StRaNgE preference files!

My 17" MB Pro is used only for music production - never online. I have these strange .plist files showing up in my ~Library; e.g., 'com.Ratiess.BioExtra.plist', 'com.completebuy.vizor.plist', 'com.AMR.GeneralNew.plist', 'com.Anahuge.Politick.plist'. Different creation dates, all 2010; mod. dates same as creation. This is after I installed some software, about 10 apps & plug-ins, most of which I purchased legally. VirusBarrier (up to date) shows no malware on the drive.
Using 10.6.5.
Getting ready to do an erase & clean install 'cause I don't like that .plist *****.
Any idea on what's going on?

I think it's a similar thing to what was going on here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1662657?start=0&tstart=0. Incidentally, I've had some strange ones showing up recently, too. Mine are titled:
com.alteneartechnology.writhen.plist
com.AtenetsCorporation.Allvista.plist
com.calledesign.serverclient.plist
com.DevicsResearch.Achlorhydria.plist
com.omnisac.indicate.plist
com.RAM.Zonesys.plist
When I try to open them with Property List Editor or QuickLook them, all it does is give me an error message that there's an unexpected error at line 1. Google doesn't find anything about any of them. They showed up right after I did a MobileMe Preference Sync, so I'm thinking the PreferenceSync Client could have mixed them up. Anyway I'm just going to delete them.

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Strange Crash when opening Logic 9 after deleting control surfaces preferences file

Hey, I have been having issues where logic crashes when I save certain projects of mine, so I tried to find a solution and one that I had read said that I should delete the control surfaces preferences file named com.apple.logic.pro.cs. I deleted the file, but it seems to have bricked my copy of Logic. I have included a screenshot of what happens when I now open Logic, which requires a force quit to get out of. If anyone has any suggestions of what I should do next I would really appreciate it.

Solved. It was an issue with my prokit (I had also been messing with that unfortunately). Found another thread and followed their instructions, back in action. Feel free to lock this thread.

Strange plist files found

Browsing my ~/Library/Preferences folder I found some 'strange' plist files. Investigating I found I could NOT open them with plist editor. Looking at them with hexedit showed they are binary files. What I could not find so far is who creates them, but some searching hints they are not 'dangerous'.
Some more details:
They are ALL 286 bytes long.
the names are:
com.ElggGroup.Enterprisedigital.plist
com.SysternatemsCorporation.Stoneworks.plist
com.utilineau.dogleg.plist
com.CONAsia.Offspring.plist
Hexdump shows identical content for all files:
martin$ hexdump -v com.CONAsia.Offspring.plist
0000000 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1e
0000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000a0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00000f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000100 00 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1e
0000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 1c 00 1e ff ff
000011e
I found three threads that had similar issues
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1662657
http://lists.apple.com/archives/Mpw-dev/2002/Jun/msg00055.html
http://forum.waves.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4520
But I certainly am not using ProTools and the WavePlugin with it.
One interesting discovery was some sample code here:
http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/FSMegaInfo/listing16.html
There this hex sequence was repeated many times.
My suspicion is that some software I have uses this (or similar) sample code and has not been cleaned. That does however not explain the choice of the plist file names. None of those names appear to relate to any software I have installed.
My question is: how can I search for the culprit on my system? How can I use grep, find or whatever to e.g. search for the string of the plist name?
And what are these files really? Resource forks? What's special about this byte sequence?
Thanks for any input.

Thanks for the kind and quick reply.
They do indead. Binary and xml are possible starting with 10.4 as this article suggests:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071112175807360
Another utility to check and convert plists from one format to another is plutil. But as you can see from the output below, the files are NOT valid plists. And, looking at the binary dump, is not surprising: It contains virtually no information.
martin$ plutil com.utilineau.dogleg.plist
com.utilineau.dogleg.plist:
XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x0' at line 1
martin$ plutil -convert xml1 com.utilineau.dogleg.plist
com.utilineau.dogleg.plist: XML parser error:
Unexpected character at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected character '0x0' at line 1
As to your suggestion of using spotlight, it does not find anything. Which also is not surprising since it does NOT index every file, particularly binaries.
My hope is to find the string tucked away in some binary. Afterall SOME software either created the plists or copied them to the user library. So the string of at least the 'company' names must be somewhere. Of course that could be in a compressed file so a direct search would not see it.
I still think the files are bogus, searching for those names on google brings precious little. If it were a Windows machine, I'd say there's a virus...
Further suggestions for investigations or hunting are much appreciated.

