Help with hugely difficult Finder difficulties?

Okay, I need help, if anyone has it to offer. Here is my computer's history and symptoms:
It's a MacBook, 18 months old, running 10.5.5. For a while it worked fine and there have been no recent significant installations. My wife uses it for writing and while she does connect to the internet, she does almost no downloading or even viewing of any unusual websites.
Recently it began showing the spinning beachball far more often than usual, usually when browsing for a file from inside another application (that is, when attaching a document to an email or opening a document through Word). The beachball would interrupt for about 8-12 seconds, a very annoying difficulty. So far, though, livable.
Last week the computer spontaneously started up to the prohibitary sign. It had not been shut down improperly nor had anyone made any changes to the system software. I tried some things that didn't work, then called tech support (for $50, of course) and they had me delete the user's caches folder in safe mode and restart. This seemed to work, only the beachball problem got worse; it started happening when regularly in the finder: opening folders, clicking on menus, etc. An 8-12 second delay.
Today the prohibitary sign appeared again and I followed the same steps, with mixed results. It is now able to boot up, but has only minimal function. The beachball appears for 8-12 seconds at any click of the mouse, on a menu, a menu item, a folder, a file, etc. The desktop is not right; there is a desktop picture that's supposed to display but instead I see about the top 1/2 inch of that picture, then the rest of the screen is blue. This has happened the same way on multiple restarts. Furthermore, the dock will not show up and if I select "Turn hiding off" in the menu, nothing happens; that is, hiding is still turned on and moving the mouse down there does not work to unhide it. All applications I have tried are slow and prone to crashing.
As an example of its current problems: I tried to look and see what was going on with the desktop, see if I could just tell it to put that picture up again and maybe it would work (a long shot, I know, but why not try?). I went to System Preferences (8-12 second beachball delay) and then Desktop/Screen Savers (another delay). It came up on "screen savers" so I clicked "desktop." This time, 20 second delay, then it crashed, you know, a "do you want to send an error report?" crash. This happened repeated times after repeated restarts.
I know this is an insanely long post but I wanted to give as much info as possible. I am at a loss. Does anybody have any clear idea as to how to diagnose this problem and/or what steps might alleviate it? Much obliged. Thanks in advance!

Hello jupiter:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
Your post was not +"insanely long!"+ I found it most thorough.
You seem to have multiple issues - not just with the browser. I think I would do an archive and install to "eliminate" software as an issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1710
An A&I installs a fresh OS X while preserving your files, programs, and settings. It is ALWAYS a good practice to back up before software changes. You would, of course, need to run software update after the A&I to bring things to a current level.
Barry

Similar Messages

Need help with photoshop to find TGA

Need help with photoshop to find TGA on same as because I cant find it there or is it a download you need to get it. And its for photoshop element 12.

Yeah, I thought it was dumb to remove it, too. See:
Save as TGA File ? [Photoshop Elements 12]
for the workaround.

Help with Shared in finder?

i recently bought a macbook pro this friday and its the first mac i have ever owned. before this i have had only PCs. i noticed something on my finder that seemed odd to me. when i click on the "finder" on my dock on the left hand under shared there is a little computer and it says renae next to it. is this normal? what does that mean? when i click on it it says comunication failed. like i said im new to macs and im not sure if thats supposed to be there or not. its only there when i connect to the internet. could someone help me with this please its bugging the heck out of me.heres a picture any help?

It's a device on your network, either a PC or a print server.

Help with Desktop in Finder

When I had been in any program, I could click on "Finder" and then select "Desktop" and was able to view it. Now, when I try to do that, I get a message "There is no application set to open the document “Desktop”. Search the App Store for an application that can open this document, or choose an existing application on your computer." It has selections to "Choose Application", "Cancel", "Search App Store"!
I can't even select "Desktop" in "Finder" from Photoshop to open jpgs on the desktop for editing!!
What can I do to restore access to "Desktop" in "Finder"?
I would appreciate your help and suggestions.
Thanks.
Vernon

It sounds like the Desktop folder's "bundle bit" may have become set, making it behave like a "package" instead of a folder.
You can try to fix it with Terminal, but the needed SetFile command normally requires a prior installation of Xcode Tools. Instead, I would try the following:
Download [Path Finder|http://www.cocoatech.com], which has a 30-day free trial period. Navigate to the Desktop folder from within Path Finder, select it, then File Menu>Get Info. If the "Bundle bit" box is checked, uncheck it:

