karazelle
Moderator
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2006
- Messages
- 238
- Reaction score
- 10
Quick reminder: References to /Library, /Applications - refers to folders at the root of your first harddisk, which is generally the top right disk icon on your Mac.
References to ~/Library - the ~ means "your home folder", so if you want to find ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iphoto.plist you would open Finder and click your user name in the left panel, or open your harddisk and the folder "Users" and then the one with a house icon. Inside it is a special "Library" folder for you. The reason we use ~ is because its used in the industry, and it doesn't hurt to know industry expressions, its also what you'll find references to in other articles, so remember ~ = YOUR folder.
My previous post on things you should do before a problem occurs
What do you do when there is a problem or crisis?
1) Calm down. Your computer works on the principle of "you do something, I do something". If you don't do anything, nothing will get worse.
If the problem is weird noises from the computer itself, smoke or similar then just turn the computer off, even if you have to do it the "bad way". As long as it is off, nothing further can happen and you have plenty of time. Disks don't "rot" as such.
2) What is occuring? What symptoms do you see? Error messages? What did you just do, as in literally? Install a program, reboot? Run a program? Delete a plist file? Edit something? What was running at the same time?
3) Read error messages, dialogboxes and similar carefully. Don't dismiss things, the computer won't continue until you press Next or OK.
If you think you need external help:
If possible, you can do a screenshot (a picture of your screen saved as an image file) by holding down Cmd+Shift+3 (there are other variants too, if you know them, use them). You should find a picture on your desktop named ImageN where N is a number. Consecutive presses of Cmd+Shift+3 makes more pictures, it does not overwrite existing ones. These can be handy to send to people who can help you.
If possible/preferable, you can open these pictures in Preview, drag an outline over the image and then use its "Crop" feature to remove unwanted parts of the picture, whether personal information or to make the picture smaller.
If its a log or similar, its usually not a problem to post it in its entireity on this forum, but on chats, that is usually a problem. If you want to use instant messenger (iChat, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, IRC etc) to get help, you should copy your text and paste it into a site like http://pastebin.ca/ by just pasting it into the big box, filling out the few boxes below and click Submit. You'll get a URL that you can give people and they will see your log text. No spamming or cropping or missing important information.
You can also Google snippets of the error message or similar. Just type the error into Google and see what you get. A tip there is to start specific and then remove words. For example, if "Word 2008 error problem no printer available message" doesn't work, drop unecessary words.
Better example: Word 2008 no printer available
Don't forget to use the Apple help system, as it has more info than you might think, also on troubleshooting.
And don't hestitate to ask here obviously
4) When you ask here, include as much information as possible, as per #2.
DON'T write: "I get an error listening to music! Help".
DO write: "I double click on songs in iTunes but nothing happens! Help!"
Include things like version number (program name->About program name. Example: iTunes -> About iTunes".
If you are a computer novice, avoid the temptation to "help out" by dropping things you think we might not care to know. Add it anyway You never know
"I installed GraphicConverter 5.x yesterday, but I don't see why that should cause WMV files to no longer work with Flip4Mac" is not good thinking.
5) Typical problems and quick fixes:
- My application crash when I try to start it, behaves erratically, or refuse to save settings!
Fix: Did you create an extra account (as per #2 here) or do you have an extra account on your Mac? If so, you should login to it and see if the program misbehaves there too. If it does, you should consider trashing its Preference file in /Library/Preferences or at worst reinstall/redownload it.
However, if it works fine there, or you have no extra account to test with, it could be your profiles preference file that is damaged. Just go to ~/Library/Preferences and find its file there. For example: iCal won't remember the settings I set? Quit the program if it's running, then go to ~/Library/Preferences and look for com.apple.ical.plist and throw it in the trash. When you start iCal again, it should work. You will hardly ever lose any data files, calendars, email, contacts etc doing this, but you might need to configure the program again, like sharing in iPhoto if that was the file you trashed etc.
- installed Apple software update, something failed/power went/ran out of battery (tip, always install updates with your laptop connected to charger) or something crashed?
Fix: Download the relevant combo updater from www.apple.com/support and run it. Use disk utility to verify and fix permissions.
- Sometimes when I want to rename or delete a program on my Mac in the /Applications folder, I am asked for username and password. Other times, I am not? Why?
Fix: If you share your Mac with others, and they also have administrator account, or the program itself changes its permissions, you don't "own" the program anymore. If you need to do something on something you don't "own" (the owner is whoever caused the object to exist there) you need to confirm your action because it has potential consequences for whoever put it there. Just go ahead and enter your credentials, its nothing to worry about, just part of MacOS X security and safety features.
- I found a hack/fix/super cool thing/tip/advice, but it asks me to put it or modify things in /System/Library.
Fix: doing anything in /System/Library is a very bad idea.
This folder is reserved by Apple for MacOS X to work. If you come from Windows, this is kind of the equivalent of C:\Windows\System32, yet even strictlier off-limit. You should probably ask for advice before you put anything here, or read #6.
- I don't need Safari/iChat/iCal/Mail.app or other Apple bundled tool. Can I delete it?
Fix: I would generally recommend that you not delete it.
However, see #4 in my previous blog post. Archive and put it in a different folder if it bothers you. You could create a folder in /Library called "Applications I don't use" and put it there.
6) Firewire Target Disk mode:
You can use any firewire cable that works for harddrives etc, FW400 is good. This can be useful for Firewire target disk mode.
Firewire disk mode lets your Mac act as a simple harddrive to another Mac. Simply plug your Macs together directly using a firewire cable. Boot the problematic Mac by holding down the letter T when you hear the chime. Eventually, a huge Firewire symbol will bounce around the screen. Meanwhile, it should appear as a normal harddrive on the other Mac.
