Unix Executable Files Problem

My husband moved from PC to Mac and had the Apple Store transfer his libraries to it - including picture files. Every time he opens iPhoto he is told that there are 14 files not yet imported. However, they can't be imported and on inspection turn out to be Unix Executable Files. Each time he does this another Recovered File folder appears in his picture folder on the HD.
I've tried to find out what the files are - but, of course, can't open them. I suspect that they maybe Clip Art from his PC version of Microsoft Office. They can't be deleted. If I put a Recovered File folder in Trash and Empty Trash, it just turns up in the Picture Folder again!
While not a disaster, it's very irritating. Is there anything he can do?

Quit iPhoto and right click (control click) on your iPhoto library (by default in the pictures folder) and select the show package contents command - find the folder names import (or importing) and drag it to the desktop, close the iPhoto library and launch iPhoto - you will be fine
Open the import(ing) folder on the desktop and see if there is anything you want to save in it - if there is import them to iPhoto and then trash the import(ing) folder
LN

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Unix Executable File Problem

Hi all - when I download photographs from my Sony camera via a FAt32 formatted photo storage portable hard drive, accompanying the photo files is a "MEMSTICK.IND' file. It shows as a black rectangle. At some stage I have copied this from the portable drive to my desktop and into a folder. Nothing I do seems to remove it. It shows as being zero KB, but once in the trash, it refuses to be trashed and blocks the clearing of some other files as well. If I drag it out of the trash it copies! It shows as being locked. If I unlock it, it still will not disappear. Now in my efforts to get rid of it, I seem to have duplicated it several times! More puzzling is that Spotlight shows it to exist in some folders that when opened are empty!
By the way, I am unable to re-format the storage drive - it is fixed as Fat32, as are the memory stick storage cards.
Any help would be gratefully accepted!

Hi, catspaw.
You wrote: "...once in the trash, it refuses to be trashed..."See my "Solving Trash Problems" FAQ. In particular, you may find the utilities recommended therein for dealing with stubborn files especially helpful. The FAQ also discusses a number of techniques for dealing with Trash problems.
As to why this file is being created and what it is for, as a guess it is some kind of index (.ind) file being used by the firmware of the non-Apple devices in question. You might want to discuss Mac compatibility with the manufacturer of the unnamed "FAt32 formatted photo storage portable hard drive."
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.

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.

Problems after opening "Get Document" Unix Executable file

After importing documents from my Dell computer to macbookpro and opening a file called "Get Document" which is a Unix Executable file, I now have dozens of these type of these type of files in "Places":
file://localhost/Users/sacredsprings/%25B0%2580%25A9%25C0SR
I had Linux installed on my Dell, and having read a few threads think it may be to do with that. Can I just safely delete all these files?

Sometimes ZIP files are made into self-expanding .exe files. When run on a PC, they will unzip without needing any unzipping software. They will not do this on a Mac, but Stuffit Expander may work with them
<http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/>

Unix Executable files within apple programs, problem???????????

Sometime ago i was using logic pro 7,and saving my project folders on an external drive,,,all of my folders turned into EXE files and couldnt be read,,
Now ive wiped my internal drive,,reloaded the install disks,,used disk warrior,
If i highlight any icon such as logic,iDVD,garage band,,or any other,,"show package contents" ???? click contents then open the "MacOS" folder,, A black Unix Executable file is here,,,,in all programs,!!!!!!!!!!
I have tried to find out if this is normal as i lost a huge amount of project folders,,,,but there is nothing or no one i can find to resolve this issue,
i would just like to feel safe as im not much of a computer wizard,,
anyone got an idea? yours confused,, steve

I have tried to find out if this is normal
Yes, it is.
(48530)

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).

Word Docs have become Unix Executable Files!

The subject says it. This has happened on both my wife's iMac G5, and my MacBook Pro. Some, not all, of our Word docs, (both using 2004, running OS X.4.7) have had their icons turned into a gray console, and in "Get Info" identify themselves as "Unix Executable File." When opened in Word, I get the option to open as if it were a foreign file, and typically, it opens with all formatting gone, and all kinds of bizarre characters at the beginning (and sometimes end) of the doc.
Now, I can salvage the data, it seems, but is there some way to simply undo this damage without manually going through every file?
I must say, this is exactly the kind of junk that I would expect to find on a PC. This is a stunningly bad problem, by far the worst I've experienced in almost 15 years of using Macs. I would assume that Apple is aware of this, and that they can:
1) Explain what happened.
2) Explain a quick and easy fix.
Thanks to anyone (from Apple or otherwise) who can do 1 and 2 above.

