper!, that uses images until this Tiger bug is fixed. Please, be careful -- and tell others to be careful too!

[Uwe Kempf] I'm experiencing serious problems with Tiger and Sparse Images:
- Create a new Sparse Image with AES128
- When it's finished, copy some JPGs onto it
- Eject the image volume
- Re-mount it
- All JPGs are broken
I could reproduce it on three machines (German Version of Tiger 8A428)

[Follow-up] I found a workaround for this problem:
- Create a new Sparse Image with AES128
- When it's finished, first UNMOUNT IT
- Re-mount it
- Then start to use it...
Don't use the image directly when it is automatically mounted after creation. First unmount it and remount it.

Repeat after me. 10.4.1.

SendStation PocketDock (TUAW)

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

This is probably of most interest to PC users with 3G iPods (but note they can't charge via USB):

The PocketDocks are little dongles that attach to the bottom of your iPod replacing the dock with regular USB and Firewire cables. They've had PocketDocks that support both USB and Firewire connections, and one that supports Firewire and a Line out (this is the model I own, along with the original Firewire only model), but now they have a brand new model: The PocketDock Line Out USB, which offers both a Line Out and a USB port. $29.95 USD with cables included.

The web site describes even more bennies:

The PocketDock Line Out Pack includes two 6 ft. ultralight and ultra-compact white audio cables: One with 3.5 mm (1/8") stereo plugs on both ends, one with stereo RCA and 3.5 mm plugs. They are slim enough to fit into the palm of your hand and come with detachable velcro straps for convenient storage and cable management. Their beautiful design is a perfect match for both iPod and iPod mini — just like the PocketDock itself.

What good is a PocketDock, if you don’t have it at hand when you actually need it? Well, if there’s one thing you always carry with you, it’s probably your keys. That’s why your PocketDock now comes with a free detachable keyring dock.

This is a far better deal than the bulky and ridiculous USB cables Apple shipped for the 3G iPods. NOTE, however, that 3G iPods can't charge via USB. SendStation is good enough to note this, albeit in very small print. Later iPods will charge with this cable.