Old Font Files in Leopard showing up as Unix Executable File

Is there any way I can make the computer be able to use and open the font files that now are being seen as Unix Executable Files even though they worked just fine as fonts before I upgraded to 10.5. I've tried putting new file extensions on them, or telling them to be opened with font book. I'm not sure what else to do, we have hundreds if not thousands of fonts that we need and that our customers need us to be able to use.

Thanks soo much everyone for all the help.
I've installed reset permissions, reset LaunchServices using OnyX, rebooted, and files are still "unix executable" to start with. I then used FileUtils app to "Clear Executible Status," which makes them open in txt editor, and say they are 0kb in size. I then renamed the extentions, playing around with a bunch of different types, and no luck at all with any of them.
Here is a screen shot (http://180bydesign.com/uploads/Picture5.png) of my folder (at top) with a list of fonts, and fontbook.app (at bottom) when I try to add a font from that location. No luck.
PS - here's something weird... I had a friend w/ Tiger send me a font suitcase which he zipped, and it did same thing, but then he zipped it twice (wierd, I know) and it worked! I unzipped the first one, then unzipped the second file within that first one, and WALLA, the suitcase actually looked and acted like a font. This doesn't help at all with all the other saved files, but it certainly helps. I might open a pc & try to double zip all the old ones & see if that does the trick.

Similar Messages

File type changed to Unix Executable File

Hello:
I restored a corrupt Word file from a back-up drive (files are backed up using a special rsync that splits data and metadata forks. I did not assemble the two forks before copying the file back to the production volume) into a production folder in a local machine. Now when I browse the volume from my networked computer all Word files without extensions show up as Unix Executable Files. I've cleared the Launch services in the networked machine with no results. If I browse from other networked computers file types are set correctly. The problem seems to be with this specific networked machine. What an I do to restore file types as they should be? Please, note the problem seems to be with the client machine not the file server.

Thanks, Kappy. I've tried that but I get an error message saying "An error ocurred while changing...because not enough information is available." Could that mean that the action cannot be done because these files don't have extensions? When I go ahead and select to use Word to always open the file it only takes effect on that file. But the file remains a Unix Executable file.
Could anyone provide any further help with this issue?
Message was edited by: Karkula

Fonts showing up as Unix executible files in snow leopard

Hello,
We just upgraded to new imacs with Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and almost all of our fonts located on the hard drive are showing up as Unix Executable files with 0kb. Besides having problems installing these into Suitcase Fusion 2, I think the fact that they are showing up this way initially may be the root of the problem with Suitcase. Is anyone else experiencing this and what can I do to solve this problem?
Thanks,
Kristie

So, the fonts are showing up fine on the mac with tiger (10.4.11) which is reading them from the network server (Windows drive)...
Whew! Good. Some servers are set up to allow this, others kill any resource fork dependent fonts you put on them.
By default, when you copy any Mac files to a Windows formatted drive (NTFS, FAT32), you end up with two files. Once for the data fork, and one for the resource fork. So say you have a legacy TrueType font named Basil. On the Windows drive, a file named Basil will be created for the data fork, which is the one you will see from your Mac. OS X will also create a file name ._Basil to store the resource fork data. You don't see this one from your Mac because it starts with a period. Any such file is automatically hidden from the user's view in OS X.
Anyway, you can try two things. One, copy the files from the server to the Mac running Tiger. When you copy such split files back to a Mac formatted drive, they are automatically put back together by OS X into a normal Mac data/resource file. If that works (they maintain their size once copied back to that Mac), then you can put them on a flash drive and bring them over to the Macs running Snow Leopard.
Else, you can have IT look into what's wrong/different with the network setup in the new Macs that they aren't reading the networked fonts the same way the Tiger computer is. Right now, they're not seeing the ._xxx resource fork data.
On top of that, assuming the fonts do copy back correctly to the Mac running Tiger, I would definitely create a permanent backup of all your fonts in Mac format, such as on a CD, and put it in a safe place.
which folder should I dump them in? My little house/Library/font? Or some other folder?
If there are multiple users of each Mac, then put them in the main /Library/Fonts/ folder. Then any user of that Mac can use the fonts. If you were to put them in the Fonts folder of you user account, then only you would be able to use them (or anyone else logged into your account). The downside to either of these locations is that they are on all the time, by default.
Since you're using Suitcase, you can put them wherever you want and activate them as necessary. You can even leave them in the /Library/Fonts/ folder since you still deactivate any fonts you want within that folder from Suitcase's interface.

Photoshop files show as unix executable files

Hi,
I've have a back-up drive with all my old files (the past 15 years). After I copied them over I noticed that most of them showed up as unix executable files. The most of the Quark files I was able to repair by adding .qxp. When I add the appropriate extension to my Photoshop files, (.tif, .eps) and then try to open them, PS won't recognize the files. Is there a fix to this. Unfortunately the originals have disappeared with a drive that crashed.
Thanks for any help.

