Icon's On Desktop Turn To Question Marks ????

Why some of the icon's on my desktop turn into " Question Marks " instead of thier proper/regular icon symbol ?
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Eric,
Try this.
One at a time, position the cursor on the icons that are misbehaving, hold down on the mouse, pull the icons onto the Desktop, and release the mouse. They should evaporate with a poof.
Then, from wherever they are located on the Hard Drive, restart the applications, again one at a time.
Once loaded, again position the cursor on their icons until a contextual menu appears.
From that menu, select Keep In Dock.
ali b

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Why are my dock applications turning into question marks after restarting my macbook pro?

So i have had my new MBP with retina display for a few weeks now, and everytime I shutdown or restart the computer, I have a bunch of question marks in my dock instead of my application icons. The question marks still show the name of the application under them, and after I click them they turn back into the proper icon. I noticed that they are only applications I have installed myself off the internet. It never happens to the applcations that came with my macbook, or apps from the mac app store. I have not moved the location of the applications i installed, so i dont know why the computer is having trouble displaying the icons. I am new to the mac operating system and am wondering if I may not have installed these applications properly. The apps that are constatly turning into question marks include Bittorent, VLC Player, PS3 Media Server, Air VIdeo Server, and the Dolphin gamecube emulator. I have looked all over the internet but i cannot find a solution. Please Help!

When they go grey, it means that they have lost the location of the application that they represent.
If you put your mouse over each one, it will tell you what application it is that it has lost.
Go to wherever you have that application stored, usually the applications folder, and drag the icon of the application down into the dock. A new icon is created for you.
Repeat with the other two grey icons in the dock.
To remove the grey icons, left click and hold while you drag the icon out of the dock and onto the desktop. Release the mouse button and the icon will disappear in a puff of smoke.

What does the icon of a folder with a question mark inside mean?

After an overnight power outage I tried to turn on my iMac this morning, but all I got was clicking sounds and a gray full screen with the icon of a folder with a question mark inside it, blinking. (There's no tool bar that appears anywhere). What does that mean?
I've tried unplugging the system and waiting a while before attempting another boot. Same screen.
I recently (a month ago) upgraded to Snow Leopard from my original OS X software. Never had this sort of a problem before.The iMac was purchased around 2005 or 2006. Intel Dual Core processor.
Thanks for any help on this.

Thanks, Paul, for the prompt reply.Obviously, your answer isn't what I wanted to hear, but feared. When I get home tonight I'll try finding the install disk and booting from that. Fortunately, I still have a MacBook Pro that is running fine. Incidentally, I have a Western Digital external Hard Drive that has very little, if anything on it. But since I can't open anything on the iMac, I guess I'll have to see if the install disk works before I try to figure out IF I can use that WD-External drive temporarily rather than replace the HD on the iMac. Any clues on what a replacement drive and labor runs for that sort of iMac repair?
j

Account with an icon of a face and a question mark

Same issue of other user in Yosemite Apple Support.
Following advises on that thread I also installed the ETRECHECK software tool, report is as follows:
Problem description:
At the login screen I find an icon with a face and a question mark in it - with a message it needs an update.
EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)
Report generated 02 gennaio 2015 12:37:26 CET
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
16 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 1:22:54
Disk Information: ℹ️
APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500,11 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 498.89 GB (467.03 GB free)
Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked
Core Storage: disk0s2 499.25 GB Online
MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper Applicazione (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Dropbox ApplicazioneHidden (/Applications/Dropbox.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
Pin It Button [Installed]
Save to Pocket [Installed]
Add To Amazon Wish List [Installed]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      14% WindowServer
      3% hidd
      2% Safari
      1% Dock
      0% fontd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
333 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
155 MB mds_stores
137 MB Safari
137 MB Finder
86 MB Dropbox
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
7.76 GB Free RAM
4.88 GB Active RAM
3.28 GB Inactive RAM
1.26 GB Wired RAM
4.73 GB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Jan 2, 2015, 11:15:06 AM Self test - passed
Jan 2, 2015, 12:06:57 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Dropbox109_2015-01-02-000657_[redacted].cpu_res ource.diag [Details]
---------- is there any troubleshooting for delete that fake account every time I start my Macbook Pro?
thanks and regards
Edoardo

Smiley face with a ? means a bootable system is not found.
There maybe a problem with either system software or hard drive itself.
Try this.
Repair Disk
Steps 2 through 8
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
Best.

HT1338 MacBook Pro 13.3: Desktop screen will not come up when turned on. Screen is blank except for an icon of a folder with a question mark on it, in the middle of an otherwise blank screen, laptop making a clicking noise.

