Is it safe to delete com.apple.systemdfine2.plist ?

I scanned for corrupted preference files using Cocktail 4.6.2 --  com.apple.systemdfine2.plist was the only system plist file identified (several user-level plist files were also identified; these have been deleted).
According to Cocktail:
XML parser error:
Unexpected character " at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected ';' or '=' after key at line 2
If it helps any, the first two lines of com.apple.systemdfine2.plist are:
"BW:zZ
1-?[F_0TC}o:zb6\mRm}0[} -j/vk#518uwTYCMhLIhfg=YRZW#Pnf?_C=t#[]SqJ>)}(i~R]>8v~J$`0@X" '[&ZqQ J`(c3D[\'o- 'NTsq,v(Sc-3R/WGF3t-J
About a month ago this iMac started acting up and eventually crashed hard, requiring several erase / system reinstalls to get it functioning again. But it's not 100% back. For example, Time Machine has been iffy and interferes with some third-party software (e.g., in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, right-clicking on an image brings up a contextual menu that allows opening the image in Photoshop; however, if the Time Macine HDD is connected to this iMac, Photoshop opens but the image does not). I keep trying to repair things as they come up, which is why I went searching for corrupted preference files.
Thanks in advance for your information and suggestions.
John

I don't know what that file is and don't have it on my 10.6. The only .plist files safe to delete are preference files. If it belongs to the System (/System/Library) it's not a preference file, it's meant to store code for running a process. I don't understand why Cocktail identified it.

Similar Messages

  • Deleted com.apple.windowserver.plist

    Hi everyone.
    I deleted the com.apple.windowserver.plist, under preferences and the longer version under my user profile.
    Supposidly,the system would recreate these files on restart.  It has not and the files are gone.
    Now I can't enable quartz extreme, or do anything with these files.
    Does anyone have an idea on how to get them back?
    p
    This is on a powerbook g4 1.5ghz .  1 meg of ram.  10.5.8

    I'm in a similar situation
    I don't think you can be. The PowerBook that the OP owns is a completely different architecture from the MacBook Pro. Your best bet is to start a new thread in the MacBook Pro forums here:
    MacBook Pro
    I know some forums flame you for starting a new thread but the new thread works best here. You get help with your issue without diluting the attention the OP seserves.
    Also, some experienced posters will not even look at threads with multiple questions from different people; it's simply to hard to keep sorted after a while.
    Be sure to include your MBPs model variant and the Mac OS version in your new post. That will save people having to ask for it and you'll get help faster.
    Best wishes!

  • Problems with slow finder and com.apple.finder.plist

    I have four users in my marketing department, all running Mac Pros with 10.6. and Adobe CS5 and some other software for design work. Each one has a slowness issue using the Finder (by itself and inside programs (ie, within Photoshop and going to Open)) when accessing our network drives.  Other people, including myself, can access those same directories without slowness.
    'Slowness' is an understatement. What would normally take a second is taking 5 to 10 minutes to show content in folders. 
    When I delete "com.apple.finder.plist" off their systems, and reboot, everything snaps back to being speedy, but it doesn't last and they need to remove that file once a day.
    I have two saved plist files before they deleted it, but I don't know what do look for when I view the contents with a plist editor.
    Can anyone offer some suggestions on why this could be happening? Or how can I view and see what this file is being hung up on?

    Download and run all the cleaning and maintainence aspects of the free OnyX while each machine is offline and reboot, leave offline until all are completed and then put them back online.
    See if that clears the issue or reveals some more issues with the checks.
    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx
    OnyX also has a plist checker under Verify.

  • Hello i can't find com.apple.mail.plist and "mail" is not working well, thank you

    Hello,
    My mail.app is not working well.
    I read a lot messages forum an dlot of solutions for mail.app is delete
    "com.apple.mail.plist" but I can't find it in library/preferences, can you help me please.
    Thank you,
    Syl

    All human are not equal. Same for machines and servers.
    Get real : iCloud has a problem.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3539034?start=15&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/17751466#17751466
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4145777?start=30&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4217434?start=0&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207514?start=0&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4207514?start=0&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4192137?start=0&tstart=0
    On all machines, permissions are repaired once a week and Onyxed twice a month.
    No dice.

  • Mail wont launch at all. Deleted this: ~/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

    Mail wouldnt let me send outgoing mail claiming there to be an error whilst there was an outgoing connection. So I thought to completely reset the entire app and found a forum that told me to delete something >_> And so I deleted this ~/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and now nothing will launch. And well. Nothing is backed up. Im an idiot. ;___; I just want to go back to my chalk and slate. TECHNOLOGY HATES ME. Please help me.

