Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) #8: Wake-from-sleep issues, solutions; More on Spotlight limitations; Mail.app 2.0 solutions; more

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 11:22 a.m. PT

14 min read

Wake-from-sleep issues continued We continue to receive reports from readers whose Mac OS X 10.4-upgraded systems will not wake properly from sleep, either refusing to wake completely or freezing upon wake-up.

Confirmation for device removal As noted yesterday, errant devices (or devices, one way or another, in conflict with a Mac OS X 10.4 installation) can cause problems with waking from sleep.

One reader describes a case in which removing an internal 160 GB drive connected via SATA resolved wake-from-sleep issues:

The reader writes:

"I have a Dual 2.5 G5 and I just installed Tiger onto a new 74GB Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor drive. I left the original 160GB Seagate Barracuda in the other drive bay (it still has 10.2.9 installed on it). The problem I have is now when I put the G5 to sleep in Tiger and then wake it up, the screen comes on but I get the dreaded spinning beach ball. The only thing I can do to get it working again is to do a hard reset. If I remove the original 160GB drive and boot from only the 74GB drive, I can put it to sleep and wake it with no problem. If I boot from the 160GB drive in 10.2.9, I can also put it to sleep and wake it with no problem (this is with both drives installed)."

Dylan Menges describes a case in which a FireWire/USB PCI card was causing similar issues:

Dylan writes:

"I had a similar experience where Tiger wouldn?t wake from sleep after an erase/clean install. Remembering that I had a media card reader plugged into an internal Orange Micro Firewire/USB board, I pulled the device from the board and restarted. Put Tiger to sleep and was able to wake immediately without any problems."

Finally, MacFixIt reader JD was able to resolve wake-from-sleep issues by unpairing a Bluetooth mouse manufactured by Kensington from his system.

JD writes:

"Since installing Mac OS X 10.4, I've had about five hard crashes of my system. The system becomes totally unresponsive, where not even the force-quit window can be launched. [...] This generally happens when the computer wakes from sleep. [...] However, I found that after removing my Kensington Bluetooth PilotMouse (actually taking the batteries out), the problem seems to have disappeared. Also, the problem occurred whether or not the Kensington MouseWorks software was installed. When I power the mouse back up, and re-pair it with my system, the problem returns. So, for now, I'm back to using a corded mouse (along with an Apple bluetooth keyboard, which works just fine)."

Possible Solution: Resetting the PMU/SMU Another procedure that has resolved wake-from-sleep issues for some users is resetting of the PMU (power management unit) or SMU (system management unit) dependent on the Mac model.

Instructions for doing so are as follows for several systems:

Mac mini

PowerBook and iBook

PowerMac G4

PowerMac G5

Simply disconnecting your Mac from its power source (the method for resetting the Mac mini's PMU) may have similar beneficial results.

.plist files to blame? In some cases, it appears that problematic .plist files, particularly those located in the "ByHost" folder located in ~/Library/Preferences (your user-level Library folder) are to blame for wake-from-sleep issues.

MacFixIt reader Ernst Mulder provides a case example:

"I found out it (my wake-from-sleep issue) was a user-specific problem, with another newly created problem I didn't experience it.

"In the end I just deleted many old and suspect preference files from my ~/Library/Preferences folder. I deleted all 'ByHost' prefs, and all of the usual suspects. I also deleted a lot of very old preference files. After that the problem went away."

Spotlight

Invisible files functionality lacking, alternatives As noted yesterday, Spotlight, in its current form, refuses to find invisible files. Although the user can set a criterion to search for both visible and invisible files, or invisible files only (through the Finder-based method of accessing Spotlight), no files are found.

While we haven't yet found a solution to this issue, you can still view invisible files with the aid of an file browser like Kilometre or Invisible Finder.

Do not attempt to use Spotlight before other menu items load Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Scott Rose notes that if you attempt to perform a Spotlight search from the Mac OS X menu bar before other, third-party menu bar items have loaded, it will not function properly.

Scott writes:

"We've noticed that immediately after we log into our account, if we click on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar before all the 3rd-party menu bar icons have finished loading, the Spotlight icon will not be clickable at all (i.e. it does nothing when you click on it). You have to log out/log back in again to make the spotlight icon start working again."