Jeffois,
The first command I gave to you will render the directory in question, and all nested directories, inaccessible. The second command will make the diretories accessible again.
There is a possibility that there are files in this directory structure which are not owned by you. Not likely, but I must make the assumption that these could be encountered when I give such commands "in the dark" as it were. In such a case, you would see an error regarding these files, thus the warning.
You can return your directories to accessibility using the second command, regardless of errors you might encounter. If you do encounter errors, I will post a different form of the same commands that will work.
Be prepared to deal with this problem any time you transfer files from a Windows-formatted volume. This is not a Windows problem, but rather one of differences between the two file systems. If you see a file show up with the executable icon, you might want to remove the execute bit right away. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this in the GUI, so you must resort to using Terminal.
This shouldn't be too much of a problem. Just open Terminal, type this text with a traling space:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chmod a-x</pre>
then select all of the new files and drag them all into the Terminal window. This will create a rather long command line that includes the full path to every file you dragged in. Just press <RETURN>, and "POOF," no more execute bit!
Scott

Photoshop .psd files converted to Unix Executable files

I'm an illustrator and I store my art on CDs and DVDs. After a period of time my files are converted from Photoshop .psd files to Unix Executable files and I can't open them. What can I do to get my work back??? -and keep this from happening in the future. Why does it do this????
Thanks for any help.

The file sizes range from 22.2 MB to 67.9 MB.
Size isn't the issue then. Linc was asking that question because we see that with other file types. Older fonts in particular, which have all of their data in the resource fork. If that gets stripped, you end up with a zero byte file.
Does that mean I'll have to go through the Adobe authorization process for Photoshop again?
If the version of Photoshop you're currently using is already activated, then no. Either way, it has nothing to do with .psd files showing as UNIX executables.
In Windows, any file that doesn't have an association to a program is displayed as a white, dog-eared piece of paper with the Windows logo in the middle. That's Windows' way of saying, "I have no idea what this is." In OS X, (except for those files which actually are UNIX executables), displaying them as such is OS X's way of saying the same thing.
I thought I was home free when the icon changed to a thumbnail picture of the illustration, but PS refuses to open it saying it is not a Photoshop file. ???
Now that is weird. As of Snow Leopard, Apple put the old Type and Creator codes to rest. It will read them as a last resort to try and identify an older file, but none of Apple's applications add them to any file they save. For better compatibility with Windows, and OS X's own underlying UNIX core, file extensions have taken their place. So adding a .psd extension should have worked. Without playing with one of your files, I couldn't tell you why Photoshop declared it wasn't a valid .psd image.
On a side note, Apple added Uniform Type Identifiers to OS X to keep things separate. A big problem in Windows is that multiple apps may use the same file extension. EPS is a big one in printing. So you have Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Quark and others all using .eps for Encapsulated PostScript files. However, Windows can only associate one application to any given extension. So if Illustrator happens to be the one tagged to .eps files, it will try to open any file ending in .eps, no matter what program actually created it. OS X keeps them separate with Uniform Type Identifiers. So even though multiple files may have .eps file extensions, the extra metadata keeps track of what program it actually belongs to.
This is what is part of the LaunchServices database, and was why it was my first suggestion. If that database is wonky, you'll see weird things like this. Have you tried clearing it yet?
The files are fine when newly burned to CD. It is only months, or years, later that they become Unix Executable Files. This has happened to just about all of my CD backups and it's frustrating to think that CD backup doesn't work across newer OSs and Photoshop upgrades. I suspect that may be the problem, but it just shouldn't happen.
That shouldn't make a difference. I've got a bunch of very old files created in Photoshop back from OS 8 on CD. No file extensions, as nothing did at the time. Just Type and Creator codes. They all open fine in PS CS5.5 in Snow Leopard, though the native Photoshop files do need to have a .psd extension added.

Unix Executable Files

after upgrading to Tiger 10.4.3, all my files that did not have a file extension (in particular all my fonts) are now Unix Executable files and unusable. is there any thing that can be done?

My boss if having the same problem! I however, am not. We have identical G5's, but our older G4's are slightly different with slightly different OS's and software. My boss has OS 10.1.3 and OS 9.2.2, also i have newer versions of photoshop and quark on my G4 than my boss does.
The file types he is having the issue with are .eps files from photoshop and illustrator, and quark files that don't have the extensions already. He was told by Support that the issue may be stemming from the fact that when he worked on his older mac, he booted up in OS 9, where as I always booted up in OS X and used OS 9 virtually.
We are trying to transfer the files directly now, while his older mac is booted up in OS X to see if that solves the Unix problem. But now we are running into the issue where, once the computers are hooked up by firewire, the process is freezing. Does anybody have any advice for us? We need HELP!!!
Thanks!
JdJ
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2
Macintosh G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Old Mac - G4, OS X 10.3.2 & OS 9.2.2

Why did all my files suddenly become UNIX Executable Files?