    Hi Bill,
    You could also try com.apple.helpviewer.plist (in ~/Library/Preferences). Have you noted whether this is system-wide or restricted to your user account? I'd create a test account (if you don't have another on your system) and try the help menus. If they're messed up over there, then fixing things in your user folder won't help. The only system resource I could find that seems remotely relevant is /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.helpdata.plist, but I'd be verrrry careful about messing around with stuff in your System folder.
    Hope that helps!
    —Hazy

  • When I delete com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist my audio/sound problems are solved. However when the file is replaced with another file, the sound is crappy and the quality is reduced. Can you please help me?

    When I delete com.apple.audio.SystemSettings.plist my audio/sound problems are solved. However when the file is replaced with another file, the sound is crappy and the quality is reduced. Can anyone please help me?
    Sincerely,
    Eric

    Run this when you have the problem and post the results here.
    EtreCheck
    This will tell us what is loaded

  • I have 74k  photo's in my iPhoto trash and crashes when emptying. I have tried deleting the com.apple.iPhoto.plist but still won't empty.

    Hi! I have 74k photo's in my iPhoto trash and it crashes when trying to empty. Clearly it's too much for the system to handle so after researching I downloaded 'Trashit!' which didn't help even if I selected one photo and dragged it to the trashit icon, not a single photo will delete from the iPhoto trash.
    I've tried creating a new album but the photo's won't drag. I have tried deleting the com.apple.iPhoto.plist and done several timely rebuilds but I still can't find a way to empty the trash.  I hope there's something really simple I'm missing here, any help appreciated 

    iiPhoto is known to lock up if you try to delete a large number of photos at a time. Here are a couple of ways to get out of the predicament you're in:
    1 -  go into iPhoto's General preference pane and uncheck the Show item counts checkbox:
    and then try emptying the iPhoto Trash bin again. It's iffy however. 
    2 - If that fails and you don't use the Rating stars you can do the following: select all of the photos in the trash and Control-click to bringup the contextual menu.  There will be the 5 stars for the ratings.  Select either 5 or 1 to apply that rating to the photos.
    Next create a smart album with the criteria:
    selecting the number of start you applied to those in the Trash bin.
    Move the photos from the Trash bin to the Library and the Smart Album will immediately be populated with those photos. 
    You can now select about 100 photos or so at a time and use the Command+Option+Delete key combination to move them back to the Trash bin and empty it.  Repeat with groups of about 100 or so photos till they are all deleted. Then delete the Trash bin in the Dock to completely remove them from your hard drive.
    OT

  • Deleting the com.apple.iTunes.plist?

    Greetings.
    iTunes will not recognize my iPod classic and freezes with My user ID (The iPod does show up in my finder). It does not happen with my wife as user; iPod is visible and connects to iTunes without difficulty.
    I have been told to delete the com.apple.iTunes.plist under my user ID, then to restart the iMac. However, the problem remains. I have looked at the tech documents, uninstalled and re-installed iTunes, upgraded to iTunes 10...all without success. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get my user ID on the same page so iTunes will recognize the iPod?
    Thanks.

    This is probably too little, too late but there is also an iTunes plist file(s) located at
    ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.iTunes.605A79F2-A0DD-423E-9C65-C9FB9E1F6B CC.plist
    N.B. The "605A79F2-A0DD-423E-9C65-C9FB9E1F6BCC" is a UUID so each instance will be different.
    Don't know if that will solve the problem but you never know.

  • Exception for syslogd in com.apple.alf.plist doesn't work after 10.5.6 upgd

    (This is cross-posted from the 10.5 Ins and Setup forum [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8902103#8902103], per the suggestion of a reader.)
    In 10.5.4, I added /usr/sbin/syslogd to the exception list in /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/com.apple.alf.plist.
    This allowed me to keep the mediocre application firewall set to "allow only essential services" and still allow my router to send syslog messages to a log on my Mac.
    I upgraded to 10.5.6 (straight from 10.5.4). Since the upgrade, it appears that the application firewall ignores the additional exception entry I added.
    I've tried moving the exception entry up (replacing the one for configd), but it doesn't matter. I already know about /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist, so you don't need to suggest that I delete it. It's re-created (as a binary) each time you unload/load the launchctl for syslogd, and it does appear to use the file in /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/com.apple.alf.plist.
    The only two ways I've found to allow syslogd through are:
    1. disable the app firewall (choose "allow all incoming connections" (not my preferred solution)
    2. choose "set access for specific services and applications", which unfortunately allows all the specified applications (and probably allows Apple's hidden list of exceptions that includes things like World of Warcraft and Skype). The hidden list opens the machine to a greater number of attacks from trojan software, and I'd rather have the system locked down, not opened up.
    Does anyone know how I can recover the 10.5.4 functionality, which allowed me to add syslogd as an exception, instead of adding it to the GUI list of applications?

