Missing files and improperly working programs

I'm posting this question on behalf of a friend who is having some serious problems with her eMac (G4 700Mhz running OS10.3), which seem to have just started tonight.
So far she's found problems in a few areas.
iPhoto: When she looks the files up through finder (user>pictures>iPhoto Library) a large number of the folders and pictures are missing. When she launches iPhoto, no images come up.
Mail: When she launches Mail, her address book isn't accessible. That's to say, it's not even there any more.
iTunes: She looked quickly through her iTunes library and is pretty sure that some of her music is missing as well, though she wasn't absolutely sure on that as she had only just discovered the problems when she called me in a panic.
It sounds similar to a problem another friend had when they inadvertently changed the name of their "Home" user file and all the settings and many files were "lost" (a problem we resolved with the help of someone on here), but I am assured that that is not the case with this situation.
I haven't seen the computer myself as of yet as we live in different cities, but conveniently I am going to visit this weekend and was hoping I might show up with some idea of what might have happened.
Are there any current Mac based viruses out there that could do this? She's never had a virus before (nor have I, in 7 years with a mac), she doesn't use any p2p's or download any files through torrents or sites (though that doesn't mean her husband doesn't). Is there a good anti virus program to use for mac? Preferably a free one to start with.
I recently picked up a copy of techtool pro and thought I'd bring it and give it a try, but as I haven't used it yet myself I'm not sure of it's full capabilities. I also have some recovery software i can try. Is she best to just leave the computer as is for the next 2 days till we can run some programs or should she try running disk utility or something else?
I realize it's an older computer, though she's had no problems before this, and now is not the time to be buying a new one if possible.
Sorry for the length of this, just trying to be thorough for you. Any help/advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Christopher
Message was edited by: x2pher

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into that program, but from what I just read about it, it sounds like the copy of Techtool Pro I have will do all of that and more, but hey, everything helps.
So, I just got here last night and this morning is the first chance I've had to look at the computer so thought I'd give a bit of an update.
From what I can see it's like random files have just gone missing. There's no trace of certain files, a number of the iPhoto "date" folders are missing, of the ones still present, half of them are completely empty not even containing the "data", "thumbs", or "originals" folders. Most of the folders that still contain images, are still missing the "data", "thumbs", or "originals" folders that should accompany them. And when I open iPhoto, it says the library is empty, it's almost as if the Library.data file (3mb in size) has been corrupted or that iphoto is just looking in the wrong place for the iPhoto Library. I'm a little lost here as it's not like with iTunes where you can select the location of your Library.
The missing songs in iTunes, are just missing songs and are easily replaced, but the missing photo's are obviously important. I have a data recovery program I'm going to try, but if we could prevent this from happening in the future that would be great. Though to do that we need to know what's happened.
Oh, and as for the missing address book link in the Mail program, it's not just that, the entire address book program is no longer on the computer, the only remaining files related to it are those in the users > name > application support > address book folder.
Haven't looked to see what else may be missing, but as far as my friend can tell, she says nothing else is missing that she knows of.
So far I've only run Verify Disk permissions/Disk, and that turned up nothing.
It's like someone's just gone through and deleted all these random files/programs, but why in such a random pattern?
Message was edited by: x2pher

Similar Messages

Reinstalling AE and PP due to an error with dynamic link. Where do i find the program install? And tips on how to reinstall without messing things up? last question is, does my recent files and saves work after the reinstall?

I have allready bought the programs, but need to reinstall AE and PP due to an error with dynamic link.
Where do i find the program install?
And tips on how to reinstall without messing things up?
last question is, does my recent files and saves work after the reinstall?
Thank you

karianne wrote:
I have allready bought the programs, but need to reinstall AE and PP due to an error with dynamic link.
Where do i find the program install?
Which versions? Which operating system?
Try Download and Installation Help

How do i restore missing files for i work 09 as it is asking me to reinstall but cant find the disk?

how do i restore missing files for i work 09 as it is asking me to reinstall but cant find the disk?

Hello Jessica472,
It sounds like you need to recover some missing files but do not have access to the iWork '09 disc you used to install it. If you have a Time Machine backup and know what files you need, you can use the "Restoring specific files or folders" section of the following article to restore them:
Mac Basics: Time Machine backs up your Mac
If you do not have Time Machine, you will need the disc to reinstall the software suite.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
Sterling

Download has left me with missing files and cannot start iTunes

I was prompted to upgrade iTunes and so I did. The upgrade started when Genuis was still doing it's thing. At the end of the download, I was prompted to restart. I closed what I was working on and restarted. Now, I when I try to start iTunes, I get an error message that says there are missing files and that I should re-install iTunes. If I uninstall, will I lose the music files? I tried to re-download, but this did not fix anything. Any advice?