Mail.app 2.0 We continue to cover a number of issues with Mail.app 2.0, included with Mac OS X 10.4, including sluggish performance, problems importing old mail, and issues with IMAP servers.

Import issues In one reader's case, importing issues were caused by an inexplicable naming problem of old .mbox (Unix-style mailbox data stores). Renaming the .mbox files with their proper extension resolved the issue.

The reader writes:

"When Mail under Tiger started up, I noticed that it had not imported some of my mailboxes -- they were there, but they were empty. After trying to figure out what was happening, I noticed that the mailboxes not imported ended in .mbox.mbox instead of just .mbox. I renamed them, and they imported without problem. G. Hart"

Another solution involves moving the old Sent and Inbox .mbox files to the new ~/Library/Mail folder (on your Mac OS X 10.4 installation) then deleting the folder ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index. After restarting Mail.app, you will be asked to prompted to import files, at which point you should select the ~/Library/Mail folder.

MacFixIt reader Scott Ressler is one reader who successfully applied this workaround.

"I had an issue with importing in Mail 2.0 from a different partition (10.3.9). It's apparently more common a problem when you do an Erase and Install. My particular problem was that Mail would import all of the mailboxes except the Inbox and the Sent Mail box.

"I copied those 2 mailboxes from their original partition into my Mac OS X 10.4 ~/Library/Mail folder and then, with the program off, trashed the file Envelope Index. When I then launched Mail it brought up an import dialogue box and I steered it to my ~/Library/Mail folder and it worked fine, even quickly... only had to rebuild the index."

Deleting the ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index and ~/Library/Mail/ Envelope Index-journal then restarting Mail.app may also solve other issues with the application.

Another reader reports that he was able to work around a similar issue by deleting third-party Mail.app services from the ~/Library/Services folder.

He writes:

"I had 2 mailboxes that will not import after the upgrade from 10.3 - 10.4. When I attempt to import the mbox, Mail's response is that the mbox is not valid. I resorted to re-downloading my mail from 1 of the pop3 accounts, which wasn't a big deal. [...] The solution for Mail's quirky behavior with typing and with refusing to send is to delete "services." I had three services in my User/ Library/Services folder: SmartWrap, cocoAspell, and aspell. Deleted all three, and Mail now functions."

Safari 2.0 Yesterday we noted an apparent deficiency in the copy/paste mechanism in Safari 2.0 where images copied to the clipboard are not correctly processed by some other applications.

MacFixIt reader Stan Woo-Sam reports that copying images in Safari 2.0, then using the "Paste Special" command available in some applications allows proper pasting.

Stan writes:

"Paste special in Word and Excel both will paste the image as expected. Pasting into other OS X apps seems to work fine so it seems to be something special about Entourage and Powerpoint and the new webkit."

Speakable Items fails Several users have reported that Speakable Items fails under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Paul Derby offers a temporary workaround:

"Bring up the Speech preferences in System PReferences. Go to the 'Commands' tab and turn off all the selected items in the ''select a command set' area. Turn speakable items off. Turn speakable items on. Then reselect the items that were previously turned off in the 'select a command set' area. Like magic, the 'speech commands' window suddenly fills with the commands and Speakable Items starts to work."

AFP/SMB access problems -- particularly with Mac OS 9 systems Problems with AFP (Apple filesharing protocol) access have become some of the most crippling issues with Mac OS X 10.4 for users who work in mixed Mac OS 9/Mac OS X/Windows networking environments.

One reader writes:

"I can confirm the AFP-sharing-with-older-Macs bug (I hope it's a bug, and not a 'feature.') I was very happy with Tiger until today. I got to school (I'm a high school teacher) and tried to connect to our aging (OS 8?) AFP server that serves up our attendance data files. Our attendance program runs in Classic and has to connect to this old AFP server to get access to the data file. It's a pain in the butt, but at least it's worked until now. But today, I tried to mount the AFP server just like I have all year under Panther, and I got the following error message: 'This file server uses an incompatible version of the AFP protocol. You cannot connect to it.'