Strange preferences showing up

I recently updated my server to 10.5.6. Since then I have had some clients show thousands of strange preferences in their libraries. This causes major slowdown issues at login. The preferences show up at login. I've watched from the server and seen hundreds appear when the client logs in. Deleting the client and adding them back in seems to fix it. It does not happen to most of the users. Anyone know why this might be happening?

enable ssh on the affected client if it isn't yet, then login and tail logs while the user logs in. running fs_usage will probably help, too, as it will show you what's crating the files and when. as long as the machine's on, you should be able to stay connected through as many client account logins as it takes to determine what's causing this. without log details or evidence, it's difficult to guess what's happening.
what do the files' content look like? the pbs plists may be from the system's pasteboard server, but that's just a guess.

Location of Preferences files

I've installed using Encore 2.0 onto a machine running XP Pro. The machine is networked in a large commercial environment. Currently Encore is writing its Preferences Files into a directory under my username which is causing me a big problem because the files exceed my allowable profile space. In other Adobe products (Premiere, Photoshop Bridge) I can change the location of these files by editing the preferences. But there seems to be no way of doing this in Encore.
Any help greatly appreciated
regards
Steve

Seems strange that the preferences files are tipping you over the edge here. They're not that big.
Is it possible you are referring to the Media Cache files instead?
These can get big - rapidly.
The way to save space here would be to clean up the media cache files (or if absolutely certain they are no longer needed delete them altogether).
This can be done from one of the preferences screens:
Go to Edit/Preferences, and look for the Audio/Video Out preference page
(Why there, don't ask!) and you will see an option to clean the database or delete it.
The Media Cache database keeps track of assets you have imported into projects, for example if Premiere creates a conformed audio file & you import that file into Encore, Encore will use the file from Premiere Pro instead of creating a new conformed file. BUT - if it is a new import, then Encore will conform the file & the database will point to that instead. The database simply tells Encore where to find the files. With a lot of projects being done, this can build up fast.
Try cleaning the database - all unreferenced files (Or at least, the
i references
to the unreferenced files will then be deleted

Freeze on start - damaged preferences file

For the past several weeks I repeatedly can't start Lightroom 5.6 and now 5.7 without first deleting the preferences file, which apparently is repeatedly damaged. Once this is done I can restart Lightroom and reset my preferences. This occurs on two computers, one running Windows 8.1, the other Windows 7 - with two different Lightroom catalogs. I have found no information about this strange and sudden problem. Is anybody else experiencing this?
Adobe has blocked any support contact on systems not running on the monthly paying CC subscription model (I use CS6, which I have licensed through an art college where I have a teaching position), leaving professional users such as myself to solve mysterious problems alone. This is time consuming, which I find this unacceptable. What other industry ignores the needs of its users, especially those who help maintain its image through professional use and teaching? Has Adobe stopped listening?

Hi, spenzmatik
1. I suggest you begin troubleshooting using the procedure specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.
2. An errant Startup or Login Item maybe the cause. My "Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items" FAQ can help you pin that down if such an item is causing the problem.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

How can I open a cfm file in Dreamweaver CC using a Mac? Added to the Extensions.txt. Getting error adding to preferences-- file types.