Now, I when I try to start iTunes, I get an error message that says there are missing files and that I should re-install iTunes.
With that one in that context, I think we should check for malware.
Try downloading and installing the free version of Malwarebytes AntiMalware. Update your MBAM definitions and then run a full scan of the PC. (Takes about 2 hour on my Lenovo.)
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
Does the scan find any infections? If so, please paste the contents of the log file for the scan in a reply here so we can have a look.

Searching for missing files and damaged photo icon

I am trying to view photos that I have viewed in this program numerous times before but now when I click on the photos, I get a message that says "searching for missing files". Sometimes, the photo appears with a red icon below it that resembles a wripped photo. Does this mean my photo has been damaged by the program?

I too have been told to find them on my hard drive but still nothing comes up, I can find the picture name and then do a search, but nothing. I've tried several times and it just keeps saying seach for missing files not found. I can see my collection of pictures, but there blury and then when I try to click on them, it says searching for missing file and it gives me the file name, and then I've tried to go under my search and put that file name in and nothing comes up, I also got NO help from adobe and they want us to buy more products??? They could have warned us somehow on what happens if you move them or try and put them on disc, and that's what happen, I put some on disk or at least thought I did and then realized I didn't want to do that, so I hit the UNDUE and I guess it was so late or something, cuz I can see the pictues, just can't open them. I'm wandering if I need to have a expert see if he can get them off of Adobe, I really want the pictues I have graduation pictures on there and need them very much. Would love to have help from anybody. Please.
Thank you
K

Missing Files and Locating Bug

Hi,
In LR2, if I relocated a folder of files/photos, for example move them from a primary hard drive (on my macbook) to an external hard drive, the catalogue would indicate missing files with a '?' icon in the top right hand corner of the file.
To re-locate these files was simple, right click on the missing file and for OSX simply click 'show in finder' and find the missing file in it's new location.
Then all missing files from that particular folder would all be systematically found.
In LR3 the above process has no effect. If I try to relocate a missing file nothing happens.
Any ideas?
Many thanks
Tomas

A little spookie, just before I noticed your post I tried the 'Find Missing Folder' option in the folder tab in the library module and that worked fine.
Clicking the '?' icon or right clicking and selecting 'Show in Finder' still has no effect though. In LR2 this never failed.
Thanks very much for such a fast response

When in firefox this comes up-your computer is low in memory. Save your files and close these programs.

The available RAM memory on our computer no problem. And we have over 50 gigs of hard drive memory. We have also cleared off history files and open programs. But when my wife plays games on facebook, farmville and the new one just out, a pop up says 'your computer is low on memory. Save your files and close these programs- Fire fox. Our internet security is fully functional and a complete diagnostic has revealed no malware, viruses, trojans, on our system.

Hello,
According to the error message, it should be a Windows issue.
Try OWA and see if we can send/receive email properly. If OWA works fine, I suggest we post this question to Windows 7 Forum below:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w7itpro
Thanks,
Simon Wu
TechNet Community Support

I am trying to install software for iTwin Connect, but after downloading the dmg file and launching the program, I receive a message saying the file can't open and to check my internet connection. Any ideas?

I am trying to install software for iTwin Connect, but after downloading the dmg file and launching the program, I receive a message saying the file can't open and to check my internet connection. Any ideas?

Many Thanks, Kurt.
I knew I'd seen the solution you've provided somewhere - either in MacWorld or MacFormat - but couldn't remember the Gatekeeper bit!
I shall save it somewhere VERY safe now in case this happens again …
You have made an old man very happy and saved me from worrying that senile decay had suddenly set in. (I was 70 last week so you might understand the situation from that.)
Best wishes
OllyanDinah

