iTunes 4.8: iTMS Crashing with Reckless Abandon

[dotnina]

Hey all, I'm running iTunes 4.8 on Tiger (10.4.1). For a few days now, I haven't been able to get to the iTunes Music Store at all. Every time I click on the icon in the left sidebar, the iTMS loading bar gets to ~40%, and then it crashes!

I've tried restarts, repairing permissions and fsck'ing. Is anyone else having this issue? I found a similar problem on Apple's boards, but it doesn't sound like it's quite the same. I'd love any advice at this point.

(PS: I also removed iTunes altogether and re-downloaded it, apparently with a build# of "31." Same exact problem, same exact conditions.)


Here's a snippet of the error report. Thanks in advance for any help.

Command: iTunes
Path: /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes
Parent: WindowServer [75]

Version: 4.8 (4.8)
Build Version: 2
Project Name: iTunes
Source Version: 4803100

PID: 313
Thread: 10

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000008

 

[dotnina]

Oh no, now Safari has the same problem too!

Or at least a similar problem? The Apple Startpage loads to about 20%, then I get a crash, every single time, exactly like that. Here's a snippet of the crash report, I'd really appreciate any ideas.

Date/Time: 2005-05-26 20:33:25.200 -0700
OS Version: 10.4.1 (Build 8B15)
Report Version: 3

Command: Safari
Path: /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari
Parent: WindowServer [75]

Version: 2.0 (412)
Build Version: 1
Project Name: WebBrowser
Source Version: 4120000

PID: 705
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xbf7fff90

 

[mkrishnan]

I don't think the problem is with your iTunes application file, but with a plist or other file that it keeps in the library. You have to be really careful playing around, because you do NOT want to accidentally make your iTunes library unplayable!

This is how I suggest you do it.

Quit iTunes.

Make a temp folder on your desktop. Move the following files from the library directory IN YOUR HOME FOLDER into the temp folder:

- the iTunes folder
- every file in the preferences folder that starts with com.apple.iTunes... (I see three of them).
- com.apple.ipod.plist in the same location
- in the preferences folder, if you have a "ByHost" folder, also move any file in here that has itunes in the name into that folder.

Keep track of where you got each file from, by recreating the sub-folders in the temp folder if you need to.

When I say move, these files should no longer reside in your library.

Open iTunes.

If it runs stably, then let these files sit around for a while (zip 'em if you want) and make sure you can do everything you want in iTunes (your music, both purchased and ripped, works, the store works, etc). You will probably have to give it your store credentials again, and you will probably have to redo any changes to preferences, but besides that, it should work. If so, then you can delete the files you moved to your desktop, if you want to.

If anything bad happens, then move all these files back to where you got them.

It's a pain, but it should be slightly less painful than re-installing your OS.

Hope it helps?

 

[mkrishnan]

BTW, it's also possible the corrupt file is not a plist for iTunes or Safari, but a system file, and/or possibly a bad disk sector, in which case this will rapidly become a pain in the butt and will culminate in you burning all your docs to CDRs or DVD-Rs or an external hd, reformatting your HD, and re-installing from scratch.

One more thing to try is to boot from the system DVD and run Repair Disk in Disk Utility (this is different from Repair Permissions, and you have to do it booted from the DVD). This is slightly different in what it can find than fsck.

 

[dotnina]

I did everything you suggested for iTunes, and everything is peachy there. Thanks! However, I'm still getting that error every time I try to open Safari. I guess I'll try moving those pref files out, and seeing if things work then.

Thanks so much, Mohan! PS: you might want to clear up some space in your PM inbox so people can private message you.

 

[mkrishnan]

I'm glad it worked, Nina! Yeah, there is probably a similar corrupt plist for Safari. Now the question is why are your plists getting corrupted? And hopefully the answer is that it's a freak accident and it'll never happen again!

And LOL, I just found out that the system will send you more warning e-mails than an OCD listserv manager if your inbox gets full... I figured it'd just start deleting the oldest msgs!