    I also want to receive log information from my Draytek Router I found a reference in the Draytek forum see:
    http://www.forum.draytek.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=12009&highlight=syslog+mac
    however when I updated the
    com.apple.syslogd.plist
    the required information did not get thru to the Draytek Syslog program.
    I am also using 10.5.6

  • After i had my hard drive replaced, i've gone to get my old emails and am unable to find them on time machine. The file com.apple.mail.plist isn't there. HELP!

    Pretty sure this will be some sort of user error, but i'm lost.
    I had to have my hard drive replaced, so before taking it to the genius bar, i backed up using time machine. I'd had issues with trying to use Carbon Copy Cloner previously so had formatted the external drive before doing time machine. TM seemed to work fine and copied what looked to be everything. Once i'd got the new hard drive in and went to restore everything, when i looked for the file i need to get to apparently get my mails back (Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist) it's not there.
    Any help would be MASSIVELY appreciated.
    J

    Turn Time Machine OFF temporarily in its preference pane. Leave the window open.
    Navigate in the Finder to your backup disk, and then to the folder named "Backups.backupdb" at the top level of the volume. If you back up over a network, you'll first have to mount the disk image file containing your backups by double-clicking it. Descend into the folder until you see the snapshots, which are represented by folders with a name that begins with the date of the snapshot. Find the one you want to restore from. There's a link named "Latest" representing the most recent snapshot. Use that one, if possible. Otherwise, you'll have to remember the date of the snapshot you choose.
    Inside the snapshot folder is a folder hierarchy like the one on the source disk. Find one of the items you can't restore and select it. Open the Info dialog for the selected item. In the Sharing & Permissions section, you may see an entry in the access list that shows "Fetching…" in the Name column. If so, click the lock icon in the lower right corner of the dialog and authenticate. Then delete the "Fetching…" item from the icon list. Click the gear icon below the list and select Apply to enclosed items from the popup menu.
    Now you should be able either to copy the item in the Finder or to restore it in the time-travel view. If you use the time-travel view, be sure to select the snapshot you just modified. If successful, repeat the operation with the other items you were unable to restore. You can select multiple items in the Finder and open a single Info dialog for all of them by pressing the key combination option-command-I.
    When you're done, turn TM back ON and close its preference pane.