Help with shell script: Find Recently Modified Directories

I'm trying to do something that appears to be beyond my capacity to figure out on my own. I'm hoping that someone more skilled than I at scripting can help.
Challenge
I'm trying to build a script that finds directories and gzips each individually, but only if they've been modified within the last, say, 7 days.
Context
The idea is to create a set of gzipped directories that can then be uploaded to a remote server for backup and archival purposes. Since the parent directory is 8+ GB in size, and 99% of the contents does not change from week to week, I want to identify, zip, and upload only the directories that have been modified recently. (Uploading is outside the scope of this script).
*Cut to the Chase*
In plain english, my script might look like:
1) find sub-folders contained within "~/Sites/" that have been modified within the last 7 days; do not go more than 1 level deep (i.e., return only the top level folders within ~/Sites/)
2) loop through the returned list and gzip each directory
I'm hoping that this can be done easily. Automator doesn't provide filters that are granular enough to do this, so I'm thinking bash is the way to go. Any help would be most appreciated, and will be rewarded with all kinds of good karma. =)
-Steve

OK, here is an untested and possibly syntactically incorrect Perl script:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $siteDir = "$ENV{HOME}/Sites";
# Get all the top-level contents of the Sites directory.
opendir(SITES, $siteDir) or die "Couldn't open $siteDir folder.
my @siteContents = readdir SITES;
closedir SITES;
# Reset my script startup time to be 7 days ago.
$^T = time - (6060*247);
# Now find all the modified directories since then.
my @modifiedSiteDirs = grep { -d "$siteDir/$_" and -M "$siteDir/$_" < 7 } @siteDirs;
foreach my $modifiedSiteDir (@modifiedSiteDirs)
system qq{tar zcf "$modifiedSiteDir.tar.gz" $modifiedSiteDir};
Actually, I did just test it with only a printout instead of executing tar and it works. I'm not sure of the path to tar on MacOS X. You may have to add that.

Can anyone help with ways to find my MacBook Pro?

My apartment was robbed and they stole my MacBook Pro. Along with other things I'm out approximately $4,000 in items. Probably the only items i owned worth anything, and the landlord of the studio apartment i live in hasn't even bothered to fix my window that the person broke to come in through. I have my serial number but I don't have find my iPhone set up on the MacBook. Is there any way of tracking it down? Any suggestions would be great. I'm just guessing there's no hope.

There is no way to track it based on what you have stated.
What To Do If Your iDevice Is Lost Or Stolen
If you activated Find My Phone before it was lost or stolen, you can track it only if Wi-Fi is enabled on the device. What you cannot do is track your device using a serial number or other identifying number. You cannot expect Apple or anyone else to find your device for you. You cannot recover your loss unless you insure your device for such loss. It is not covered by your warranty.
If your iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch, or iPad is lost or stolen what do you do? There are things you should have done in advance - before you lost it or it was stolen - and some things to do after the fact. Here are some suggestions:
This link, Re: Help! I misplaced / lost my iPhone 5 today morning in delta Chelsea hotel downtown an I am not able to track it. Please help!, has some good advice regarding your options when your iDevice is lost or stolen.
1. Reporting a lost or stolen Apple product
2. Find my lost iPod Touch
3. AT&T. Sprint, and Verizon can block stolen phones/tablets
4. What-To-Do-When-Iphone-Is-Stolen
5. What to do if your iOS device is lost or stolen
6. 6 Ways to Track and Recover Your Lost/Stolen iPhone
7. Find My iPhone
8. Report Stolen iPad | Stolen Lost Found Online
It pays to be proactive by following the advice on using Find My Phone before you lose your device:
1. Find My iPhone
2. Setup your iDevice on iCloud
3. OS X Lion/Mountain Lion- About Find My Mac
4. How To Set Up Free Find Your iPhone (Even on Unsupported Devices)

Help with Applescript to find cell

I'm attempting to convert some Excel Applescripts over to Numbers and can't find a method to "find".
In Excel for example, I have:
set foundCell to (find keyColumn what searchSymbol look at whole look in values search order by rows after (get last cell of keyColumn) search direction search previous without match case)
The applescript dictionary seems feature rich but no find? Unimaginable, so there must be something I'm over-thinking.

