All browsers crash when uploading photos!

Question

Hi,
I've had a problem for a while now which is getting really annoying: both Firefox (latest version) and Internet Explorer "unexpectedly quit" instantly as soon as I try to upload photo files. This happens as soon as I click any 'browse' button (to upload files) on any webpage.
I used to be able to get my files online by using Safari instead, but today it began to crash too, in exactly the same way! I tried clearing Safari preferences, etc. as an experiment, but it didn't help.
A possibly unrelated but equally mysterious problem has also cropped up recently involving my passwords - first my banking website, and now Shutterfly, have started rejecting my (correct) password several times before they will accept it and let me in! And yes, I'm sure I'm typing it correctly.
Both these problems seem to be getting worse, and I now have no way of uploading anything to the web. Could this be some sort of virus? (I thought such things didn't exist in Macland...
I'm reluctant to just upgrade to the latest Mac OS in case it has other problems... and I certainly don't want to do it unless it will solve my browser issues!
If anyone has any advice, I would be most grateful.
cheers from Down Under,
ashlingirl

Answer 1

Hi there, and thanks so much for tackling my strange problems! I'll try to answer your questions point by point - I am more or less computer literate, but once we hit the technical stuff I usually leave it to my programmer husband. Unfortunately, he's overseas on business right now, so I'll have to hack this one myself. So here we go:
Hi,
To understand what's going on here, we'll probably
have to know a bit about your network. (Passwords can
be cached; the browsers could be timing out; there
could be many reasons why you're seeing what you're
seeing.)
First, however, there are no viruses for Mac OS X.
What you are seeing therefore cannot be a virus.
Second, let's take a look at your network. How do you
connect? Are you on a LAN? Wifi? Are other people on
your network with you?
We have a wireless LAN in our house, with broadband DSL Net access (using a Netgear router). My Mac, however, is hooked directly into the router - my husband just uses the wireless functionality for his laptop. No one outside our family uses the network, and as I said my husband is away at the moment, so my computer is the only one online.
Third, could you describe what happens when your
password is rejected? There's a difference between a
quick rejection and one that takes a long time,
because the latter could be a time-out.
The password thing is weird, because it's not consistent. Yesterday, for instance, I logged onto Firefly about 10 times in a row, because the browser kept crashing and I was trying different things to fix it. At first, it would just spit me back to the login page once (immediately, with no delay, and no error message), but then when I typed in the same password the second time, it would let me in. Which is strange enough - but by the end of my session, I couldn't get it to let me in at all, no matter how many times I tried. It would just immediately send me back to the login page, over and over again.
Fourth, have you tried an FTP client to upload
photos? (This may not be possible with the services
that you use, but I don't use them, so I don't know.)
Here's where I admit my ignorance: I don't know what an FTP client is. The main thing I'm trying to do is to upload photos to either Shutterfly.com (so my relatives in the US can view/print them easily) or eBay. Don't know whether a separate upload program would be usable in these circumstances.
I actually suspect the problem I have is with the little Java plugin that Shutterfly uses as a picture-download interface. Maybe lots of websites use similar bits of code, and that's why I'm having trouble on all of them.
But all I really know is that every time I hit a "Browse" button on any website (which normally brings up a menu showing the contents of my desktop and lets me choose files to upload), my browser dies. And this happens on Mozilla Firefox, IE, and now Safari too.
Fifth, take a look at the Console logs. The Console
app is in Applications > Utilities. It will show you
what the applications say right before they crash and
die. Also, in the Console app, you can look at the
crash log for Firefox and Safari.
I got in there, and there is certainly heaps of info: the problem is, I don't know what most of it means. Would you mind terribly if I just paste all of yesterday's activity here and see if anything jumps out at you? Here goes:
2006-08-22 07:44:21.668 ScreenSaverEngine[10562] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 07:48:10.087 ScreenSaverEngine[10565] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 08:40:36.372 ScreenSaverEngine[10579] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 08:43:07.356 ScreenSaverEngine[10579] expanding file buffer
Mac OS X Version 10.3.9 (Build 7W98)
2006-08-22 10:54:23 +1000
2006-08-22 11:03:29.631 ScreenSaverEngine[10627] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 12:57:24.037 ScreenSaverEngine[10659] expanding file buffer
Aug 22 13:06:54 Megalomania kernel: USBF: 1638771.630 IOUSBInterface[0x259c800]::handleOpen failing because super::handleOpen failed (someone already has it open)
Aug 22 13:06:54 Megalomania kernel: USBF: 1638771.630 IOUSBInterface[0x259c800]::open super::open failed (0x0)
2006-08-22 13:09:54.874 ScreenSaverEngine[10668] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 13:11:37.585 iPhoto[10670] * -[NSTextField setAllowsMultipleSelection:]: selector not recognized
2006-08-22 13:11:42.474 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.696 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.706 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.759 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.805 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.822 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.870 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.882 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.929 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.940 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
2006-08-22 13:11:42.995 iPhoto[10670] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Applications/iPhoto.app/Contents/Resources/Themes/PictureBookOriginal-Hardcove r.IPBookTheme/Contents/Resources/DesignPrototype.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.2, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Aug 22 13:24:57 Megalomania /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:25:04 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/firefox-bin.crash.log
Aug 22 13:25:07 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/firefox-bin.crash.log
2006-08-22 13:26:19.607 CrashSubmitter[10698] Crash report submitted!
Aug 22 13:30:07 Megalomania /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:30:12 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:30:12 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:30:50 Megalomania /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: * Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. *
Aug 22 13:31:27 Megalomania /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:31:34 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:31:34 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:32:08 Megalomania /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:32:15 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/firefox-bin.crash.log
Aug 22 13:32:16 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/firefox-bin.crash.log
Aug 22 13:47:47 Megalomania kernel: USBF: 1641224.731 IOUSBInterface[0x2603200]::handleOpen failing because super::handleOpen failed (someone already has it open)
Aug 22 13:47:47 Megalomania kernel: USBF: 1641224.731 IOUSBInterface[0x2603200]::open super::open failed (0x0)
Aug 22 13:52:35 Megalomania /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:52:38 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:52:39 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:55:19 Megalomania /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: LaunchApplication(/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Shutterfly Plugin Agent)
Aug 22 13:55:22 Megalomania crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
Aug 22 13:55:23 Megalomania crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/Amanda/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Safari.crash.log
2006-08-22 14:12:23.221 ScreenSaverEngine[10747] expanding file buffer
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin: can't map file: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player Enabler.plugin ((os/kern) invalid argument)
2006-08-22 15:29:35.816 ScreenSaverEngine[10769] expanding file buffer
2006-08-22 20:40:23.881 ScreenSaverEngine[10841] expanding file buffer
Whew! Thanks so much (again) for wading through my quagmire of computer angst. They're great when they work, but when things go wrong it's enough to make you want to slash your wrists! I always tell my husband I don't know how he does it.
cheers and many thankyous,
Ashlingirl