  • Mail(1739) deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

    Hi
    Since moving from HDD to SSD and Lion to ML I am getting loads of these errors in my System Log
    Mail(1739) deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
    I am not experiencing any end issues as a result but notice I am getting 6 every second which must be causing an issue
    The details are:
    Mail(1739) deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
    Process:         Mail [1739]
    Path:            /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
    Load Address:    0x10f773000
    Identifier:      com.apple.mail
    Version:         1485 (6.0)
    Build Info:      3-Mail~1485000000000000
    Code Type:       x86_64 (Native)
    Parent Process:  launchd [237]
    Date/Time:       2012-08-05 11:54:01.392 +0100
    OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8 (12A269)
    Report Version:  8
    Thread 0:
    0   libsystem_kernel.dylib            0x00007fff8c9d5fee __open + 10
    1   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c12a588 __33-[CFPrefsPlistSource synchronize]_block_invoke_0 + 296
    2   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c125f07 withDaemonConnection + 87
    3   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c12a36c -[CFPrefsPlistSource synchronize] + 316
    4   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c1291a1 -[CFPrefsPlistSource synchronizeIfStale] + 113
    5   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c12927a -[CFPrefsPlistSource copyValueForKey:] + 42
    6   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c128213 -[CFPrefsSearchListSource copyValueForKey:] + 131
    7   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c124080 __CFPreferencesCopyAppValue_block_invoke_0 + 32
    8   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c1277e8 +[CFPrefsSearchListSource withSearchListForIdentifier:perform:] + 824
    9   CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8bffd67a CFPreferencesCopyAppValue + 186
    10  Foundation                        0x00007fff8ccb7db0 -[NSUserDefaults(NSUserDefaults) objectForKey:] + 22
    11  Foundation                        0x00007fff8ccb7c97 -[NSUserDefaults(NSUserDefaults) boolForKey:] + 23
    12  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92932d8b ABDLog + 290
    13  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935eda -[ABSafeNotificationEntry reflectNotification:] + 63
    14  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935cf1 -[ABSafeNotificationReflector reflectNotification:toEntryIfElligible:] + 72
    15  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935c72 __50-[ABSafeNotificationReflector notificationFunnel:]_block_invoke_0 + 37
    16  CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c0597d9 __NSSetEnumerate + 985
    17  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935c26 -[NSSet(ABSetAdditions) _abEach:] + 91
    18  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935ad3 -[ABCopyOnWriteSet useReadOnlySet:] + 44
    19  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935a9e -[ABCopyOnWriteSet each:] + 91
    20  AddressBook                       0x00007fff92935a1e -[ABSafeNotificationReflector notificationFunnel:] + 181
    21  CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8bff5b8a _CFXNotificationPost + 2554
    22  Foundation                        0x00007fff8ccb7a76 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 64
    23  Mail                              0x000000010f7757d5
    24  CoreData                          0x00007fff88968e64 -[NSManagedObjectContext(_NSInternalAdditions) _didSaveChanges] + 2132
    25  CoreData                          0x00007fff88958589 -[NSManagedObjectContext save:] + 1241
    26  Message                           0x00007fff88d3e755 -[SeenMessagesManager saveChanges] + 46
    27  Message                           0x00007fff88d372f6 -[POPStore fetchSynchronously] + 2175
    28  Message                           0x00007fff88d2edd2 -[POPAccount fetchSynchronously] + 140
    29  CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c036cac __invoking___ + 140
    30  CoreFoundation                    0x00007fff8c036b47 -[NSInvocation invoke] + 263
    31  CoreMessage                       0x00007fff8b271d5d -[MonitoredInvocation invoke] + 225
    32  CoreMessage                       0x00007fff8b28a2b2 -[ThrowingInvocationOperation main] + 33
    33  CoreMessage                       0x00007fff8b236602 -[_MFInvocationOperation main] + 431
    34  Foundation                        0x00007fff8ccfdbb6 -[__NSOperationInternal start] + 684
    35  Foundation                        0x00007fff8cd053d1 __block_global_6 + 129
    36  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff8cc5ef3d _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 15
    37  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff8cc5b0fa _dispatch_client_callout + 8
    38  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff8cc5c23e _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 304
    39  libsystem_c.dylib                 0x00007fff8c361ceb _pthread_wqthread + 404
    40  libsystem_c.dylib                 0x00007fff8c34c1b1 start_wqthread + 13
    Binary Images:
           0x10f773000 -        0x10fb0fff7  com.apple.mail (6.0 - 1485) <6C62E4AC-EBA9-3E31-B677-B26356423DE1> /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail
        0x7fff88914000 -     0x7fff88b32fff  com.apple.CoreData (106 - 407.5) <45EF39FE-7FD6-366E-BB5C-3E86E0B7DA3C> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreData.framework/Versions/A/CoreData
        0x7fff88bc2000 -     0x7fff88e08ff7  com.apple.MessageFramework (6.0 - 1485) <79FA27A2-D01A-3D35-AE3A-7F8F41034728> /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Versions/B/Message
        0x7fff8b20c000 -     0x7fff8b2c4ff7  com.apple.CoreMessage (1.0 - 1485) <1210621B-BABB-3153-A8DF-DAC0FA671D05> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMessage.framework/Versions/A/CoreMessage
        0x7fff8bfb0000 -     0x7fff8c199fff  com.apple.CoreFoundation (6.8 - 744) <47AEA7C7-EF9B-3FC6-AEBF-CE02FC650301> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
        0x7fff8c34b000 -     0x7fff8c417fef  libsystem_c.dylib (825.24) <16B6B86C-53EE-36E8-AC2B-4AADC1008098> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib
        0x7fff8c9c4000 -     0x7fff8c9dfff7  libsystem_kernel.dylib (2050.7.9) <E0447BF5-E104-35B0-B28B-4156887D58F1> /usr/lib/system/libsystem_kernel.dylib
        0x7fff8cc59000 -     0x7fff8cc6eff7  libdispatch.dylib (228.18) <0B6B6E7F-4D8A-3F3B-A4BF-6CF34638DBBB> /usr/lib/system/libdispatch.dylib
        0x7fff8cc6f000 -     0x7fff8cfcbff7  com.apple.Foundation (6.8 - 945) <0C972F73-0C07-3384-98F2-B176E0289494> /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Versions/C/Foundation
        0x7fff92926000 -     0x7fff92be1fff  com.apple.AddressBook.framework (7.0 - 1143) <EC55CF4B-4194-3163-B6E1-8C8D2712FBCF> /System/Library/Frameworks/AddressBook.framework/Versions/A/AddressBook
    Any wise wisdom?
    Thanks, Chris.