I'm guessing you're looking for something like this...
Working with a table something like this:
Symbol
ABC
DEF
JKL
DEF
XYZ
Then a script like this should do what you what you want:
property keyColumn : "A"
property searchSymbol : "DEF"
property targSht : "Sheet 1"
property targTbl : "Table 1"
tell application "Numbers"
set foundCell to my findLastVal(targSht, targTbl, keyColumn, searchSymbol)'s properties
--in line above, depending on what you want, substitute name, row, etc for properties
end tell
to findLastVal(tSht, tTbl, kCol, sVal)
tell application "Numbers" to tell front document's sheet tSht's table tTbl
repeat with i from row count to 1 by -1
tell column kCol's cell i
if its value is sVal then return it
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end findLastVal
To find the first match in a column you would simply remove the negative decrement, something like this:
repeat with i from 1 to row count
If you're working with very long columns it can be more efficient to first read the values into an AppleScript list and look for a match in the list rather than asking Numbers to read a cell and look for a match on each iteration. But the above approach should work well with moderately sized data sets.
SG

Help with ipod overseas, finding an email address

Here is my problem: I bought my ipod nano in June. Already the earbuds are full of static. I want to replace them as they are under warranty. I moved overseas to Korea. I don't speak Korean, so the website for the country of Korea does me no good. And "The Apple Experience" store in Seoul closed last month. I also heard they weren't much help to people who speak English.
I tried to follow the website's instructions for replacement parts. On the final step, when I enter my credit card and agree to return my defective earbuds, it gives me an error message stating the session timed out. I've tried this mulitple times. If it would go through, I would have my earbuds shipped to my family in the U.S., who would then mail them to me. I read that Apple only will ship to certain countries. Korea is not one of them. I would send my defective earbuds to Apple directly from Korea to fulfill the agreement.
I looked for an email address or a feedback page that will help me get support and/or instructions for what I can do. I only find telephone support information, which I would rather not use as they do not provide a local Korean number.
So to sum this up: What should I do to get replacement earbuds without spending the money on calling from overseas (and probably be on hold wasting my money). Can I get a replacement shipped to my Korean address? Is there a simple email address I can contact support from?
Thanks to anyone who will help. This seems like a big hassle for a pair of earbuds. Thank goodness it is not my ipod nano that went out.

Can you not mail your defective earphones back to the US and let your family take care of it? Or get a friend who speaks Korean to request a replacement from Apple's Korean site?
It does seem like a lot of hassle, and I'm not aware of any support email addresses.
You could always try [email protected] and see what happens!

Help with java program: Finding the remaining Gas in a Car

I am a java newbie and I know this is a simple program but I am not getting the required result. Any help will be appreciated.
Here is the code for Car.java :
class Car{
     public double gasTank;
     public double drive;
     public double fueleff;
     public Car()
          gasTank = 0;
     public Car(double rate)
          fueleff = rate;
          gasTank = 0;
     public void eff(double rate)
          fueleff = rate;
     public void drive(double amountDrove)
          drive = amountDrove;
          double amtRem = (gasTank-(drive/fueleff));
          gasTank = amtRem;
     public void addGas(double amountPumped)
          double amtRem = gasTank + amountPumped;
          gasTank = amtRem;
     public double getGas()
          return gasTank;
}Here is the code for CarTester.java :
public class CarTester {
public static void main(String[] arg) {
    Car myHybrid = new Car();
    double amtRem = myHybrid.getGas();
    myHybrid.eff(50);
    myHybrid.addGas(20);
    myHybrid.drive(100);
    System.out.println("Amount Remaining: " + amtRem + " Gallons");
}I should be getting 18 Gallons in the gasTank but I am getting 0.0. What am I doing wrong?

And replace
public void drive(double amountDrove)
drive = amountDrove;
double amtRem = (gasTank-(drive/fueleff));
gasTank = amtRem;
}with
public void drive(double amountDrove)
drive = amountDrove;
gasTank -= drive/fueleff; // same logic as for +=
}Cheers =)

Help with accounts and finding Safari.

I set up new accounts on my Mac for my kids. Now my kids accounts can't access Safari at all. While in their accounts I can't find it in the applications folder either. I am not good at managing my Mac.

In the kids accounts - is there an Applications icon in the dock ?
If you click that, does it show a load of other apps, but no Safari, and is that why they can't use it... or do you get a message denying them access ?

Help with where to find older activation codes

I am trying to find out where I can locate an activation code on my original purchase of Lightroom that I made a few years ago. I upgraded to Lightroom 4 a couple of months ago and had it installed on my laptop but I just recently bought a new desktop and I am trying to download it but Adobe is asking for the orignal activation code not just the upgrade activation code and I can't seem to locate it anywhere. How do I get this number?

I believe you are referring to the serial number. If you have registered your software you can find details on how to locate your serial number under your account at http://forums.adobe.com/message/3987968#3987968.

