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Help - Finder crashing when looking through Library/Preferences

aswitcher

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Original poster
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
I need help. For the last 24 hours my finder locks up when I am looking through my Library/Preferences when it comes to "Microsoft" from what I can tell.

I have scrolled up and down, and it locks as soon as the Microsoft folder reveals. No size is listed for the folder. I am guessing that finder is trying to find out something in that folder and thats why I am having problems.

As a contextual aside, SilverKeeper works fine backing up my whole harddisk.

Help... :(
 
I'm no Terminal fan, but this might be a time to fire it up and see if you can do anything useful that way.

Type cd, then a space, then drop your Preferences folder into the terminal window. It will enter the path for you and then you just press return.

Now you're in the folder, just type ls to list the contents. To get into a subfolder, type cd and then the folder name.

I've never deleted anything from Terminal, but I know there's a command for it (maybe rm or something?) if you come across a problem file you want to get rid of.

Another test you might try: use Get Info to give another user permission to access your home folder, Library, and Preferences folder. Then see if that other user can view the folder without crashing.

Good luck!
 
Does this happen in all views? ie, Icons, List, and Columns?

When was the last time you did a repair on system permissions?

The ladder helped me with a browsing issue in my Utilities folder when I first got my G3. For some reason it didn't like an extension on one of my file names I created.

HTH

840
 
840quadra said:
Does this happen in all views? ie, Icons, List, and Columns?

When was the last time you did a repair on system permissions?

The ladder helped me with a browsing issue in my Utilities folder when I first got my G3. For some reason it didn't like an extension on one of my file names I created.

HTH

840
Click to expand...


Yeah I have run both ONYX and Disk Utility twice...

And its all view options...
 
nagromme said:
I'm no Terminal fan, but this might be a time to fire it up and see if you can do anything useful that way.

Type cd, then a space, then drop your Preferences folder into the terminal window. It will enter the path for you and then you just press return.

Now you're in the folder, just type ls to list the contents. To get into a subfolder, type cd and then the folder name.

I've never deleted anything from Terminal, but I know there's a command for it (maybe rm or something?) if you come across a problem file you want to get rid of.

Another test you might try: use Get Info to give another user permission to access your home folder, Library, and Preferences folder. Then see if that other user can view the folder without crashing.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yeah I have a little unix but am reluctant to go around deleting things. I am hoping someone recognises this problem and can give me a fix...
 
Bump

Ok I gave priveledges to another account and tried to access via it. Same thing happened when I started scrolling through my preference file...

Help...
 
840quadra said:
When was the last time you did a repair on system permissions?
Click to expand...

Repairing of permissions doesn't descend into /Users, so this won't help.

That's really unusual. I've never seen this happen, but you really should use the Terminal to at least list the directory, in case there's a funked illegal character in a pref/folder name. Have you tried repairing your disk? Do you have/have access to DiskWarrior?

To list the directory in the CLI:

ls -laF ~/Library/Preferences/

And post the results here, if you want.. (inside code tags, please)
 
yellow said:
That's really unusual. I've never seen this happen, but you really should use the Terminal to at least list the directory, in case there's a funked illegal character in a pref/folder name.
Click to expand...


Ok I fixed it! :D

It wasn't the Microsoft directory under Preferences, it was an old MOHAA Preferences zero k sized file. I am pretty sure its from a demo I installed in like June of 04.

Anyway, Finder still died so I went Terminal and crept up on it. It took a little while to figure out I needed to "rm "mohaa preferences"" and as soon as I had, Finder worked perfectly.

Weird.

I wish I knew why Finder went nutz about this file.

I hope its a software issue.
 
yellow said:
Repairing of permissions doesn't descend into /Users, so this won't help.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up.

Glad Aswitcher was able to figure out his situation.

I had something become corrupt on my G3 last week, I had to SSH into it and delete a few files as a test..

I am trying to learn OS-X a little more every day. I am from more of a Linux and Windows background. While OS X is linux like, it still has some real unique kernel features.
 
You're jinxed! I caught it!

After updating 10.3.7 -> 10.3.9, the Painter 7 folder in Applications crashes my Finder in the same way! But I haven't done anything with that folder in a long time, so I can't say if it happened due to 10.3.9 or not.

It's any view, any user, as you say--and even browsing via the Dock. The Finder (or Dock) freezes and starts hogging CPU until I Force Quit it. (Finder does manage to show the number of files at the bottom of the window--but beachballs without listing any names or icons.)

Putting the Painter 7 folder in a different place on my HD makes no difference. But I CAN open subfolders within the problem folder (if I get to them via Find). Backing up to the parent folder then freezes as usual. Also, the Painter 7 app itself (within the bad folder) still runs fine.

I repaired permissions and then booted the Panther CD and repaired disk. No difference.

Terminal can view the contents but I don't know what I might look for. Any suggestions?

I see a file in terminal called "icon?" but Finder can't locate it in a Find (for Visible and Invisible). Should I rm that?

Thanks for any tips. I think there's away to make terminal show file sizes, so maybe I'll look for 0 kb files.

Aswitcher--was this after updating to 10.3.8 or .9 by any chance?
 