Adding file extensions for unique application-types will work fine as long as there's an entry for LaunchServices to reference to - add the .qxd extension will "make" them Quark files, for example. The more generic types are going to be the problem, as there are many applications listed in LaunchServices that can open TIFF and EPS files. If you had files that you could absolutely identify as raw Photoshop files, adding a .psd extension would most likely work for those.
Maybe I just need to let all those files go...
Since it seems that only the resource fork has been munged, the files are probably fine - just missing the resource fork with the Type/Creator code and the preview info that Photoshop stores there.
-Doug

Files changing to unix executable files in leopard!

I'm having files show up as UNIX EXECUTABLE FILES in Leopard. these are Quark Xpress files and a few tiff files.
These were backup files sent from a client on a Mac, there were compressed using Zip software. Also the same files that were not compressed are DOCUMENT files.
What is happening that Leopard can not recognize these files?
I tried removing "com.apple.LaunchServices" files

I found that a number of Windows files copied across to an external HFS+ hard disk from a Windows PC using MacDrive showed as Unix executables.
It turned out that they files had Execute permissions set for all users.
You can change the "Execute" setting using chmod in the terminal, but a simpler solution is to install FileUtilsCM, a free context menu control available from http://www.abracode.com/free/cmworkshop/file_utils.html
It offers a variety of high level controls, including remove file type and creator; remove resource fork; clear "execute" Unix attribute.
I found this fixed the problem for my files. The "clear execute" control fixed the file type, and the "remove type & creator" command converted the type back to Plain text from Document.
I don't know if it will work for your problem, but could be worth a try. Works in Leopard 10.5.1 for me.
Slightly more control is available from Super Get Info from Barebones http://www.barebones.com/products/super/index.shtml
That's not free, however, but it does allow you to set the file type and creator.
DN

After Mavericks upgrade fonts on server appear as Unix executable files

Hello:
I upgraded two machines to Mavericks. An iMac and a Macmini both were running 10.8. We store files and fonts on a Windows server. Before the upgrade the fonts appeared as aspected on the server in the Finder, after the Mavericks upgrade they appeared as Unix executable files ( Only on the iMac ) the fonts display correctly on the MacMini. Both machines mount the server the same way and the fonts do work correctly if downloaded to the local machine.
Anyone have an idea why they would appear correctly on one machine and not the other.
appreciate any input.
thanks,
Rick

Gary Looft wrote:
They show up as Unix executable files
Kurt is very likely right, but we need more info to try to fix it.
Server details?
What version of Mac OS X can view the fonts?
What protocol do they use?
What protocol do you use?
If they connect to the server with a different protocol from you (eg, AFP vs SMB), try switching to the same protocol. That may very well not solve the problem, but it's the first step.

Quark files show as unix executable files.

I have a strange issue. This is an all mac enviornment. The iMac's are running 10.4.11, and Quark express 6.0 One of the iMac's show the quark files as unix executable files. All of the other mac's can open the files without any issue.
On the iMac that has an issue, some of the folders show up as unix executable files as well. Also, there is a network share that is a log in item that should auto mount when the user logs in, it no longer mounts automatically. The only way to mount the share is by navigating through finder.
I was able to open one of the quark files by using open, then save the file using save as. this appended the file extension. I also enabled file extensions in finder, and manually appended the extension and they still would not associate with Quark. The file I did a save as does associate with Quark but it is the only one.
I repaired disk permissions and that did not help. Anyone have any ideas on this one?

I also couldn't find the download link for xsupport on the link you provided.
Looks like they have changed their business model. I just copied the URL out of the aboutbox of my copy of the Xsuppport toll but didn't crosscheck it.
Does that give any indication on what the problem is?
Not really, perhaps a corrupted or unreadable (by permission) .DS_Store file in the folder where your Xpress files reside, but then again that should affect other clients as well.
Which leads to the question:
When some clients have the correct mapping document <-> Quark Xpress and one (or more) other(s) don't, do you connect with different users to the server or are the users always the samr but the connection made from different machines?
If youuse different users to connect, then the problem very like is on the server side (addess rights, etc). If the same user has different results on different machines, the problem's most likely a local one. In which case you coud try all of ManiMenu's clean and deep clean actions.