Another reader, Sherman Heinig, writes:

"I have a Mac OS 9 server which was accessible from all my (5) macs running Panther. Now it is only accessible from the one that I downgraded to Panther because our friends at Avid (Protools) not supporting Tiger for about another '6-10 weeks'.

"When going to Command-K > Connect to Server > clicking on : afp:/at/ServerName:* > Connect > I get this message: 'This file server uses an incompatible version of the AFP protocol. You cannot connect to it.'

Finally, Mark Suthers writes:

"I am having exactly the same problem that I just read about in Monday's update. It was driving me crazy, but at least I now know that it's not just me. I need to share files with a machine running OS 9, so I'm hoping/praying for a fix for this."

Possible solutions: Resetting NVRAM, repairing permissions Some users have reported that resetting NVRAM, via the following process:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command, Option, O and F keys simultaneously combination during startup.

At the prompt, type the following commands, one by one, pressing the return key after each (your system will automatically restart after pressing return the last time):

reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all

Possible solution: Deleting aliases and re-creating MacFixIt reader Tracy Valleu reports that deleting, then re-creating any AFP aliases restores access:

"I had been accessing my other computers via Alias icons on my main computer's desktop. Trashing those; using the 'Go..' menu, and re-creating them solved all my problems."

Possible solution: Re-establishing Keychain authentication Jeff Silvestris, meanwhile, reports that re-establishing keychain passwords (deleting then re-entering them) resolved the issue in his case:

"Every time I tried to connect to the SMB/CIFS file share here at work this morning it kept defaulting to my old username... even though I would make the manual change as I logged in, I kept getting a read/ write error -36.

"I fixed the problem by using Keychain Access to remove any keys associated with my old login. (Not sure, delete all the keys for that share). This fixed it and everything is working again."

Removable media devices (CD/DVD burners) not recognized (cont.) Readers continue to report problems with recognition of a removable media devices (particularly CD and DVD optical drives) under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Adam writes:

"Same problem here, my Dual 1Ghz G4 MDD with an Apple supplied Superdrive won't recognize blank media in the finder."

Another reader adds:

"My Powerbook which has a Matshita DVD-RW drive, was not recognized under Tiger. I inserted a blank media CD-R (the same media brand I've used hundreds of times in the past w/ Panther), and the OS alerted me that it did not support the drive. After several restarts, repairing my disk permissions, and inserting several types of available CD-R and DVD media types, the drive started working again."

Despite the deficiency in the Finder, several readers have reported that they are still able to burn media using third-party utilities like Toast or Apple's own Disk Utility (located in Applications/Utilities).

MacFixIt reader Tom writes:

"Saw a post about people having trouble burning in Tiger. I have a Mac mini 1.42 Combo drive. I am also having a problem burning with the finder. When I insert a CD it tells me my drive is unsupported. System profiler says it is supported, but it is a no go. I can burn with Toast 6.0.9, but not with the Finder."

Widget Inconsistency MacFixIt reader Scott Rose notes an inconsistency in the way widgets are installed, dependent on the developer:

"We downloaded the Yahoo Traffic widget, and when we double-clicked on it in the Finder, it showed up in Dashboard. But after a restart, it was no longer in Dashboard nor was it in the widget bar area. We had to manually create a new folder for it at ~/Library/Widgets and place it in there ourselves. (We could have also manually placed it in Library/Widgets, but the point is that we had to manually move it into the appropriate folder.)

"But then, many Widgets automatically move themselves from your desktop into the appropriate folder, without you even double-clicking on them at all, and they show up in the widget bar immediately! The Maya Cards widget is an example of this. After we downloaded this widget, it automatically installed itself without any intervention at all on our part at all.

"Other widgets will add themselves into the appropriate folder for you, but won't show up in the widget bar until after a restart. The Cube widget was an example of this for us.

"Other widgets require you to double-click on them to activate them, and they do put themselves in the appropriate folder for you."

iChat AV performance issues A handful of readers are reporting issues with iChat AV 3.0 performance, an issue for which are seeking confirmation.

