I have a question mark in a folder blinking. Help please

I have a question mark in a folder blinking, what to do?

You will need to reinstall Snow Leopard:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
Do the following:
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install the Combo Updater for the version you prefer from support.apple.com/downloads/.

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I have a question mark in the place of my mail's icon and i cannot get into my email. I found my email folder in the library ,but it is not in applications. How do i get my email back ?

have a question mark in the place of my mail's icon and i cannot get into my email. I found my email folder in the library ,but it is not in applications. How do i get my email back ?

you should look in your applications folder to see if mail is still there. the dock icon is pointing to mail being in your applications folder. it has probably been moved or deleted for some reason from the app folder. do a spotlight search for your mail program. if it is still on your computer, move it back to the applications folder and when you click the question mark, it should see it is back and open. The email folder in your library shouldn't have to be touched. you need mail.app itself.

After installing Ubuntu, I have a flciker question mark inside a folder

Hello all,
I try to install Ubuntu on a external hard drive, but when i try to boot the mac it only appear a flashing question mark inside a folder.
I have unplug the external drive, try to erase de NVRAM, try to reinstall SL, but I haven't solve the issue.
Also i have format the HDD of the Mac, and repair it. I think the problem is on the boot partition and not in the HDD, because the disc installation of SL recognise my HDD.
Can anyone help me?
P.D: Sorry for my english
I don't know what to do. Can anyone help?

Hello!
A person in another forum has told me to see this article,
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20091111185717745
I will test tonight, but someone can give me other ideas?

HT1752 I have a Power PC G4 tower and start up is not going to OS, I'm getting a question mark in a folder icon. What do I do?

I have a Power PC G4 tower and start up is not going to OS, I'm getting a question mark in a folder icon. What do I do?

Is OS X installed?
Try a Startup Manager boot. Hold Option while starting.
Try a Safe Mode boot. Hold Shift while starting.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
If the PRAM battery is old, the system can lose it's mind.
Reset the PRAM.
resetting the PRAM - Support - Apple

Flashing Question Mark in a Folder

Hello All:
I have an iMac 24" (Model A1225; Mid 2007) running 10.7.3. The CPU will rarely boot up and will boot up with the Flashing Question Mark in a folder most of the time. I can start up from a OS DVD (Snow Leopard) or Lion on a Flashdrive, but the HDD will not appear when I attempt a reinstall. I was able to boot up once from my Lion Flashdrive and reinstall 10.7.3 with a normal restart. The HDD checkout fine using disk utility and I repaired my disk permissions. The CPU seemed fine and this morning the Flashing Question Mark is back.
I can start up the Target disk mode and I will see the FireWire icon, but the HDD will not appear on the desktop of the host CPU. I have a new iMac on order, but do you think it is wise to pull my data from the HDD via the Target disk mode or my Time Capsule? I guess I am not sure if it is the logic board or a bad HD.
Thanks in advance,
Irv

It sounds more like a failing drive or a drive in need of repair. Have you tried repairing it?
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion
Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
If the drive is repairable then you will need to reinstall Lion:
Reinstalling Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
If none of this works then I would definitely backup your data, but not with Time Machine. I would make a backup to a separate drive, not the Time Capsule, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Why do I have a question mark on top of Ichat Icon

why do I have a question mark on top of Ichat Icon ?

Hi,
If this is in the DOCK it because that icon (and the links it has) have lost contact with the original app.
Open th Applications folder.
Drag iChat to the DOCK (Creates the icon and links)
If his displays properly drag the old one Off the DOCK and let go (Puff of smoke animation)
IF it is in the Applications folder that you see this then iChat is most probably broken in some way and you will have to reinstall it (I will needs to know which version for a more complete answer on that)
9:52 PM Wednesday; September 7, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

I purchased a new MacBook Pro and when transferring files iphoto did not transfer. I have a question mark in the place of the icon. My pictures are in library but can't properly access iphoto. Thank you

I purchased a new MacBook Pro and when transferring files iphoto did not transfer. I have a question mark in the place of the icon. My pictures are in library but can't properly access iphoto. Thank you

Sure-glad to help you. You will not lose any data by changing synching to MacBook Pro from imac. You have set up Time Machine, right? that's how you'd do your backup, so I was told, and how I do my backup on my mac. You should be able to set a password for it. Save it. Your stuff should be saved there. So if you want to make your MacBook Pro your primary computer, I suppose, back up your stuff with Time machine, turn off Time machine on the iMac, turn it on on the new MacBook Pro, select the hard drive in your Time Capsule, enter your password, and do a backup from there. It might work, and it might take a while, but it should go. As for clogging the hard drive, I can't say. Depends how much stuff you have, and the hard drive's capacity. As for moving syncing from your iMac to your macbook pro, should be the same. Your phone uses iTunes to sync and so that data should be in the cloud. You can move your iTunes Library to your new Macbook pro
you should be able to sync your phone on your new MacBook Pro. Don't know if you can move the older backups yet-maybe try someone else, anyways,
This handy article from Apple explains how
How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support''
don't forget to de-authorize your iMac if you don't want to play purchased stuff there
and re-authorize your new macBook Pro
time machine is an application, and should be found in the Applications folder. it is built in to OS X, so there is nothing else to buy. double click on it, get it going, choose the Hard drive in your Time capsule/Airport as your backup Time Machine and go for it. You should see a circle with an arrow on the top right hand of your screen (the Desktop), next to the bluetooth icon, and just after the wifi and eject key (looks sorta like a clock face). This will do automatic backups of your stuff.