Repeating problems (1) Many Missing Files; and (2) Downloading From iTunes

I am having multiple issues with the iTunes store currently. I have spoken with an Apple Expert on August 14, 2010 (case number available if needed). Although he was very good at helping me to the best of his ability, he referred me to iTunes Store Customer Service, which I previously was in contact with.
I have 2 types of repeating problems (1) Many Missing Files; and (2) Downloading From iTunes Store.
_Problem One - (1) Downloading From iTunes Store_
I have 1610 missing files from my iTunes folders. I created a list of missing items by following these steps:
+If for any reason you find yourself with random missing tracks, (or are trying to recover from a dying hard drive like me), there is an easy way to isolate those missing tracks.+
+1. Create a standard playlist called "Not Missing".+
+2. Drag your entire library into that playlist. Missing tracks cannot+
+be copied to a playlist.+
+3. Create a smart playlist called where you select the following conditions in the options window for the new smart playlist:+
+*dropdown menu* PLAYLIST+
+*dropdown menu* IS NOT+
+*dropdown menu* NOT MISSING.+
+4. Rename the smart playlist "Missing"+
+5. Right Click the "Missing" playlist+
+6. Click the "Export..." option+
+7. Select the Plain Text option and Desktop location+
My missing playlistable items represent a better part of a decades worth of audiobook files, transfered files from my PC days, etc... i loved my - now missing - Doctor Who and Torchwood purchases from iTunes.
I have already read the Trouble Shooting, checked Time Machine Backup, and been walked through replacing the preferences list. The missing file path from the "get info" options in iTunes points towards a non-existant file.
_Problem Two (2) Downloading From iTunes Store_
I have had problems downloading files from iTunes for months. I first noticed it with the TV Show "Avatar: The Last Airbender". Lately, when I download from the (non-music) part of the store, the majority of files are downloaded and then immediately not found. This has been prompting iTunes to repeat the download. Until I force quit itunes and *potentially cry*.
There have been multiple iTunes store purchases of audio books recently. If I reported the missing file immediately, I can contact iTunes support to repost the file and that usually fixes the issue. But today, I went to go rewatch "Torchwood: Children of Earth" and noticed Problem One.
_Hind Sight_
If provided with a spreadsheet of my iTunes Store purchase history, I can write a vlookup( formula in excel to compare the list against my exported missing list so a shortlist of what is missing from just my iTunes Store purchase history can be created (hint: it's the majority of items from the list, others are years worth of files from my PC days). If we could do that, could iTunes make my missing purchases available?
Then we can focus on purely, trying to figure out why they went missing in the first place - so we can prevent it again & possibly help others from running into the same.
Plea
I strongly suspect the two issues are related to a root cause ... in addition to my user error in file management of backups ... what is going on?

iTunes Support (Eric) emailed me some instructions. I am posting, in hopes that this will help others.
_Suggestions from iTunes Support_
Troubleshooting 1. iTunes Store: Finding missing purchases and downloads http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Troubleshooting 2. Direct Assistance
_Results based on Suggestions_
Results on "Searching the harddrive" - did not resolve my concerns
Results from "Direct Assistant" - i emailed the list of the missing files... status is pending
Conclusion
I'll follow up again later, if I have new news.

