Property List Problem

[howellz]

I've run DiskWarrior's file & folder check and it detected damaged Property List data on my iMac/Leopard that cannot be repaired. It's identified as:

XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x6' at line 1
Location: "Macintosh HD/Users/Me/Library/Preferences/"

That's it. The location info doesn't tell me what file it is, so I don't know what pref file to trash. Does anyone know how to interpret "0x6 at line 1" so I can determine what file it is? I've tried Googling this with no luck.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

 

[LPZ]

Open Terminal and enter the following, pressing return after each line:

cd ~/Library/Preferences

plutil -s *.plist

 

[howellz]

Thank you for the response, LPZ. I entered the code you suggested in Terminal, but got nothing that revealed the file with the damaged Property List data. It just repeated the same thing DiskWarrior said:

System Mac.plist:
XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x6' at line 1

Any idea what else I might try?

 

[LPZ]

Thank you for the response, LPZ. I entered the code you suggested in Terminal, but got nothing that revealed the file with the damaged Property List data. It just repeated the same thing DiskWarrior said:

System Mac.plist:
XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x6' at line 1

Any idea what else I might try?

Do you have a file named "System Mac.plist" in Library/Preferences?

What version of OS X are you running? What model computer? [Never mind --- Leopard and iMac !]

 

[howellz]

No "System Mac.plist" present in my Users Library/Preferences. Could this be an invisible file?

I'm running OS X 10.5.8

 

[LPZ]

No "System Mac.plist" present in my Users Library/Preferences. Could this be an invisible file?

I'm running OS X 10.5.8

Got me. In Terminal, try

cd ~/Library/Preferences

ls -a

(That's lowercase LS in the line above).

Any sign of the file in the list?

Could also try

ls -a *Mac.plist

 

[howellz]

Thanks again, LPZ. The first code gave me an alphabetized list of every file in the Pref folder. The second code simply listed the elusive file "System Mac.plist."

Hmmm. I've tried Googling "System Mac.plist" and found no mention of it. Same results after a "Find" search of my computer.

 

[LPZ]

Thanks again, LPZ. The first code gave me an alphabetized list of every file in the Pref folder. The second code simply listed the elusive file "System Mac.plist."

Hmmm. I've tried Googling "System Mac.plist" and found no mention of it. Same results after a "Find" search of my computer.

I assume that the elusive file's name was included in that alphabetized list too?

In any case, let's learn a bit more about that file. In Terminal, enter

cd ~/Library/Preferences

ls -la *Mac.plist

more *Mac.plist

You could copy the output and paste into your reply---assuming no private info is involved.

(I too found nothing about System Mac.plist. No such file exists in that location on my 10.6 system.)

 

[howellz]

No, the elusive file's name wasn't included in the alphabetized list. I ran the latest code you provided and got a @-laden mishmash of script, but among the script was the name of one piece of software I have. I trashed the preference file for that software (somewhat gleefully), but when I re-checked my files in Terminal and DiskWarrior the phantom System Mac.plist file, in the same location, was still being singled-out as the problem with irreparable damage.

I then remembered that I'd downloaded some freeware called "Preferential Treatment" by JNSoftware awhile back for checking preference files. Kind of a simplified yet tricked-out version of Terminal. I opened it and clicked the "Check User Preferences" tab. Instantly it zipped through my 257 preference files and singled-out the System Mac.plist with the "Unexpected character '0x6' at line 1," etc. I selected from Preferential Treatment's menu "Reveal in Finder." The Preferences window opened, but nothing was highlighted or present that matched the plist file I was looking for. So I next selected "Move to trash" from the Preferential Treatment menu and the file info disappeared from the Preferential Treatment window. And there was nothing in my trash. No mushroom cloud appeared above my computer so I figured no harm was done. I once again ran Preferential Treatment's "Check User Preferences" and this time the file was not mentioned. So I ran DiskWarrior's File & Folder check and the System Mac.plist file was still listed as the only problem file, but this time its location was Macintosh HD/Users/Me/.Trash/

Ah, .Trash. So it was now in my invisible trash folder. I typed some code into Terminal to empty this trash and then ran the DiskWarrior File & Folder check again. The file was finally GONE! While I'm glad to be rid of it, I'm a bit disappointed that I never found out exactly what it was. If it ever returns perhaps I'll find out more about it.

Thank you again for taking the time to try to sort out the problem, LPZ. I definitely appreciate it.

 

[LPZ]

Well, glad it's gone---whatever it was!