My MacBook Pro 13.3 MAC OS X v10.7 laptop will not come up. Blank screen comes up, no color/desktop, etc., only an icon of a folder in the middle of the screen with a question mark on the folder. Laptop making a clicking noise. Suggestions? Thanks!

It's under warranty. Take it in to have Apple fix it.
The "flashing ?" means the machine can't find the start up disk. The clicking noise is a give away that the drive is damaged.

When turned on MacBook a icon of a folder with a question mark in it keeps flashing, what does this mean?

MacBook turns on but doesn't go to home screen, instead a folder icon with a question mark on it keeps flashing.

It means that your mac is unable to boot, try doing a safe boot http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455 first, if that does not work insert your OSX disc (the one that came with your mac) and boot to that, post back with a report.
Is your backup 'bootable' (Carbon Copy or SuperDuper) or non-'bootable' (Time Machine)
Message was edited by: Csound1

My icon for firefox on the desktop has a question mark on it why?

i have a question mark on my icon firefox which is on the desk top. why??

The iTunes app is no longer in the Applications folder?
Try Spotlight ...

File has turned to question mark and info now lost

i created a file and put it in my dock to hold all of my go pro videos before conversion. the file has now turned to a question mark and won't open and i cannot find it in finder. i have tried plugging the go pro back in to see if it would work then but it won't. please help!!! this folder has all of my wedding videos in it!!!

I have followed the instructions you performed:-
Created a new folder on the desktop.
Dragged it to the right hand side of the Dock. In the area that has the Trash and Downloads area, it will not go into the Applications area i.e. Mail, Safari etc, I did not expect it would.
The important thing to note is that the New folder remained on the Desktop.
I then dragged files into the folder in the dock, all OK so far, but note they were also in the same folder on the Desktop, i.e the Dock Icon was just an alias of the folder on the Desktop.
I then trashed the folder on the Desktop and I was able to still access the files and add new ones even though the folder was in the Trash, i.e. the alias followed where I put the original file.
I then emptied the Trash and tried to access the folder in the Dock, I got the Question mark.
So did you trash the folder you had created on the desktop and then subsiquently emptied the Trash?
If so that would follow exacty the test I did.
If this is what as occurred you may be able to find some file recovery software that will get some/all of your photos back, I have no suggestions on what software to buy.
If this is not what you did, I a sorry but I am out of ideas.
Hope you get them back.

My MacBook Pro won't start - it just displays a grey screen with flashing icon of a folder with a question mark in the middle. Help.

It started while I was using Adobe InDesign, and that program froze, then crashed. When I tried to reopen the program, the error message I received was simply "Error: 16".
I tried to take a screen shot of the error message for reference, and it gave me a message saying I couldn't because I didn't have access to the files where it would normally store the shot.
Attached to my computer at the time was my Seagate Free Agent Go-Flex for Mac backup drive.
So, I closed any open applications, and restarted my computer. But it wouldn't restart. It only displays a grey screen with a flashing icon in the middle of a folder with a question mark on it.
I have no idea what happened - I wasn't using the machine any differently than usual, and it only had a few basic applicaitons open in addition to InDesign (like Preview, Text Edit, Microsoft Word, iCal).
I have MacKeeper on my MacBook, and I keep it clean.
Does anyone out there know what this flashing icon indicates, and if there is anything I can try on my own to fix it?
Thanks.

ali har wrote:
It started while I was using Adobe InDesign, and that program froze, then crashed. When I tried to reopen the program, the error message I received was simply "Error: 16".
I tried to take a screen shot of the error message for reference, and it gave me a message saying I couldn't because I didn't have access to the files where it would normally store the shot.
For the Error: 16
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/827/cpsid_82744.html
Seems a uninstall and reinstall of CS is in order.
Attached to my computer at the time was my Seagate Free Agent Go-Flex for Mac backup drive.
May or may not be a contributing factor, may have kicked in at a wrong time or running root code.
So, I closed any open applications, and restarted my computer. But it wouldn't restart. It only displays a grey screen with a flashing icon in the middle of a folder with a question mark on it.
Computer can't find a bootable volume.
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570
I have MacKeeper on my MacBook, and I keep it clean.
Well that explains it, MacKeeper is almost malware.
http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/
Search the forums here for "MacKeeper" they will tell the whole story, crapware.
Disconnect all drives, follow the "Grey Screen" instructions and hold Shift key down while booting, if you get into OS X , immediatly backup your files to another drive and disconnect.
In my opinion you should first check to make sure you have a backup of your data, then just erase the entire internal drive (hold c boot off the 10.6 disk, use Disk Utility), reinstall OS X, same user name, update to 10.6.8, c boot off the 10.6 and Repair Disk (to fix a update error) install your programs and finally return files from backup into the same main user folders like before (Music, Docs, Pictures etc.)
A pain it is, but you've hosed your system and in the process you might as well rebuild everything and have a fast machine again. So happens to clear MacKrapper, uninstall CS5 and any other junk in your system at the same time. Fresh, clean, lean and mean.
Learn to Carbon Copy Cloner to a external drive that new pristine boot drive, you can hold the option key and boot from it (even update it), which is a real bacon saver when something like this happens. Also it's free to use, donations accepted.
http://www.bombich.com/
Note: if anything above I've mentioned is too complicated or your not sure, seek the services of a local computer specialist.