Hi.. need help with a query

hello guys :)
I need help with this exercise:
Find the most common cooking method in recipes that contain tomatoes.
the 4 tables:
t_recipes
--recipe_no
--recipe_name
t_products
--product_no
-product_name [tomatoes,cucumbers, onions]
t_integration
--product_no
--recipe_no
t_cooking_mode
recipe_no
mode [Frying,baking]
I am realy lost :S
thank you

Hi,
851072 wrote:
Thank you for your comment :)
But... I didn`t understand the first partSorry, what part is that? You probably understood "Welcome to the forum!" It looks like you understood most of what I said, perhaps before I said it. You seem to be on the right track.
Unlike talking to a co-worker in the next cube, exchanging messages with someone on this forum takes a fair amount of time, so it's worth the time it takes to explain things very clearly, more than you would in conversation. Post all the relevant information, and say exactly what the problem is.
amm i tried to do this:
select t_recipes.recipe_name, count(t_cooking_mode.cooking_mode)
from (t_cooking_mode INNER JOIN t_integration ON t_cooking_mode.recipe_no = t_integration.recipe_no )
INNER JOIN t_products ON t_integration.product_no = t_products.product_no)
WHERE t_products.product_name = 'tomatoes'
GROUP BY t_recipes.recipe_name
help?Please help by posting whatever you know about the problem. For example, if there's a error message, post the complete error message, including the line number.
Help the people who want to help you by formatting your code and making it easy to read and understand. This will help you, too.
For example, here's exactly what you posted, with only the white-space changed to make parallel items, such as parentheses, line up nicely:
select        t_recipes.recipe_name
,       count(t_cooking_mode.cooking_mode)
from             (          t_cooking_mode
            INNER JOIN      t_integration      ON t_cooking_mode.recipe_no = t_integration.recipe_no
INNER JOIN      t_products      ON t_integration.product_no = t_products.product_no
WHERE       t_products.product_name      = 'tomatoes'
GROUP BY t_recipes.recipe_nameWhen you format your code like this, it can be very easy to spot errors like unbalanced parentheses. In this case, the ')' right before the WHERE clause has no matching '('. You don't need to use any parentheses at all in the FROM clause. You can simply say:
FROM     t_cooking_mode
JOIN      t_integration      ON t_cooking_mode.recipe_no = t_integration.recipe_no
JOIN      t_products      ON t_integration.product_no = t_products.product_no
WHERE     ...INNER JOIN is the default kind of join, which makes sense, since the majority of all joins are inner joins. I usually say JOIN (instead of INNER JOIN) because it makes the code more compact and easier to read (at least for me), but I won't be maintaining your code, so do what's best for you.
What are you trying to find in this problem? Is it a recipe name or a cooking mode? If it's a cooking mode, the why do you have t_recipes.reciple_name in the SELECT (and GROUP BY) clause? Shouldn't you be using some other column, from some other table?
If I understand the problem correctly, the t_recipes table is not needed in this problem. You won't necessarily use every table in every query.
When you post formatted text on this site, type these 6 characters:
\(small letters only, inside curly brackets) before and after each section of formatted text, to preserve spacing.

Is there any way to darken the gridlines in iCal? I'm using it on a Macbook with Lion and find it difficult to see the gridlines on the iCal display.

Is there any way to darken the gridlines in iCal? I'm using it on a Macbook with Lion and find it difficult to see the gridlines on the iCal display.

''Problem:'' For whatever reason, NoScript is stopping Runescape Community Toolbar from working properly which freezes your first Firefox window.
''Fix:'' Uninstall the toolbar. Disable NoScript. Install the toolbar. Add your RS account to it and make sure it works, then Enable NoScript again.
EDIT: Posted a fix earlier that was wrong. Corrected to the right one, sorry ^_^ Answer was on Runescape Forums.

Help with difficult numbers formula

I need help with a formula im trying to create in numbers on my iPad. I'll try to explaine the best I can and attach images to help.
Ive created a spreadsheet to do rotas for work. Currently it calculates the shifts each person does and adds it to the total for that persons week in the end column and the total for the day in the bottom row. If the shift is equal to or more than 8 hours long then an hour needs to be deducted as they have a lunch hour that is unpaid for. This is currently done by a hidden row under each persons row that calculates the shift for that person on that day with the given conditions. Also is a 'H' (for holiday), 'RDO' (for requested day off) or 'X' (for unable to work this day) is placed in any of the cells the formular will return value 0. What I am wanting to do is to get rid of all the hidden rows and still have the total calculated in the end column for that person and the day in the bottom row. Is there a way of doing this without having to copy the formula in the hidden cell and adding them in series for each day to achieve the total? I hope this makes sense. Ive attached images to try and help with the explanation.
Thanks in advance