    The .plist files are almost always preferences. I believe "plist" is short for "property list". It contains a list of keys (configuration options) and settings for each key, similar in some respects to the way the Windows Registry works, except that there is a separate file for each set of settings, instead of a single registry file as in Windows. In this case it's a shared settings file for Mail, but I couldn't tell you anything more about the contents.
    You were smart to back it up. Usually .plist files can be deleted without signicant loss, because they will be recreated automatically with default settings. But sometimes they contain important settings that may be hard to set up again, especially if you had help setting up your computer in the first place, or have lost important details that you'd need for setting up an app, such as Mail. But sometimes the settings are trivial, for example the position and size of windows, etc., and do not contain settings you'd care about, which may be in another .plist file or in some other kind of file/database.

  • Group differs on "Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist";

    As the title suggests I got this issue which is annoying because it is causing high inactive memory & this obstacles all the rest . Means I must do 2-3 times a day repair permissions with Disk Utility .
    Group differs on “Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist”;
    It gets repaired & then all over again . So far I could not find a solution . I have already sent feedback to Apple .
    That's all folks , if anyone knows how to handle this it would be nice , at least until there is an official response .
    Thank you , have a nice day .

    bump
    I actually have this all the time. com.apple.alf.plist is always repaired whenever Disk Utility repairs permissions.
    I also came across somewhere that it was included in the solution for a problem about iTunes requesting permission to access internet everytime it is launched. And I had that issue as well. (iTunes asks for my permission for internet access everytime I launch it.) And the solution proposed for this included the deletion of this "com.apple.alf.plist" regarding a firewall issue. Although I deleted the file, Disk Utility still repairs this file (though iTunes haven't yet asked for internet permissions.) everytime I run the permission repair.
    I suppose there has got to be a solution to keep the file stable, like without causing the repair.
    Not a big issue, as mentioned in the thread title; but still, this may be the cause or result of something going on in the computer; so any suggestions are welcome.
    Cheers!

  • Time machine excludes other items in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist??

    Hey. I heard that time machine excludes some items even if they are not selected by you in time machine preferences. The items time machine excludes "secretly" are located in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist   Is there any way to remove these items. Things like calendars and iphoto show up on this exclusion list. I want to make sure I dont lose those.

    The only items excluded by default are cache and index files that will be regenerated automatically if deleted.

  • Can't locate com.apple.PowerManagement.plist

    I'm having trouble with a 2007 macbook that keeps restarting from sleeping rather than waking up upon opening the lid and have read this can sometimes be fixed by deleting the com.apple.PowerManagement.plist file but I can't find it in the system folder. Only a "power management bundle." I'm on Snow Leopard for reference. Can anyone help with this? I don't have the computer in front of me personally so I'm just trying to pass it along to who I'm trying to help.

    Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu and provide ~/Library/Preferences/ as the path. If it isn't there, delete the ~ and go to that folder.
    (77858)

  • Auto open docx and xlsx files in MS Office 2011 after it download in Safari (com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist not work)

    Check "Open safe files" in Safari and define docx and xlsx extensions in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist not work. Old doc and xls files was auto opened successfully...
    Content of .plist file:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
              <key>LSRiskCategorySafe</key>
              <dict>
                        <key>LSRiskCategoryExtensions</key>
                        <array>
                                  <string>doc</string>
                                  <string>docx</string>
                                  <string>xls</string>
                                  <string>xlsx</string>
                                  <string>ppt</string>
                                  <string>pptx</string>
                        </array>
              </dict>
    </dict>
    </plist>

    Yes, but there at least you are talking to people who all use the app, while in this forum (which is for hardware and not software in any case, so already off the mark, since the problem has nothing to do with hardware), it is probably a minority.
    A better place would be
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion
    and or
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/safari
    I did see someone from serveral years ago with the same problem at
    http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/877358-open-microsoft-office-files-automatical ly-after-download-in-safari/
    I wonder if there is another list somewhere of permissible extensions in that .plist....

Maybe you are looking for