When I duplicate or copy slides, my custom theme images turn into question marks. Why, and how can I copy themes with slides?

When I duplicate or copy slides, my custom theme images turn into big grey boxes with an 'x' through them and a question mark in the middle in their new destination. When I go look at the master slides, I see that there are now two sets of masters, one for the my custom theme and a new one just like it, but with no images.
How can I copy (or duplicate) my slides?

OK, got it ... the Power ON Factory reset procedures might have changed with GB ...
To get to a Factory reset using the Power up method:
1. Power Off phone
2. Press & Hold the HOME Button
3. Press and Hold the Power ON button.
You come up to the Triangle with the Exclamation mark & android guy.
Press BOTH the Up and Down Buttons at the same time. This brings up the Blue menu of options.
use the Up/Down arrows to scroll thru the choices. Press the POWER Button to Select the menu item you choose.
You can harmlessly test this and just choose to Reboot without doing anything, just to see how it works in case you ever need to do this in the future.
edit: It was concluded in the test group that they changed this process to align it with the new DX2 as the camera button isn't hard-wired like it is in the DX. So likely they just wanted to make this process the same for both platforms. At least it sounds like a good reason...

Export arabic character into csv file turns into question mark in sql dev

Hi,
I am trying to export a table's output that contains some arabic and english mixed data, when I try to export it in csv, all the arabic characters change into question mark (?) but the same export is working fine on .xls or .xlsx.
Since we have to export a huge data and csv is much faster thar .xls, kindly let me know why it is happening and what is the solution for this.
Well, we are on Oracle 11gR2 and Sql Dev is 3.1
Appreciate your time and experience sharing.
Regards.

Hi,
Since you say it works for xls but not csv, and the only applicable preference setting ( Tools|Preferences|Database|Utilities|Export|Encoding ) should apply to all export formats, I would imagine this is a bug. Especially if the encoding specified in Preferences is consistent with the client OS settings. I was not able to find any prior bug logged against the Export utility for this issue.
I logged a bug for this:
Bug 13993410 - FORUM: ARABIC CHARACTER ENCODING RESPECTED FOR XLS BUT NOT CSV
Regards,
Gary
SQL Developer Team

ISO-8859-1 Special Characters turn to Question Marks; How to post Resumes?

I am building a web based application and I have a TextArea in an HTML form. Users can copy and paste their resumes (source - Microsoft Word Docs) into this text area. Once the resume is posted, tomcat handles the request. The request is posted to another JSP, Struts Action Class (Any Java Class that can write to a database).
When I do a System.out.println(request.getParameter("resume")); I the special characters like bullets and quotes and a bunch of others are getting transformed to Question Marks. When I insert the resume into an Oracle Database (into a clob field) they are still being saved a question marks.
I have a JSP Page that displays the posted resume. It has 2 things - It writes the request.getParameter("resume") to the HTML and this comes out fine. But when it writes the resume that is retrieved from the oracle database, i am getting back question marks.
I understand that Java uses unicode for character encoding/representation and I tried changing my HTML page's charset to UTF-8. Did not work. I see that there are a million websites that let users copy and paste their resumes. How are these resumes stored and retrieved from a database using server side java? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-kal