Catalogs, Missing Files, and Question Marks for Beginners

Hello, fellow non-power-users. I just wanted to post something here that I've learned with my travails and travels using LightRoom 3. In the past, Adobe has paid me to write for them, and I'm a professional writer. So why am I doing this for free? Because I wish to heck I'd understood this stuff before I dove into LR. Somehow, even with reading a book on the program, I didn't really get it.
1) Most of the people who are kind enough to post and help on Adobe support and other forums on the Interwebs are power users of Lightroom. The great thing is, they often know what they're talking about. The bad thing is, many of them don't understand what it's like to be a non-power-user who really has no intention of becoming a power user. Be very, very careful before you try to take their advice about any large issue that might have serious consequences for your photos.
2) LR has about forty million ways to do things, so it can be overwhelming, and you may also receive lots of contradictory information about how to accomplish stuff. If you're like me---not a professional photographer, more a refugee from the annoying land of iPhoto who just needs a *little* more power and customization---you may have trouble streamlining, figuring out the few things you actually need the program to do for you. Try some introductory videos and tutorials, even books, but don't expect them to solve your real problems with the program.
3) Before you begin, grasp a few concepts:
     a. When you're working in LR, you're working with a "catalog." It shows you images of your photos, but these aren't really your photos. Your actual photos are *files* that live on your computer somewhere. Think of it as a slideshow projected on a wall: you can see the photos on the wall, but they aren't the "real photo." If you walked up to the wall and painted on the projection of a slide, the "real photo" file would not be changed. What LR does is keep track of those wall paintings for you, so if you wanted to print up a version of that slide and include your brush strokes, LR could do that for you. The catalog is a type of database.
     b. So where are those real photos, those files? Probably all over your computer in different places. You may want to consolidate them all in one place before you start using Lightroom. Here's why: once Lightroom thinks your "real photo" is in a certain place, it doesn't want you to move the "real photo" file. Say you have a photo called that someone sent in email. You put it on your desktop. Now you are tempted to drag-n-drop it onto Lightroom. DO NOT DO IT. Because someday, you might want that photo to not clutter up your desktop. You'll drag it to another folder on your hard drive, and BOOM, now Lightroom cannot find the photo.
You can't work on the photo from within Lightroom. You can't print it. Lightroom will show a question mark ? on its wall-projector slide of your photo file. Often when someone moves files on their computer, it's not a single file on a desktop. It's a bunch of things they are trying to organize. Adobe knows this, which is why they have a "find missing photos" command. They know you are likely to screw this up. The command will show you those missing files. You have to select them individually by hand and search your computer for them to relink. You can spend a lot of time relinking photos. It sucks. Really sucks.
     c. If you do need to move stuff, Lightroom does let you do it, but only from within the program. So, open up LR, and look in the left-hand column for an item called "Folders." (You will be in Library mode to make this happen.) You can move your "real photo" files around from within this area. It is a clunky process and an enormous pain in the butt.
     d. Rant time: For some reason, one of the most sophisticated and long-lived software companies in history, the developers that completely changed the worlds of art, design, photography, and publishing--you got it, Adobe--have not been able to solve this problem and chase down your real photo files if you moved them from within the Finder, the way you normally move files on a computer. Go figure. (Irrelevant note: I've been using their products since Pagemaker 1.0 and it's sort of astonishing that they've never solved this problem, in LR or InDesign or elsewhere. It's like publishing a magazine using Quark in 1995, rushing to find the messed-up links before you hand-carry your ZIP drive over to the printer. Hee hee.)
4) Decide whether you want to divide your photos into a few separate catalogs, or whether you want one enormous catalog ("master catalog"). Then try not to change your mind.
Here is my story:
Summary: I started with multiple catalogs and regret merging them into one.
I hired a photographer/supposedly-LR guy to set up my LR and he suggested multiple catalogs, each easily saveable (catalog AND its photos) to a single external hard drive. I only made two: one for family photos, one for a big art project. Whenever I asked questions online about using LR, everyone told me to combine all photos into one big master catalog. Eventually I did, and I regret it. As a non-power-user, I screwed up something in the merging process, and ended up with a lot of question-mark, missing-photo problems, and a bunch of duplicate photos to boot. What a waste of time.
If you're not a pro, you probably don't need a gigantic single database to deal with. If you're someone who uses Dropbox or another non-Adobe cloud method to store and work with your photos, and you don't have unlimited storage, you may find it way more convenient to have a few different catalogs.
Power users probably don't screw up the process of merging all their catalogs into one. Power users have, from what I've read online, many complicated ways of making a big master catalog work the way they want, say for working on small numbers of files while traveling with a laptop, and then getting that work into the giant master catalog when they get back home to their studios.
But I am not a power user, and if you're reading this, you probably aren't a power user either. So perhaps my experience will be useful to you.
5) Paying for plug-ins to help with all this nonsense.
You can buy plug-ins that help you do things this application should already do by itself. For example, "Duplicate Finder" goes through and finds all the photos that you've accidentally imported more than once into your catalog. Then you can painstakingly go through, figure out which copy to keep, and delete them. Often, these "duplicate" photos are not duplicates of your "real photo" file. But at some point you moved your "real photo" file while you were tidying up your computer files, and later accidentally re-imported that photo into your LR catalog. Since LR doesn't follow your files around when you move them from within your computer/Finder, LR thinks it's a whole brand-new file. It's like your projector is projecting three images on the wall at the same time. You have to figure out which one to keep, which one will save your wall-painting changes, etc. And it is a huge pain in the butt.
Note that you can click a box when importing photos, a box that says "Do not import suspected duplicates." This can be really helpful for avoiding duplicates in the first place. It is not, however, infallible.
OK, I hope this helps someone somewhere. I'm going to go back to the horribly time-consuming task of relinking files and trying to make my brain work the way LR's brain works.

Glad to help!
Another good thing to do from time to time is to boot from your install CD, then choose "Disk Utility", then do a check (and repair, if necessary) of your boot disk.
You can't verify or fix a disk you've started from, thus the need to boot from a CD. You can boot from a second hard disk to do this test if it has MacOS on it.