Macbook dying? Question mark in a folder sign.

Was happily surfing this morning when my macbook just crashed. When I rebooted all I got was a grey screen with a flashing question mark in a folder and that's it!
I haven't backed up in a few weeks (yes, I know I'm an idiot) plus I don't know what's wrong with it. Is there any way to bypass the flashing folder and back up before I take it to the Apple doctor?
Thanks

I don't think you have to take it into the doctor's quite yet.
check this out http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570?viewlocale=en_US

I,m getting a flashing question mark in a folder on startup

When i started up earlier i verified disk and it said i should restart and hold command and r and then repair disk using disk utility which i did and then restarted using the usual startup disk. Since then every time i turn my imac mid 2011 on 10.9.4 mavs on i get a flashing question mark in a folder. I have over 800 gb of movies id like to transfer to ext hard drive before i try anything else preferably...ive read online reinstalling the osx may wipe everything so i thought id ask the experts before trying anything else.

OK, this is a little different then we started out trying to solve...the erasing of swap and other files has damaged the Mac OS X pretty seriously since we don't know all of what was removed.
If you have the Seagate external drive and it has not been formatted, and you want it to be a Mac OS X drive, attach the Seagate, restart holding the Command and R keys, go to Utilities and open Disk Utility. When that opens, select the Seagate from the drives shown in the left sidebar of the DU window. In the main window, choose Partition from the buttons across the top, center of the window pane. If you want more than one partition, select how many you want, or just keep the default of one. Name the drive (partition), keep the default format as Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), and the default partition table as GUID. Apply that to erase and format the Seagate drive.
When that is finished, still using Disk Utility, select Restore as the function you want to do. Now drag the internal drive (Macintosh HD, typically) to the Source box in the main window of DU, and drag the name you have given the Seagate external to the Destination box in the main window of DU. Look things over to be sure you have done this correctly, the internal drive contents is the source material and the external drive is where you want to put it...what you are about to do is clone the internal drive to the external drive. If all is correct, Restore.
That will take some time since you have a lot of material to copy. When it is done, you should have an exact copy of your internal drive and its contents, i.e., your movies.
Now that you have an exact copy of your contents, you can do what you need to do with the internal drive, such as erase the drive and reinstall Lion or whatever you want to install. After doing so you can copy your movies back if you want, but DO NOT do a restore as that will mess up the operating system.

Question mark in a folder at start up - NEED HELP I LEAVE FOR COLLEGE 2M

When I arrived home tonight my computer was frozen. So i force shut off my computer. When I re-booted the computer, the gray screen comes up and after 2 minutes a flashing question mark in a folder comes up. PLEASE HELP ASAP I LEAVE FOR COLLEGE TOMORROW MORNING! I have a cd in the cd drive so i cant insert the os x cd pleasee help

Well, if you have done all of that, and it doesn't respond to anything at all, I would imagine it has some type of hardware failure, either it can't see the keyboard/mouse anymore, or corrupt firmware of some sort.
Typically Apple only does a straight out new replacement within 14 days of purchase. You might be able to convince them otherwise, but it has a lot to do with who you end up talking to, and what kind of day they are having.
Just to be absolutely sure, since you seem to be in panic mode (which I certainly would be in in your situation).
You have done the following:
1. Remove battery
2. Unplug machine from charger - so at this point the MB can't get power from anywhere
3. Hold down the power button for 5 to 10 seconds (since there is no battery and it isn't plugged in you should get no result, there is a capacitor that holds some charge to keep the PMU running without another power source. This drains that capacitor to force the PMU to lose power)
4. Wait a minute or so to be sure
5. Put in battery and plug into the charger
6. Try starting the computer with either the mouse button down or the option key held.
I'm sure you have done that already, but just in case you missed a step it never hurts. Good luck.

Why do i have a question mark instead of the app picture. It wont let me use the app either.

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Where is your Calculator application located? Before you can put it into the Dock you need to remove the Question Mark. Select it with the mouse and drag it out of the until it "poofs" away. Now locate Calculator and drag its icon into the Dock.

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Are you sure you have a PowerMac? They can't run Mac OS 10.6.8. Maybe a Mac Pro instead?
Can you post a screen shot of that portion of the screeen for us to review? Does the question mark replace the Apple that's at the left end of the menubar?

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I have a question mark in a folder blinking. Help please

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