HELP! Indesign changes to Unix executable file

I have a Mac Xeon Dual core quad pro running an older Mac OSX and have recently bought a Macbook running OS 10.6.
On my old mac I use Indesign / Illustrator / Photoshop CS3 (no money to upgrade yet) and all works fine.
This week I transferred some Indesign files to my laptop to work in another office. The files show up as Unix executable files. They have the correct tags on the end of filenames and work fine on the old mac. Indesign and Illustrator have also been crashing on startup and I have had to dump out prefs twice now.
Illustrator files show up as Unix executable file as well and all have a grey icon.
I migrated everything over from the old mac to the laptop.
It is driving me mad as I have to trust that I can work on this out of the office.
If I upgrade to a newer version of the programmes will it solve the problem?
Any help gratefully received please!
PS I am a designer, so please use simple language - I do not have a lot of techie knowledge about macs
Thanks!

Thanks, Kappy. I've tried that but I get an error message saying "An error ocurred while changing...because not enough information is available." Could that mean that the action cannot be done because these files don't have extensions? When I go ahead and select to use Word to always open the file it only takes effect on that file. But the file remains a Unix Executable file.
Could anyone provide any further help with this issue?
Message was edited by: Karkula

Fonts problems (unix executable file)

Hi,
I've a mac os x 10.4.11(tiger) G5 and a new mac os x 10.5.2(leopard)Imac both connected on a server.
I've many differents fonts on the server. On the G5, I can take all the fonts on the server, put them on my desktop and they will keep their extensions. On the Imac, when i do the same, only the *.ttf et *.otf are recognized, and all the others (font suitcase, postscript type 1 outline font, etc...) are known as unix executable file (0 ko). So, i've to go on my G5, create a zip file of the fonts, open my zip on my desktop's Imac (not on my server, because same problem) and then I've all my fonts with the right extension.
My font software is (on my both mac) is Linotype FontExplorer X Version 1.2.3.
What I've to do, to proceed in the same way on my Imac as on my G5, and not create a zip?
Thanks

I knew this sounded familiar. Mark Douma posted this on a very similar thread a while back.<hr>Notice the "__MACOSX" folder in the expanded archive? That's evidence that the original archive was created using the built-in "Create Archive" function of the Finder, but that the archive on your end was expanded using Stuffit Expander 8.0.1 or earlier.
ZIP files don't normally support resource forks, so when you create a zip file of fonts, the program needs to some method of preserving this information. In Stuffit Expander versions 8.0.1 and earlier, it used its own method to preserve this information (before creating the final zip file, it would first encode each included file as a MacBinary (.bin) file).
Unfortunately, the built-in "Create Archive" feature of the Finder (BomArchiveHelper.app, actually) uses a different method, one which you're seeing evidence in the "__MACOSX" folder in the images shown. Inside that folder are the "other halves" of the files you want to use.
There are two possible solutions:
1) Instead of using Stuffit Expander to expand the .zip files, use the built-in feature of OS X. To do this, select a .zip file in the Finder, and choose Command-i to open a Get Info window. In the Open With section, make sure that "BomArchiveHelper.app" (Tiger and earlier) or "Archive Utility.app" (Leopard) is set to open the archives. If it isn't, click the pop-up menu, choose Other, and navigate to the /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder and choose the appropriate application for your version of OS X. Then click the Change All button to apply this to all .zip files. Then locate the original .zip and expand it once again.
2) Update your version of Stuffit Expander to version 8.0.2 or later. Allume changed the method it used to preserve information in zip files to match that of the Finder's method in Expander 8.0.2 and later. After updating, locate the original .zip file and expand it once again.
There may also be an advanced way of salvaging these files shown toward the end of the following movie.
The following movie shows the predicament (I haven't had a chance to add sound or text, but it should hopefully be self-explanatory).
Notice the version of Stuffit Expander used to expand the archive is 8.0, which exhibits the same problematic behavior you're seeing:
http://homepage.mac.com/mdouma46/images/zipFilesAndFonts.mov (~8.0 MB).
Hope this helps.... <hr>
Essentially, it's all in how the fonts were compressed or sent. Trying to send Mac fonts as direct attachments in an email will almost certainly ruin them. As Mark stated above, how they were zipped and then unzipped can also create empty fonts.

Old Quark files are now Unix Executable Files

I made hundreds of archive CD's with Mac's running OS 9 back in 1990's. They contain Quark files and .tif's. I've referred back to these CD's many many times over the years with no problems. My new iMac has the intel processor. I pop an archive CD in and all the files (with no extensions like "tif" or ".qkd" or ".eps") are now "Unix Executable Files" that won't open.
I simply add an extension to the images files (like ".tif") and they work. HOWEVER, it's not so easy with the Quark files. I add ".qkd" to the file name and it still remains a Unix file.
I launch Quark and try to open the file through the finder and it doesn't work. I took an archive CD to a friends house whose on a G5 and the CD worked properly with no extensions needed to be added.
So I figure the problem is with the Intel/PC based processor. I shouldn't have sold my old G5.
One forum claimed that a program called "File Buddy" did the trick for him. Does anyone have any other ideas other than me buying a non-Intel Mac.
I love our new iMacs but I need these archive CD's to work!
Thanks