"Missing File" and Publishing errors

Okay...I'm having two problems and they are becoming INCREDIBLY frustrating. The first one occurs when opening iWeb (1.1.2). I receive an error that reads as follows:
"The following errors occurred while trying to open this document:
Type: Missing File
Description: unnamed"
It gives me the option to continue, which I do and all seems to work well.
That is until recently. Beginning this October 19th, for no apparent reason, iWeb decided to give me a new error whenever I try to publish: "Publish Error: An unknown error occurred"...nice, "unknown", what do I do with that??
I am a teacher, and I depend on this website to maintain contact with my students and parents. This is so aggravating. I need to publish my sites!
Can anyone out there help??

hi, Jorge
you can try do as follow step
- start transaction rsa1
- select "System>Status"
- remember the Gui status
- double click on the Program Gui
- select in the ABAP editor the icon "Display object list" or push
(CtrlShiftF5).
- open the GUI status structure
- select the GUI status which is displayed in "System>Status" by a
double click
- select from the menu "User interface>Generate"
restart the transaction rsa1

Automatic reconnect missing files doesn't work after moving to new pc

In edit-->preferences-->files there is a check box to automatically search for and reconnect missing files. I have checked it and it doesn't appear to do anything. Using File-->reconnect all missing files it seems to find them OK, but you need to click 'reconnect' for every file! I have just moved my pics to a new pc so the path is different. I tried editing the 'My Catalogue.psa" file in Access, search and replace the path, and even that didn't work! 1000s of pics! HELP!!!

Attempted to uninstall Quicktime. The uninstall will not finish, saying it encountered a fatal error. Quicktime will not run, either.
when a QuickTime uninstall throws that message at folks, it's usually best to try completely scraping the itunes and QuickTime program files and installation configuration information from the PC, and doing a careful staged reinstall afterwards.
try the technique in the following post. (it includes instructions on what to do if Add/Remove isn't letting you uninstall one of the programs.)
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=3366434

Missing Files and Applications

Yesterday I turned on my computer and a folder and a file on my desktop were missing. I searched for them using Spotlight and Terminal, but was unable to find any trace of them at all. All the files in the Folder are gone too.
I also noticed that my Microsoft Office 2004 programs are all gone and I can no longer open .doc files as a result.
I haven't installed anything new or changed the computer recently. Can you help me figure out how to find the files and what may have caused it?
(This post may belong somewhere else but this was the best place I could find. Thanks)

Hey, I'm having the same problem...all my mp3's are missing, .doc files, everything I need for school, its driving me nuts and the nearest Apple Store is an hour away. If you've figured out the problem yet, or how to solve it, could you pelase let me know?

Missing files and no bundled movie

Help - I'm repeatedly losing media on a new site and getting frustrated. I made a website on my macbook pro (tiger) with iLife 08, moved it to another macbook pro (leopard) with iLife 08. (This has worked fine with another site recently). This time, sometimes it opens in iWeb on the new laptop just fine with all media intact, sometimes it opens with a white box w/ "?" inside and a message with a list of missing files for the JPEGs or "can't open bundled movie" for the QT's. After I drag it all back in, it stays that way for a few times that I open & publish the site, then it happens again, and it seems random. It publishes fine once I put everything back in there. Any ideas as to what is happening and how to fix? I have emptied caches and restarted, now I need some other ideas.
Thanks very much!

CreaturesFarley wrote:
I selected ONLY files (not applications or accounts) and there is no additional account in my 'users' folder.
That's correct. That option is for files & folders not in user accounts, such as the special Shared folder and anything installed at the top level of the drive.
If you want user data transferred, you have to transfer the account (you can skip some parts of it, though).
See Using Migration Assistant on Mountain Lion or Lion for the gory details.

Spotlight missing files and folders?

Spotlight consistently misses certain files and entire folders, which I can find by rummaging through my finder, but can't find by searching in Spotlight. No these are not hidden files or library folders. Yes I have checked my privacy settings and used the privacy options to re-index spotlight. Why would Spotlight miss certain folders? Does it only search to a certain depth? How can I get Spotlight to search these folders?

Step 1
These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -F '$Time $Message' -k Sender mdworker -o -k Message Rne Norm -k Sender mds | tail | pbcopy
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear.
The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.
The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
Step 2
Enter the following command as in Step 1 and post the output:
mdutil -as 2>&- | pbcopy
You can then quit Terminal.
Step 3
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Terminal. In the Console window, look under the heading DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION on the left for crash reports related to Spotlight. If you don't see that heading, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar. A Spotlight crash report has a name beginning in "mds" or "mdworker" and ending in ".crash". Select the most recent such report, if any, from the System and User subcategories and post the entire contents—the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)
Please don’t post any other kind of diagnostic report, such as hang logs—they're very long and not helpful.

Missing files and improperly working programs

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for