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Have you tried these suggestions...
Open ColdFusion documents in Dreamweaver CC

Can't find my Photoshop preferences file

I KNOW this is stupid, but on Windows 7, 64-bit, with all the stuff turned on to show me hidden files and system files and everything, Photoshop CS6 (13.0.1?), and Lightroom 4.3
I'm trying to follow the advice that everything I do in Photoshop should be backed up somewhere other than as part of Photoshop, I periodically move all the stuff in
the Users/<me>/AppData/Roaming/Adobe... folders to a backup drive... And, by and large, I can find and figure out what stuff is.
But, I can't find my preferences file. I went to the Adobe help, and it says:
General settings
Adobe Photoshop CS6 Prefs.psp (32-bit version)
Adobe Photoshop X64 CS6 Prefs.psp (64-bit version)
Users/[user name]/AppData/Roaming/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS6/Adobe Photoshop CS6 Settings
I don't have ANYTHING called "Prefs.psp" in the Users stuff. As near as I can tell, I don't have anything called Prefs.psp ANYWHERE on the disk..
Do I get to pick where this file gets put? Could I have put it somewhere ELSE? Or, is it actually named something else?
I wouldn't be much concerned about his, but my latest stupid human trick (we won't go into that please) has convinced me I should do a better job of making sure I can restore Photoshop and Lightroom in the event of a "small error in judgement"

Thanks Noel. It's nice to know that at least THIS time, I'm not crazy..........
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What I'll do is add an (hopefully) automated Windows Backup to the other backups. Given the appallingly stupid things I periodically do I figure I need suspenders and a belt.

REP-0004: Warning: Unable to open user preference file.

Hi,
I am creating an invoice header in Payable through open interface in r12. I have inserted one line in ap_invoices_interface table.
When I run Payables Open Interface Import request, it completes normal but invoice does not create.
Please see below log file and provide your guidence.
Payables: Version : 12.0.0
Copyright (c) 1979, 1999, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
APXIIMPT module: Payables Open Interface Import
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Current system time is 24-DEC-2013 12:39:46
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------
| Starting concurrent program execution...
+-----------------------------
Arguments
p_source='MANUAL INVOICE ENTRY'
p_batch_name='test4'
p_purge_flag='N'
p_trace_switch='N'
p_debug_switch='N'
p_summary_flag='N'
p_commit_batch_size='1000'
p_user_id='19334'
p_login_id='2499994'
Current NLS_LANG and NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS Environment Variables are :
American_America.AR8MSWIN1256
Enter Password:
REP-0004: Warning: Unable to open user preference file.
MSG-00000: 0 invoice(s) were created during the process run
MSG-00000: 0 invoice(s) were fetched during the process run
MSG-00000: summarize flagN
MSG-00883: After Repport Trigger: Setting the Org Context to Multiple
Report Builder: Release 10.1.2.3.0 - Production on Tue Dec 24 12:39:47 2013
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Regards
Farooq

Please also see if the following docs help.
R12: Master Troubleshooting Guide for Supplier Contacts Open Interface Import Report (APXSCIMP) [Video] (Doc ID 1373699.1)
R12: REP-0004 Error While Running Supplier Contacts Open Interface Import Program (APXSCIMP) (Doc ID 1195815.1)
R12: APXSUIMP Ends With REP-0004 Error, But Output Does Not Display Reason for Rejection (Doc ID 1060824.1)
Thanks,
Hussein

My photoshop won't open, it says that the preferences file has been deleted. What do I do?

I was just working in my photoshop with no problems, I had just downloaded a free trial pluggin (Filter Forge) but that wasn't working, so I tried to close photoshop to re open it and it wasn't responding so I had to force quit it, and when I went to reopen it this box pops up..... "Could not initialize photoshop because the preferences file was invalid (it has been deleted)" I looked up how to fix this and I went under the library on my MAC to try and find the preferences file to move it because they said that would help, well I forgot.....the file has somehow been deleted. My other option that I haven't tried yet is to open photoshop and do the shortcut keys that resets everything but Im nervous to do that because I don't know what will get reset. Any help will be awesome I have several projects Im working on and need to finish!
Thanks

I haven't tried yet is to open photoshop and do the shortcut keys that resets everything but Im nervous to do that because I don't know what will get reset.
If you have not saved your custom presets for some time you should naturally lose those when opening with cmd-alt-shift pressed and selecting to "delete settings file" – but you can consider this a learning experience.
Apart from the presets you also need to set your Preferences (Interface, Performance, …) again after that if you had in any way changed them from the default settings.