Use this to repair permissions, perform disk checks, repair missing system files etc, make backups etc.
When you're done, eject it and turn the problematic Macs power off and on.
References to ~/Library - the ~ means "your home folder", so if you want to find ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iphoto.plist you would open Finder and click your user name in the left panel, or open your harddisk and the folder "Users" and then the one with a house icon. Inside it is a special "Library" folder for you. The reason we use ~ is because its used in the industry, and it doesn't hurt to know industry expressions, its also what you'll find references to in other articles, so remember ~ = YOUR folder.
My previous post on things you should do before a problem occurs
What do you do when there is a problem or crisis?
1) Calm down. Your computer works on the principle of "you do something, I do something". If you don't do anything, nothing will get worse.
If the problem is weird noises from the computer itself, smoke or similar then just turn the computer off, even if you have to do it the "bad way". As long as it is off, nothing further can happen and you have plenty of time. Disks don't "rot" as such.
2) What is occuring? What symptoms do you see? Error messages? What did you just do, as in literally? Install a program, reboot? Run a program? Delete a plist file? Edit something? What was running at the same time?
3) Read error messages, dialogboxes and similar carefully. Don't dismiss things, the computer won't continue until you press Next or OK.
If you think you need external help:
If possible, you can do a screenshot (a picture of your screen saved as an image file) by holding down Cmd+Shift+3 (there are other variants too, if you know them, use them). You should find a picture on your desktop named ImageN where N is a number. Consecutive presses of Cmd+Shift+3 makes more pictures, it does not overwrite existing ones. These can be handy to send to people who can help you.
If possible/preferable, you can open these pictures in Preview, drag an outline over the image and then use its "Crop" feature to remove unwanted parts of the picture, whether personal information or to make the picture smaller.
If its a log or similar, its usually not a problem to post it in its entireity on this forum, but on chats, that is usually a problem. If you want to use instant messenger (iChat, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, IRC etc) to get help, you should copy your text and paste it into a site like http://pastebin.ca/ by just pasting it into the big box, filling out the few boxes below and click Submit. You'll get a URL that you can give people and they will see your log text. No spamming or cropping or missing important information.
You can also Google snippets of the error message or similar. Just type the error into Google and see what you get. A tip there is to start specific and then remove words. For example, if "Word 2008 error problem no printer available message" doesn't work, drop unecessary words.
Better example: Word 2008 no printer available
Don't forget to use the Apple help system, as it has more info than you might think, also on troubleshooting.
And don't hestitate to ask here obviously
4) When you ask here, include as much information as possible, as per #2.
DON'T write: "I get an error listening to music! Help".
DO write: "I double click on songs in iTunes but nothing happens! Help!"
Include things like version number (program name->About program name. Example: iTunes -> About iTunes".
If you are a computer novice, avoid the temptation to "help out" by dropping things you think we might not care to know. Add it anyway
You never know "I installed GraphicConverter 5.x yesterday, but I don't see why that should cause WMV files to no longer work with Flip4Mac" is not good thinking.
5) Typical problems and quick fixes:
- My application crash when I try to start it, behaves erratically, or refuse to save settings!
Fix: Did you create an extra account (as per #2 here) or do you have an extra account on your Mac? If so, you should login to it and see if the program misbehaves there too. If it does, you should consider trashing its Preference file in /Library/Preferences or at worst reinstall/redownload it.
However, if it works fine there, or you have no extra account to test with, it could be your profiles preference file that is damaged. Just go to ~/Library/Preferences and find its file there. For example: iCal won't remember the settings I set? Quit the program if it's running, then go to ~/Library/Preferences and look for com.apple.ical.plist and throw it in the trash. When you start iCal again, it should work. You will hardly ever lose any data files, calendars, email, contacts etc doing this, but you might need to configure the program again, like sharing in iPhoto if that was the file you trashed etc.
- installed Apple software update, something failed/power went/ran out of battery (tip, always install updates with your laptop connected to charger) or something crashed?
Fix: Download the relevant combo updater from www.apple.com/support and run it. Use disk utility to verify and fix permissions.
- Sometimes when I want to rename or delete a program on my Mac in the /Applications folder, I am asked for username and password. Other times, I am not? Why?
Fix: If you share your Mac with others, and they also have administrator account, or the program itself changes its permissions, you don't "own" the program anymore. If you need to do something on something you don't "own" (the owner is whoever caused the object to exist there) you need to confirm your action because it has potential consequences for whoever put it there. Just go ahead and enter your credentials, its nothing to worry about, just part of MacOS X security and safety features.
- I found a hack/fix/super cool thing/tip/advice, but it asks me to put it or modify things in /System/Library.
Fix: doing anything in /System/Library is a very bad idea.
This folder is reserved by Apple for MacOS X to work. If you come from Windows, this is kind of the equivalent of C:\Windows\System32, yet even strictlier off-limit. You should probably ask for advice before you put anything here, or read #6.
- I don't need Safari/iChat/iCal/Mail.app or other Apple bundled tool. Can I delete it?
Fix: I would generally recommend that you not delete it.
However, see #4 in my previous blog post. Archive and put it in a different folder if it bothers you. You could create a folder in /Library called "Applications I don't use" and put it there.
6) Firewire Target Disk mode:
You can use any firewire cable that works for harddrives etc, FW400 is good. This can be useful for Firewire target disk mode.
Firewire disk mode lets your Mac act as a simple harddrive to another Mac. Simply plug your Macs together directly using a firewire cable. Boot the problematic Mac by holding down the letter T when you hear the chime. Eventually, a huge Firewire symbol will bounce around the screen. Meanwhile, it should appear as a normal harddrive on the other Mac.
Use this to repair permissions, perform disk checks, repair missing system files etc, make backups etc.
When you're done, eject it and turn the problematic Macs power off and on.