The characters that the character set "ISO-88591-1" supports are as follow. Confirm your characters are in the range:
0x0 0x1 0x2 0x3 0x4 0x5 0x6 0x7 0x8 0x9 0xa 0xb 0xc 0xd 0xe 0xf 0x10 0x11 0x12 0x13 0x14 0x15 0x16 0x17 0x18 0x19 0x1a 0x1b
0x1c 0x1d 0x1e 0x1f 0x20 0x21 0x22 0x23 0x24 0x25 0x26 0x27
0x28 0x29 0x2a 0x2b 0x2c 0x2d 0x2e 0x2f 0x30 0x31 0x32 0x33 0x34 0x35 0x36 0x37 0x38 0x39
0x3a 0x3b 0x3c 0x3d 0x3e 0x3f 0x40 0x41 0x42 0x43 0x44 0x45 0x46 0x47 0x48 0x49
0x4a 0x4b 0x4c 0x4d 0x4e 0x4f 0x50 0x51 0x52 0x53 0x54 0x55 0x56 0x57 0x58 0x59 0x5a
0x5b 0x5c 0x5d 0x5e 0x5f 0x60 0x61 0x62 0x63 0x64 0x65 0x66 0x67 0x68 0x69 0x6a 0x6b 0x6c 0x6d 0x6e 0x6f
0x70 0x71 0x72 0x73 0x74 0x75 0x76 0x77 0x78 0x79 0x7a 0x7b 0x7c 0x7d 0x7e 0x7f
0x80 0x81 0x82 0x83 0x84 0x85 0x86 0x87 0x88 0x89 0x8a 0x8b 0x8c 0x8d 0x8e 0x8f
0x90 0x91 0x92 0x93 0x94 0x95 0x96 0x97 0x98 0x99 0x9a 0x9b 0x9c 0x9d 0x9e 0x9f
0xa0 0xa1 0xa2 0xa3 0xa4 0xa5 0xa6 0xa7 0xa8 0xa9 0xaa 0xab 0xac 0xad 0xae 0xaf
0xb0 0xb1 0xb2 0xb3 0xb4 0xb5 0xb6 0xb7 0xb8 0xb9 0xba 0xbb 0xbc 0xbd 0xbe 0xbf
0xc0 0xc1 0xc2 0xc3 0xc4 0xc5 0xc6 0xc7 0xc8 0xc9 0xca 0xcb 0xcc 0xcd 0xce 0xcf
0xd0 0xd1 0xd2 0xd3 0xd4 0xd5 0xd6 0xd7 0xd8 0xd9 0xda 0xdb 0xdc 0xdd 0xde 0xdf
0xe0 0xe1 0xe2 0xe3 0xe4 0xe5 0xe6 0xe7 0xe8 0xe9 0xea 0xeb 0xec 0xed 0xee 0xef
0xf0 0xf1 0xf2 0xf3 0xf4 0xf5 0xf6 0xf7 0xf8 0xf9 0xfa 0xfb 0xfc 0xfd 0xfe 0xff

Spaces turn into questions marks(?) on windows machines

Hi.
I am new to Macs and am more than impressed so far. I am working in an office that uses strictly PC's and when I compose an email in Mail my coworker sees spaces at the end of my scentances as question marks when reading my email in his Outlook. They are not present online in GMail etc.
I am a bit of a rogue for using a Mac at work and want it to be seamless. I tried changing fonts and still same problem. Any ideas??
Thanks
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD

Hi W. J.
Thank you for your reply. I tried your suggestion and I when I go into Mail preferences I seem to be stuck on the 'Accounts' section. I remember being able to alter my preferences when I first set up Mail (I have three accounts on the go) but I can't get back to the other prefrences.
I tried the suggetion that the next fellow suggested by going into terminal and it seems to have fixed my text problem and I can now use rich text. I am supprised that this is an issue since no one (even PC users) should be able to deny OS X's superiority over Win XP but these small incompatabilties are often what people use as an excuse not tomove to a Mac and Apple would do well to eliminate it (even if it is a weakness on the PC end).
Thanks again for your help.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1GB RAM, 120 GB HD

Hi the itunes icon has gone from the applications folder and the icon in the dock has a question mark in it. How can we get itunes back to normal? thanks

Hi we've lost the itunes icon from the applications folder. How do we get it back and where has it gone? I dragged it off the dock by accident and dragged it from the applications folder to the desktop then to the dock. But now we've lost it.

The iTunes app is no longer in the Applications folder?
Try Spotlight ...

I HAVE A MAC BOOK AND I CAN GET TO WORK THE CD 1 IT DOESN'T READ AND ONLY APPEAR A ICON LIKE A FOLDER WIR ONE QUESTION MARK, CAN SOME BODY HELP?

I HAVE A MAC LAP TOP MAC BOOK AND WANT JUST TO REINSTALL THE SOFTWARE I DONT CARE ABOUT MY FILES I HAVE BACK UP BUT WHEN I INSERT THE DISK VERSION 10.5 WHICH COMES WITH MY COMPUTER DOESN'T WANT TO READ I HEARD THA IS TRYING BUT NOTHING,
CAN SOME BODY HELP ME...

There is a possibility that the disk drive could be broken, if it just spits it back out that usually means its toast. If your MacBook has a Core 2 Duo processor, you can install Lion (via a thumb drive not disks). Here is a link to the Lion thumb drive.You can also still order them for $19.99 by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE. Also you can borrow an external disk drive and try the Leopard disks that way as well.
Good Luck!

Icon's On Desktop Turn To Question Marks ????

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