Hi Gary,
I believe that it is generally good practice to choose several smaller formulas over large and complex ones. As you noted in your question you could add your daily IF()s to get the result you want but it would be an unwieldy construction. I also suspect that the daily hours for each employee could be useful info.
I hope things are working out for you.
quinn

New Mac user looking for help with Finder, Preview, Keyboard, & Dock

So about a month ago I switched over from a lifelong Windows user to a brand new MacBook Pro, and while I am adjusting pretty well, there are still some things that I haven't quite figured out.
First up on the list is Finder! I like my files to be arranged just like how they are in Windows Explorer--folders first alphabetically, then files alphabetically. I've managed to acquire this setting by messing around with the "clean up by" and "arrange by" functions but I don't really know the specific combination. Most of the time these preferences are saved and set as the defaults under "View Options" but every once in a while it resets and I have to tinker around with the settings all over again. Does anyone know of a way to fix this? It's only happened twice so far, but I'd rather not have it happen again. Also, occasionally when I delete an item, there is a blank space left where the icon was instead of all the files following it bumping up a space. Any quick fixes for this bug?
Next up is Preview. Again, I like the Windows Way and I like to be able to browse between the files in a folder while using Preview/Windows Photo Viewer. I know that there is a way to browse between files if you select the whole folder and stick it in Preview, but is there a way to achieve the same result without having to do that? An app or "extension" of some sort that adds arrows in to browse between photos? I've had no luck finding anything other than the aforementioned option. Is there a good free alternative to Preview that will function similarly with the browse between photos option?
One of my favorite things about my new Mac is the backlit keyboard function. My old laptop didn't have it and as someone who is online more often at night it is super helpful. But is there a way to turn it off during the day/in bright settings? A way to put it on a timer? In System Preferences I selected the option "Adjust keyboard brightness in low light", which I assumed to mean would have the keyboard NOT very bright when there IS light, but it continues to light up just the same. Any apps or extensions to help with this one?
And finally, the dock! This question is more about aesthetics than functionality but help is appreciated all the same. Currently, my dock looks like this: http://i42.tinypic.com/35ktxlz.png It is rather opaque and the indicator lights can barely be seen. However, in a lot of tutorial videos I've been watching, many people have docks that look like this: http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/07/19/Lion_LaunchPad.png It is a darker shade of gray, the divider is dashed rather than a straight line, and the indicator lights are clearly visible. Does anybody know how to get this look for the dock? I've looked in the dock preferences but there's not really anything in there other than magnification/size/effects.
That about sums things up! I'm sorry if any of these seem like "silly" questions but they are all things I have been unable to find answers for. Any and all tips, tricks, and help is appreciated! Thanks in advance for all your help!!

congratulations on coming over from the dark side.
Seems like you are interested in column view, which would show you the hierarchy of folders and files: Column View in Mac OS X Mountain Lion - For Dummies Not sure what's going on if your finder settings don't stay put. May be a corrupted preferences file, which is easy to fix, but is perhaps a topic for another discussion.
What I'd suggest is to have an open mind and try to see what the mac can do, rather than force it to look like your windows machine. I mean, if you just want it to look like windows, then why bother switching? If you give it a little time, you'll start to appreciate the mac way of doing things, and see how it is infinitely more awesome, powerful, creative, intuitive, and better designed (and the software way better written) than what you left behind. But that's your call.
There are some threads on this forum with complaints about the backlight. Keyboard backlight settings query...: Apple Support Communities Evidently it depends on the angle of the screen and the light sensor relative to the light. Some suggest that a SMC reset may help: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) This is not an issue for me, I just adjust the brightness with the keyboard buttons if I want. Real men shift their own gears, drink their coffee black, and adjust their own keyboard brightness. I am not aware of any software to exert more control over this feature but a search of macupdate Download Apple Mac Software & iPhone Software : MacUpdate may help. I mean, it's up to you what is important. I can waste a lot of time playing around with the GUI and with unnecessary software, or I can just get my work (and play) done.
You might prefer the no-glass dock, that removes the shelf, and makes the indicator lights like more discrete orbs. You can do this with the terminal. Using the terminal is also, perhaps, a topic for another discussion.I like the 2D dock much better. If you want I'll give you some directions for how to do it. Otherwise, here's a reference: 2D Dock - MacRumors Forums

Help with hugely difficult Finder difficulties?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for