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PreferenceSyncClient unexpectedly quits every hour

J

joinks

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 28, 2007
7
0
After upgrading my MacBook Pro to Leopard I get an alert every single hour that says 'PreferenceSyncClient' has unexpectedly quit. Searching around Google and the Apple site I can find absolutely no reference for this application/service. I'm assuming it must be an Apple file ... I am wondering if I just need to track down a copy of it and replace mine -- is that safe?

File is located here:

/System/Library/CoreServices/PreferenceSyncClient.app/Contents/MacOS/PreferenceSyncClient
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)

Any ideas of where to start looking to solve this problem?:(
 
Same here one of my macbooks is doing the same thing. The other so far is not and they both are on leopard. I would like to know how to get this to stop as well... anyone????
 
A week later and I have found no solution. One thing I'm thinking about doing is going into my wife's Macbook that also has leopard (an no weird crashing problems) and copying over the /System/Library/CoreServices/PreferenceSyncClient.app file and replacing my own with it. I have no idea if that will help ... I wish I know what the heck this app does. I can find no documentation on it whatsoever.

Glad to hear I'm not alone!
 
You're not alone!
I'm having the same problem on my iMac.
Let me know if you find a solution...
 
thought i was the only one...

So I am having the same problem ya'll are, and then some. I have a MacBook Pro and recently installed Leopard. Another problem that recently began is that I cannot access my Finder. Also, my Desktop was wiped out. It all started last week when I ran a recommended update from Apple. It was pretty intense taking 4 or 5 minutes to update, then had to restart my OS. When I restarted, everything on my Desktop was gone, and Finder wasn't working. Did Command + Option + Escape. Running was Firefox and Disk Utility at the time. However, on the list, Finder came up, flashed 4 or 5 times, then went away. After 5 seconds and repeated, etc.. I dunno what's going on
 
I wished this could have been fixed in one of the several updates released since the problem surfaced on my computer... but the service continues to crash... every ... single ... hour.
 
Same problem here, but i've figured out when it happens

joinks said:
I wished this could have been fixed in one of the several updates released since the problem surfaced on my computer... but the service continues to crash... every ... single ... hour.
Click to expand...

Does everyone here who has posted have .mac? I've noticed mine crashing right after my computer has synced to .mac.
 
Wow -- that was it. I turned off all synching for .Mac and the errors stopped. Thanks Paulamir.
 
joinks said:
Wow -- that was it. I turned off all synching for .Mac and the errors stopped. Thanks Paulamir.
Click to expand...

Hey no problem. Now if we can just figure out how to sync our .mac accounts and not have the sync client quit. I went to the genuis bar about this and they told me they had never heard of this. They said it might be a brand new problem. I guess we'll have to see if more and more people come forward.
 
Same problem here

Mine just developed over the last 3-5 days. I've not added or changed any software on my system, with the exception of upgrading to the latest version of Growl 1.4 or 1.1.4 or whatever it is. I'm not sure why I'm getting the same problem, but I keep sending the report to Apple in hopes that someone actually reads those.

Gregg
 
Growl

Get rid of Growl. From what you just said it makes me think that all of our problems are from Growl. Mine started right after I installed a Lyrics finding program for itunes that used Growl to notify me of it's status. I got rid of Growl right after that and most of my problems stopped. I still had to turn off my Preference from synching with my .mac account (everything else will synch ok, just not my Preferences). That it seems will never work again, and I'm pretty sure it had to do with Growl. Oh, one more thing, if you do get rid of Growl, don't just throw it out. Search for all it's components too. I acutally use a program called AppZapper that will take all of it's parts off of my computer, but whatever works for you. There are a few other people on the net that complained that Growl really messed them up after upgrading to 10.5.
 
Moblie Me

Nope. This is a problem that most of us here have been dealing with for the past year. Mine started back in October, way before they announced Moble Me.
 
https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/69/

Same here, just did this thread, sorry for posting same problem again,

Could not find the thread, since I searched for the process name only.

What I can tell you is that you can leave all your .mac/mobileMe sync on, except for the preferences, that one is causing the problem.


Edit:
Just traced down the file from my TimeMachine backup and replaced the one my harddrive, but did not work.
Same problem, everytime i sync with preferences sync turned on, it eats 1GB Ram and dotmacsyncclient starts to eat all my CPU.

Guess the crash of the preference sync client is also still to come. very annoying.

Edit 2: just crashed. amazing apple you still did not fix this ever since launch of leopard.
 
Still Growl

Do you have Growl mail running somewhere on your computer? I think this has way more to do with Growl than Apple.
 
I will disable Growl Mail and try again.

However as of now this seems to be a problem with .mac/MobileMe syncing.

Turn off the sync function of the preferences in your mobileMe settings and it should disappear.

Still annoying, anyone has an idea how to solve this?
 
Still Growl

Yeah it's a problem with .mac/mobile Me. but this problem is caused by Growl. And after you install Growl and it causes this problem there is no way that i have found, or I think anyone on this list, to stop it again. I've removed Growl from my system and it still is not working. However, before Growl was on my system it was working just fine. I think most, if not all, of the other people on this list have found the same thing.
 
Does the problem still exist when you uncheck the Preferences from the sync menu in MobileMe (despite Growl being on the system or not)?

This is really weird, what would Growl change in the preferences that would cause the syncing process to crash?
 
Still Growl

If you uncheck it in your synch preferences it stops happening. But even after Growl is removed or turned off it will continue to happen.
 
I think I found a solution...

Reset the Sync data, overwritting what's on Mobile Me with what is on your Mac. It seems to have stopped the errors.

For me this began when I logged into another Mac that I hadn't used in awhile and sync'd.

Update - I spoke too soon. Just resetting the sync data didn't do it. I ended up re-installing snow leopard. That seems to have fixed the issue. 12 hours so far, multiple syncs and no errors/crashes.
 
fixed

Ok so I upgraded to a macbook pro, and after sending all my files over to the new computer I was still having this problem. (Which I still maintain was caused by Growl.) I talked with a mac guy I know and he suggested I find the sync file and throw it out. I figured, what could this hurt, so that's what I did. When you restart, the mac will rebuild the file, fresh and free of issues.
 
where is the sync file?

where is the sync file you deleted? i found a file called com.apple.PreferenceSync

located at system>library>syncservices>autoregistration>clients

i dont want to go deleting things i shouldnt be.
 
it ain't just mobile.me

My hard drive crashed and the "preferencesyncclient quit unexpectedly" issues started up on the replacement drive with theoretically had the exact same configuration (except the tech reinstalled up to 10.6.6 and I had to add 10.6.7 over it). Some salient conditions that seem new for this string:

[1] I have never used mobile.me or Growl
[2] the crashes only occur on my login…my wife uses the same iMac with a different login and gets no "preferencesyncclient quit unexpectedly" events

I took the comp back to the tech because it was also failing to mount the external drive we use for backups and he got both problems apparently fixed in the lab, but within 24 hours they both recurred. (The failure to mount the external hard drive occurs under all logins…it mounts fine with all other comps in the house.)

Any suggestions welcome.
 
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