Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3.x:

"Other..." option missing at login We previously covered an issue with Panther where the login window does not provide the "Other..." option, even if the root user account is enabled. Apple has posted a Knowledge Base article that provides another possible solution:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. From the View menu, choose Accounts.
3. Make sure the "List of users" option is selected.
4. Close System Preferences.
5. Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
6. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.
7. Open Directory Access.
8. Click the lock and authenticate.
9. Click NetInfo to enable that option.
10. Click Apply.
11. Quit Directory Access.

Address Book import problem MacFixIt reader Al Buffardi had been having problems, after importing contacts from Claris Emailer into Mail/Address Book, where Address Book would unexpectedly quit when switching views from "Card Only" to "Card and Columns." Upon examining log files in Console, Al found repeated errors relating to Address Book:

Address Book[449] *** -[NSNull length]: selector not recognized

After some investigation, Al found the source of the problem: when importing contacts from Claris Emailer, groups were created in Address Book that had no group names. These "no name" groups worked fine under older versions of Address Book, but under 10.3.1 or later, their mere existence appears to cause the aforementioned crashes. Deleting these "blank" groups from within Address Book fixed the problem.

10.3 issues? Drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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