MacFixIt reader Bruce Epps writes:

"I am having iChat issues since upgrading my two Macs to Tiger from Panther. The frame rate for my video (as seen by both me and my chat video partner) goes down dramatically, resulting in a very jerky stop motion effect, even to the point of being unusable. The video looks fine during preview and at the very beginning of the chat, but quickly begins dropping,lots of frames. I?m experiencing this same problem on both my 1.25 GHz iMac and my 1.33 GHz PowerBook connected to a Road Runner cable modem via AirPort. And as a sidebar, for some reason the iChat icon in my Dock is sans AIM yellow running man on my iMac, but sports the running figure in the icon on my PowerBook?even though both have just been upgraded to Tiger."

More on "dmnotifyd" Yesterday we reported on a daemon called "dmnotifyd" that is performing background contact with Apple servers under Mac OS X 10.4. It now appears that dmnotifyd is the .Mac notification daemon (dot mac notify) and does not transmit sensitive user information.

MacFixIt reader Dave Schroeder writes:

"configuration.apple.com (the server dmnotifyd is attempting to contact) is just a dynamic configuration repository. In any event, dmnotifyd revolves around .Mac services and membership. You may choose to do a 'strings /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ DMNotification.framework/Versions/A/Resources/dmnotifyd' to examine some of its contents."

Another reader adds:

"After digging around in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ DMNotification.framework/Resources, the Info.plist says it is: .Mac Notification Framework.

"So, I left tcpdump running overnight, and didn't see any suspicious activity going out from my system. The only time I had outbound traffic to configuration.apple.com is while viewing the .Mac System Preference. It is probably just checking on .Mac subscription status, free space, sync status, etc."

Keychain import issue and fix MacFixIt reader Eli Block reports a permissions issue with importing an old Keychain into Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), as well as a solution:

"What happens is that, when following Apple's instructions on how to get a backed up keychain into a new install of Tiger, the keychain is imported and sits nicely in the keychain portion of the window, until I quit and reopen and then it is no longer there. Seemed to be an issue of settings not sticking or something.

"So I ran Keychain first aid and lo and behold, it told me that ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist should be owner 501 but is zero. So I changed that by enabling root and it didn't work. Then, I changed the group to read/write permissions and then my keychain stuck. Thats all I did, and permissions repair did nothing to help during the process and still wont report that any permissions are off even after my manual fix."

Reverting to Mac OS X 10.3.x If you find any problems presented by Mac OS X 10.4 too severe or disruptive to critical workflow processes, you may want to consider reverting to Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) as described in our tutorial "Reverting to an earlier version of Mac OS X."

Third-party applications

StuffIt Deluxe 9.0.1 Several readers report issues launching StuffIt Deluxe 9.0.1 under Mac OS X 10.4. An Allume Systems thread is tracking the issue with several suggested, but failed, solutions.

Speedtools Yesterday, we reported on a problem with the QuickBack component of Speedtools Utilities that can cause a stall at shutdown.

Now MacFixIt reader Todd Koltis, who initially noted the issue, reports receiving an e-mail from Intech (developer of Speedtools) indicating that Tiger compatibility is now available in a newly posted, same-version number build.

Todd writes:

"I received an email today from Intech informing me that they have corrected the bug and that the full version available for download now contains the fix. It carries the same version number for the suite (2.2). I have installed and test it and now works without a problem. They also said the OEM customers would have the fix in a few days.

Photoshop CS: Fix for file opening problem Yesterday we reported that since installing Mac OS X 10.4, Photoshop CS refuses to open any new files or create any new documents, reporting a "program error" when one tries to do so. Our previously reported workaround involved re-installing Photoshop CS, but MacFixIt reader Bryan Schappel now offers a faster solution:

"This happens because the Archive and Install option does not copy over a necessary folder for Photoshop. The critical folder is called 'ScriptingAdditions' and is stored in the main Library folder. This folder contains one file 'Adobe Unit Types' that makes Photoshop open files that have been double-clicked or dragged to the PS icon in the Dock.

"Simply move this folder (and file) from the 'Previous System' backup to the Library folder, relaunch Photoshop and all is well again. No need to completely re-install."

BounceBack MacFixIt reader Phil Call writes: "CMS Products informed me this morning that they are in the process of upgrading their BounceBack Automatic Backup System in order to support Mac OS 10.4 and will release the upgrade v5.0.1 in a couple of weeks."