Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Applications close straight away

M@lew

M@lew

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 18, 2006
1,582
0
Melbourne, Australia
Somtimes whenever I go to open an application, it opens but then closes straight away. This got very annoying in class today when I needed a crucial application, but had this problem. I ended up having to reboot in order for it to work.

Does anyone have the solution to this as I don't want it to happen at an important time anymore?
 
This is definitely not normal behavior. The next time this happens, try deleting the offending application's preference file. Just do a spotlight search for whatever app is giving you problems. The preference file has a .plist extension. This will reset the preferences for the application, but it's worth a shot.
 
The first program that did tis was MYOB AccountEdge. The next one was iGetter. I also tried deleting the .plist and it still did this.
 
Yeah, I've had this too occasionally, especially with Dreamweaver (2004). Rebooting seems to fix it.

I haven't tried a before/after test with regards to repairing permissions, but it makes sense to regularly repair them anyway I guess. I haven't tried deleting the application's preference file either.

Grateful for any other tips.
 
M@lew said:
Somtimes whenever I go to open an application, it opens but then closes straight away. This got very annoying in class today when I needed a crucial application, but had this problem. I ended up having to reboot in order for it to work.

Does anyone have the solution to this as I don't want it to happen at an important time anymore?
Click to expand...
This is a problem with Rosetta on Intel Macs. I haven't checked individually, but it's probably the case that all the apps you are having problems with are PowerPC binaries (which need to run through the Rosetta translation layer).

You can restart your machine, and they'll work until they break again.

I have this problem too. Sometimes this solution works: open Activity Monitor, sort by 'Kind' (click on the field header in the list) so that all your open PowerPC apps are grouped together. Close each of the open PowerPC apps (either by closing the application itself—if possible—or quitting it from within Activity Monitor). When all of the PowerPC apps are good and closed, force quit the process 'Translated' in Activity Monitor. You'll need an administrator's name and password for this.

Then, try opening a problem (PowerPC) application. If it opens, then success! If not, you're just going to have to restart. I'd say that this works for me about three times out of five.

The problem has been associated with 'Application Enhancer'—is this in your system preferences? I got rid of it but still have the problem; it's pretty annoying! Try searching around the Web for other information about this problem—it's pretty well documented (e.g. search for 'rosetta application launch problem' vel sim.). There is an Apple KB support document which gives instructions for a terminal command to fix Rosetta bindings (or something like that). I've tried that but it's never worked for me.
 
Oh that was very helpful. I do have Application Enhancer in my System Pref, but as I use Shapeshifter and ClearDock I guess it's going to stay there for a while. I'll search around for more answers to this problem now that I know the cause.
 
I've found a temporary solution to this problem.

Open terminal and type:

sudo killall translated

This works for a while, but when they start not opening, you have to type it again.
 
-::ubermann::- said:
i have sometimes the same problem, rebooting fixes it
most problems i have are with safari
Click to expand...
If it's Safari, it's not the same problem, because Safari is a Universal binary. The problem here is with PowerPC apps translated for Intel Macs using Rosetta.

I think I've now fixed my problems permanently. I thought I had uninstalled APE, but had only removed the prefpane. As it turned out, there were still a load of 'frameworks' in the root system folder. Removed those, and everything's been fine since...
 
M@lew said:
Did you re-install it though? Or leave it uninstalled?
Click to expand...

I've left it uninstalled, since I have no use for it. I think it was installed as piggyback for AudioHijack and/or Soundflower (which is installed with AudioHijack). Sorry, M@lew, it sounds like you want to keep using APE but I think that's probably the root of your problems with Rosetta apps. Although, I have a vague recollection that they've released an updated version of APE which goes some way towards fixing this problem? That might be entirely my imagination, though.
 
The latest version (which I have) has a setting called "optimise for Rosetta". I'm not sure what this does...and I've tried it except it hasn't done anything. (Mainly because it's never finished) I guess for the moment I'll stick to the sudo killall translated.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back