After reformatting my hard drive and installing Panther server, I restored the Retrospect back up of files to my home directory. Unfortunately, all the files that didn't have suffixes (eg: .doc, .xls, .pdf, etc.) suddenly had their icons replaced with an icon of a black console with the word "exec" typed in. And their kind was lost and all became: UNIX Executable File.
Ever since this Panther server has been acting eratically.
I have been able to resurrect the affected files by opening them in their native application and resaving them with the proper suffix. But there are thousands of files and dozens of applications that could have made each file.
Is there a way to resurrect these files without having to open and resave every single file in its native application one at a time? Could these thousands of UNIX Executable Files be causing problems for Panther server?
Thanks for your input.
Gregg

Hi TropicalReef,
At some point during your backup/restore process the executable bit was set on your files. This should not cause a problem with the overall performance of the operating system. But to some extent this is a security risk. There are a number of GUI applications that can change file permission. I recommend you download one and remove the executable bit from your files. Read the developers documentation carefully. Changing file permission especially in batch mode can be very dangerous.
The easiest way to make you files double clickable is to add the appropriate suffix to the file name. Again there a number of shareware and freeware apps that will do this. Check MacUpdate and VersionTracker.

AppleWorks 6.0 Files Listed As Unix Executable Files. Unable To Open.

A client of mine backed up a number of AppleWorks 5 & 6 files last week on a PowerMac w/ OS X 10.3. I reformatted the HD, upgraded the OS to 10.4 and attempted to reinstall AppleWorks 6.0. It would not allow installation. So, I installed OS 9 Classic. Still would not allow me to install AppleWorks. Then, I installed iWork '08, having read that it would open AppleWorks files. iWork would only open a hand full of the files. The remaining 90% of the files are listed as "Unix Executable" files.
Have the files been corrupted in the move?
Any ideas on how to open/recover these files?
Thanks,
stc

If one device used during the process was not an HFS one, the AppleWorks documents may have lost their resourceFork.
Are you sure that the files are named with the name extension ".cwk" which is quite required under Mac OS X?
Then, I installed iWork '08, having read that it would open AppleWorks files.
This is right and wrong.
Iwork components are able to work this way:
Pages may open AppleWorks 6 WP document, not the AW5 ones
Numbers may open AppleWorks 6 SS document, not the AW5 ones
Keynote may open AppleWorks 6 Presentation document, not the AW5 ones
Nothing may open the DB, Paint and Draw AW documents.
There is no reason that you can't install AppleWorks on a machine running 10.4.
I installed AppleWorks 6.0.4 last week on a machine running 10.4.11.
So, at this time it seems that the main problem is to understand why you are unable to reinstall AppleWorks 6.
If you wish to know if the documents are in good health, you may attach one to a mail and send it to my mailbox.
Click my blueName to get my address.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE lundi 25 août 2008 19:12:51)

Help! FCE project files converted to unix executable files

I recently added a USB external drive and put my FCE project files on it. When I rebooted, the files now are unrecognizable by Final Cut Express as project files. In the finder they are now recognized only as unix executable files. Is there any way to reverse this problem. I really can't afford to lose all that work! Thanks

How is the drive formatted? If it's not Mac formatted you may have a problem. It may be recoverable. How many project files are you talking about? What about the media?

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

Recovered files now UNIX Executable Files???

After my previous external hard drive failed I had the data recovered and placed onto a new external drive. After looking at the files I have found that a number of them have become "unix executable files." I don't know what this is or how to fix it. It seems to have only happened to things such as saved emails, but there are some photos from my digital camera that have converted to this as well.
While looking into the problem I found that the company that recovered the data placed it all onto an external hard drive that is an MS-DOS File System (FAT32) format instead of a Mac OS format. Could this be the problem since all of my files were Mac files, and the hard drive they were recovered from was formatted to Mac OS?
If this is the case, is it something I can fix myself without loosing anything, or should I take it back to the place that recovered the data?
ANY help would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Yes the file naming probably was messed about with when they copied stuff over to FAT32. The files are probably there. However, the just need the correct file suffix to associate with the correct programs. A good way to test the files without hurting them is to view them in the Terminal with the program called More. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal and you will be greeted by a prompt. At the prompt type the word
more
followed by a space (do NOT hit enter)
and drag the file into the terminal following the word "more" and then when the path appears, hit enter. If there is intelligible text, the file is probably an e-mail. If there is no intelligible text, it probably is an image, or a system file. Preview can open the files which are images and save them to specific formats. Depending on the number of files you had rescued, it might be better to ask them to rescue it again, but to a properly formatted volume. You can try yourself if you still have the old disk with Prosoft Data Rescue.
In anycase, this is a very good lesson to always backup your data in the future as my FAQ explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
Good luck!

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

Unix Executable Files Problem

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