More info

OK, "man" is my friend. Here's the directory listing (which shows the octal value for that ? in "Icon?" but I don't know what the value means: 105).

Anything problematic here? That Icon is a 0 kb file. Can I safely delete the icon file? EDIT: Well, I did, and the Painter folder lost its custom icon (who cares) but the problem didn't go away.

The other 0 files are folders... except Painter Settings and Printer Settings. If I do a Find in Finder, those file are 1MB and 188k (and not folders) but Terminal says 0. EDIT: So I deleted them but that didn't help either. Maybe 0 files are not the issue.

Code: 
ls -B -l
total 184720
drwxrwxrwx   10 myname    admin       340  1 May 05:30 Brushes
drwxrwxrwx   23 myname    admin       782 28 Aug  2002 Color Profiles
drwxrwxrwx   37 myname    admin      1258 28 Aug  2002 Color Sets
drwxrwxrwx  270 myname    admin      9180 28 Aug  2002 Help
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin         0  6 Jul  2001 Icon\015
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin    361742 19 Jan  2001 KodakCMSC
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin     30406  6 Jul  2001 License.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin     16997 10 Dec  2001 P7UpdateReadMe.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin   5031317 28 Aug  2002 Painter 7
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin    138415 28 Aug  2002 Painter 7 Installer Log File
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin      8076  7 Dec  2001 Painter 7 Update License.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin      4593 25 Jun  2001 Painter Colors
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin         0 23 Oct  2001 Painter Dialogs
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin  18918912 25 Jun  2001 Painter Nozzles
-rw-rw-rw-    1 myname    admin         0 28 Aug  2002 Painter Palettes
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin  16257536 25 Jun  2001 Painter Patterns
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin   6711296 25 Jun  2001 Painter Portfolio
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin  38404096  1 May 16:25 Painter Script Data
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin         0 25 Jun  2001 Painter Selections
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname2   admin         0  1 May 16:25 Painter Settings
-rw-rw-rw-    1 myname    admin       104 28 Aug  2002 Painter.dta
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin         0 25 Jun  2001 Paper Textures
drwxrwxrwx   21 myname    admin       714 28 Aug  2002 Plugins
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname    admin         0 25 Jun  2001 Printer Settings
drwxrwxrwx    5 myname    admin       170 28 Aug  2002 Register
drwxrwxrwx    8 myname    admin       272 28 Aug  2002 Tutorials
drwxrwxrwx   13 myname    admin       442 28 Aug  2002 Ver 4
drwxrwxrwx    7 myname    admin       238 28 Aug  2002 Ver 5
drwxrwxrwx    7 myname    admin       238 28 Aug  2002 Ver 6

(myname2 is a non-admin account I use to let other people use my Mac.)
 
More tests

I did further testing: Open/Save dialogs make the app hang (TextEdit) when you view that directory. Same as Finder/Dock. AND RBrowser (Local viewer mode) hangs too. But Classic apps CAN read the directory just fine.

So basically any access of this folder OTHER than Terminal or Classic will cause a perma-beachball and require a Force Quit.

Any thoughts on the cause?

Here's an updated list after I removed the "suspicious" files noted above. (Didn't help, nor did any kind of Repairs help.)

Code: 
ls -B -ltotal 182104
drwxrwxrwx   10 myname  admin       340  1 May 05:30 Brushes
drwxrwxrwx   23 myname  admin       782 28 Aug  2002 Color Profiles
drwxrwxrwx   37 myname  admin      1258 28 Aug  2002 Color Sets
drwxrwxrwx  270 myname  admin      9180 28 Aug  2002 Help
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin    361742 19 Jan  2001 KodakCMSC
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin     30406  6 Jul  2001 License.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin     16997 10 Dec  2001 P7UpdateReadMe.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin   5031317 28 Aug  2002 Painter 7
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin    138415 28 Aug  2002 Painter 7 Installer Log File
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin      8076  7 Dec  2001 Painter 7 Update License.rtf
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin      4593 25 Jun  2001 Painter Colors
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin         0 23 Oct  2001 Painter Dialogs
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin  18918912 25 Jun  2001 Painter Nozzles
-rw-rw-rw-    1 myname  admin         0 28 Aug  2002 Painter Palettes
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin  16257536 25 Jun  2001 Painter Patterns
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin   6711296 25 Jun  2001 Painter Portfolio
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin  38404096  1 May 16:25 Painter Script Data
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin         0 25 Jun  2001 Painter Selections
-rw-rw-rw-    1 myname  admin       104 28 Aug  2002 Painter.dta
-rwxrwxrwx    1 myname  admin         0 25 Jun  2001 Paper Textures
drwxrwxrwx   21 myname  admin       714 28 Aug  2002 Plugins
drwxrwxrwx    5 myname  admin       170 28 Aug  2002 Register
drwxrwxrwx    8 myname  admin       272 28 Aug  2002 Tutorials
drwxrwxrwx   13 myname  admin       442 28 Aug  2002 Ver 4
drwxrwxrwx    7 myname  admin       238 28 Aug  2002 Ver 5
drwxrwxrwx    7 myname  admin       238 28 Aug  2002 Ver 6
 
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