I automatically run OnyX once a week for maintenance, but it didn't help this situation.
Those chores won't reset the LaunchServices database. Go to the Maintenance heading and click on the Reset tab. Turn on the check box for "LaunchServices database" (all other check boxes off). Click the Reset radio button and then Execute. Restart your Mac.
OS X will automatically rebuild the database according to the applications on your hard drive, giving preference to Apple applications as they would be when you first install OS X. So if you have the Acrobat Reader set up to open PDF files, you'll have to do that again as they will be set back to Preview.
Actually it's .qxd not .qkd for Quark XPress file extensions.
That's it! I knew .qkd was wrong, but Quark 6.x won't show you the old extensions when you save a file, and I couldn't remember it (been using InDesign steadily for a while now).

Old Photos - Unix Executable File

Trying to help a friend - he has a bunch of photos on his Mac that are six years old. He can't open them. He sent me one - it shows up as a "Unix Executable File" (whatever that is?). The read/write accesses are OK. File is about the right size (350K). iPhoto 6 won't open them. Is there a way to open/convert these files?
Thanks, Nick

Nick:
Do the files have the jpg extension on them? If they do, select one and type Command-I. In the Info pane there's an Open with menu. In that menu select Preview as the default application to open it with. Then click on the Apply to all button. See if that won't get them to respond as they should.
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

How open old Appleworks documents that appear as UNIX executable files?

A few of my old Appleworks or Clarisworks files won't open with Appleworks 6, but show up as a "UNIX executable file." I have tried adding the ".cwk" extension, repairing permissions using Disk Utility, and using Finder>File>Get info>Open to choose Apleworks 6 (it already was selected) as recommended by Peggy. With ".cwk" extension, I then get "that file appears to be damaged and cannot be opened."
Any other suggestions?

Hi Cloyd G,
welcome to Apple Discussions and the AppleWorks forum.
The 'UNIX executable file' classification error appears to arise mostly from the lack of a suffix (.cwk) on the original file. If adding the .cwk suffix does not make the file readable by AppleWorks, and gives a 'file appears to be damaged' message, then it's likely that the file has indeed been damaged.
If it's a word processor file, you could try opening it in a Text editor (such as Text Edit, supplied with OS X, or Text Wrangler, available free from Bare Bones Software). You'll get a large amount of junk (file meta data and formatting codes, etc.) with the text of your document somewhere in the middle. If you know a single word that is in (or is likely to be in) the document, a search using command-F should take you directly there. Copy the text and paste it into a new AW document.
For spreadsheet files, you can try dragging the file and dropping it onto a new, empty spreadsheet document. The same technique may also work for database files. I've never tried or seen recommended the same texchnique for Draw or Paint files, but attemptng it should do no harm.
Best of luck with this.
Regards,
Barry

Autosaved as Unix Executable Files after editing font size?

When I open a .txt file in TextEdit, and change the font, in the Finder I see a new Unix Executable File appear, with (Autosaved) after the file name. This is in addition to the original .txt file - so there are now 2 files of the same name showing.
However, when I manually save the file, the Unix exe file disappears from the Finder, leaving the newly saved .txt file.
Is this normal? If not, please let me know what else I can try to fix it. I've already tried both suggestions in this thread & neither of them worked.
Thanks!

Ok I noticed that TextEdit preferences shows an option to "delete the automatic backup file" so that's why it's disappearing...
...but what happens if TextEdit quits on me unexpectedly (which it has before)? Will I be able to open the autosaved Unix executable file with TextEdit or will it be "unrecognized?"
If anyone can give me confirmation that their autosaved files are Unix exe files and/or if they've been able to open the Unix exe backup files in the program they were created from, that would help.

Fonts showing up as unix executable

hi there,
i've searched the forums about fonts showing up as unix executable and haven't been able to find a solution - is there any way to restore the fonts? currecntly, the fonts are showing up as 0kb or 4kb.

is there any way to restore the fonts?
Two ways to reinstall...
Pacifist...
http://www.charlessoft.com/
then extract what you need from your Install Disk.
About the Archive and Install feature, which can give you a new OS, yet preserve your files and settings if you have enough room on your HD...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

How do I open my old Appleworks documents which have turned into Unix Executable Files? I would like to convert them into Pages documents.

How do I open my old Appleworks documents which have turned into Unix Executable Files? I would like to convert them into Pages documents. I also have old Word Perfect documents which have become similarly unopenable.

Best bet might be to try opening them using LibreOffice [free] and save them to .doc.
Do you really want to save them as .pages files? You are jumping from the frypan into the fire. Yet another proprietary format that Apple has again deadended with no working translation.
Peter

Old Font Files in Leopard showing up as Unix Executable File

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