Copy preference file to multiple accounts on one computer

How would I go about sending a preference file so that it applies to all accounts on the computer?
MDA

Transfer the file to one location on the computer, and then click here for further information.
(30696)

How to have multiple preference files for Mail on one computer

I would like to have multiple preference files for Mail on one computer, one copy for each person in the organization. I want everybody to log in as the same user. Is this possible?
Thanks,
John Link
Cube, 450 MHz, 640 MB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Since the Mail.app preference file (along with all other application preference files for a user account) is stored in that user's Home folder/directory, I don't believe this is possible.

Multiple Libraries - One Preferences File

Hi all,
I would like to set up Multiple Libraries in iTunes to Sync one with ATV and stream the other to ATV when it is active.
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body#page1 { background-color:green; }
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E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Pack...

Ok guys.. Got a problem..
I was using 5 desktops, custom transitions, Portrait status-bar, Mag Hildon-desktop, swappiness(30) , Page cluster (5) , Mydocs executable , update notifications using Maemodder.
And today ive changed custom transitions and also selected "Hildon Acceleration".
Then i installed "tvbgone" app from testing area.I used fasterappmanger for install that.
After installing no probs occurred.
Then i tried to install "Desktop-switcher" using x-term.
x-term showed an error.
BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso30+0m5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
~ $ sudo gainroot
Root shell enabled
BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso30+0m5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/home/user # apt-get install desktop-switcher
Reading package lists... Done
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
/home/user # apt-get purge tvbgone
Reading package lists... Done
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
/home/user # apt-get autoremove
Reading package lists... Done
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
/home/user #
In inbuilt appmanager gives a "operation failed" message when i open it.This is the log..
hildon-application-manager 2.2.71
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
connected to 4d49b94c-2745-43a7-bf06-3f338acf39cb
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
connected to 4d49b94c-2745-43a7-bf06-3f338acf39cb
W: GPG error: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org chinook Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 667387BFFF445C24
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
E: Invalid record in the preferences file, no Package header
Also included the fasterappmanager error.
** apt-get update works in x-term. But cannot install, remove any apps.
*** Ive re-stored everything in Maemodder , removed battery, and also disabled my catalogs and re-enabled them ...but nothing works..Having the same errors again and again..
*****I know this info might be too much.. But told everything happened. So any ideas...? Without re-flashing and clearing device...?
**Thankyou..
Please help!
"You may loose faith on us.. But never in your selves! From here, the fight will be your own.."
_____________[Protect Transformers]_____________
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
Faster app manager error.png ‏185 KB

Solved it..
If anyone having this prob, do this..
Install filebox and enable root access.(from settings in filebox)
1)Then open file box, go to :
/etc/apt
2)Tap about 3 secs on the preferences and select rename. Then rename it as preferences.tmp
3)Problem solved.
Cheers
"You may loose faith on us.. But never in your selves! From here, the fight will be your own.."
_____________[Protect Transformers]_____________

'the preferences file is corrupt and has been reset to the default settings' - cs4 Mac

greetings!
every time i start illustrator i encounter a new error.
"the preferences file is corrupt and has been reset to the default settings."
"the corrupt file will be backed up as Adobe illustrator Prefs.err"
this problem manifested after i added some more .ai and .ase files to my swatches directory. i do not believe anything else changed.
not sure how to diagnose the problem. is there a debug mode or something? perhaps an offending file.
an option would be to try remove each added swatch file or folder individually, but this would be a very very time consuming process for me.
i use cs4 on a Macbook pro running Snow Leopard - 10.6.2 and would appreciate your advice.
thank you
-s

s,
Every time you close down Illy, the current preferences (which may have been changed while you worked on files) are saved, and every time you start up Illy, those preferences will be used.
Usually, preference corruption probably occurs randomly, caused by the OS, but if something in your files change the preferences to something that is not viable you will get an error like that.
You may press Cmd+Option+Shift during startup, which will replace the current preferences with the defaults, and probably you will get rid of the error message. It is probably not a cure, though.
If the error is persistent, the cure would be to get rid of the offending things in the files you work with.

StRaNgE preference files!

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