Address Book won't function correctly

david coasbydavid coasby
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I run two G4 Macs OS10.3 - one at home and one at work. Some time back they both had a similar problem with ?jumbled? type in Mail and Address Book. I eventually solved this by realizing I had a font clash (in my case Helvetica Fractions) which I have since removed completely on both machines.



However? although this resolved the problem with Mail I can?t ?open? Address Book properly. It shows a black triangle below the icon on the dock when I click on it and if I go to ?shut down? it?s there and I can shut it down again, but when I try to click it open nothing appears to happen on my desktop or the menu bar. I can still ?add sender to address book? from inbound Mail and they come up again when I start to type in a new outbound mail. But I can?t view the normal listings (that I once had).



I?ve opened up Library and dumped the caches and re-booted but no difference.



Has anyone out there in Mac Land got any clues what I should try next?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by David Coasby

    Has anyone out there in Mac Land got any clues what I should try next?



    I always start with



    1) repair permissions (in disk utility)



    and then if that doesn't work



    2) boot into safe mode and run fsck. sometimes need to run it multiple times if there are filesystem errors.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    gobble gobblegobble gobble Posts: 615member
    What about deleting the AB preferences? Can you reinstall AB - I've never thought about that one...
  • Reply 3 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AllInOne

    I always start with



    1) repair permissions (in disk utility)



    and then if that doesn't work



    2) boot into safe mode and run fsck. sometimes need to run it multiple times if there are filesystem errors.



    Repaired permissions - and there were lots got repaired - but didn't make any difference



    Went to boot up in safe mode then realised I don't know what the f*** FSCK is?



    Help!
  • Reply 4 of 18
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by David Coasby

    Repaired permissions - and there were lots got repaired - but didn't make any difference



    Went to boot up in safe mode then realised I don't know what the f*** FSCK is?



    Help!



    See the sticky FAQ at the top of the Genius Bar board. It is well explained there.
  • Reply 5 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by gobble gobble

    What about deleting the AB preferences? Can you reinstall AB - I've never thought about that one...



    Yea - already thought about that one - trouble is I can't find any (not in Library/Preferences anyway)



    I may well have to re-install Address Book, but not sure how to go about that...



    I'll wait to see what AllInOne comes back with re: FSCK



    Thanks guys for your time
  • Reply 6 of 18
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by David Coasby

    I may well have to re-install Address Book, but not sure how to go about that...





    Does Address Book work for other users on the machine?



    If so it is not problem with the application but rather with your user's database or preferences.



    One set of AB preferences is here:



    ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist



    There maybe others tho too.



    But all the same try FSCK first.
  • Reply 7 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AllInOne

    Does Address Book work for other users on the machine?



    If so it is not problem with the application but rather with your user's database or preferences.



    One set of AB preferences is here:



    ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist



    There maybe others tho too.



    But all the same try FSCK first.



    Thanks AllInOne for all your thoughts



    ... however, nothing seems to be working.



    I tried the Comand-s restart for FSCK but towards the bottom of the screen I got "Root device is mounted read-only. If you want to make modifications to files, run /sbin/fsck -y/ first then /sbin/mount -uw/



    I tried several times but nothing happened at all.



    I eventually found the prefs (I was searching for Address Book, but of course as you pointed out, it was AddressBook) which I trashed. This at least brought Address Book up onto my desktop but only showing the first 2 columns (group and name) but nothing in the larger details column.



    I still suspect that it is looking for that lost bolder font (the one I chucked away which was giving a conflict) and there doesn't appear to be any way to change the default font for Address Book.



    It's 'going home time to meet the missus' here in the UK now so I'll have another bash tomorrow. But my thoughts are to re-install OSX then upgrade again to 10.3 (keeping a copy of my Mail data)



    Thanks once again for your help.
  • Reply 8 of 18
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by David Coasby

    I tried the Comand-s restart for FSCK but towards the bottom of the screen I got "Root device is mounted read-only. If you want to make modifications to files, run /sbin/fsck -y/ first then /sbin/mount -uw/



    I tried several times but nothing happened at all.



    Tried... what? The reboot?



    You do know you have to actually run fsck next, right?



    When it gets to that point, type the following, without the quotes: '/sbin/fsck -fy' and then hit Return.



    It should give you some feedback on what it is doing, and then either say "OK", "Was broken, I fixed it chief" or "It's busted, I'm clueless." (Not literally.)



    If the first, great, just type in 'reboot now' without the quotes, and hit return.



    If the second, run fsck again - keep it up until it just reports back OK.



    If the third, get back to us.



    Quote:

    I eventually found the prefs (I was searching for Address Book, but of course as you pointed out, it was AddressBook) which I trashed. This at least brought Address Book up onto my desktop but only showing the first 2 columns (group and name) but nothing in the larger details column.



    I still suspect that it is looking for that lost bolder font (the one I chucked away which was giving a conflict) and there doesn't appear to be any way to change the default font for Address Book.



    Oh now there's an idea.



    In your Applications directory you'll find a Utilities folder. In that, you'll find the Console application. Try launching Address Book (note the time that you do this), then run Console. You should see an entry for Address Book in its list of known console files. Looking at the Address Book entry will let you know (hopefully) exactly what went wrong. The tidbits in there will be timestamped - copy out all the ones relevant to the launch you just tried, and paste them here.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Thanks Kickaha



    I'm reading this on my Mac at home, so when I get back to my studio in London tomorrow morning I'll give all that stuff you said a try...



    'till tomorrow....



    Thanks
  • Reply 10 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Tried... what? The reboot?



    You do know you have to actually run fsck next, right?



    When it gets to that point, type the following, without the quotes: '/sbin/fsck -fy' and then hit Return.



    OK - it worked fine this time. The difference was previously I was entering /sbin/fsck -y (as given in the FAQ posting) but when I entered /sbin/fsck -fy (as YOU said) it worked fine - checked several items, found 'volume header needs minor repair (2, 0)' which it 'repaired successfully. But still Address Book was as yesterday, opening on my desktop but not usable.



    It should give you some feedback on what it is doing, and then either say "OK", "Was broken, I fixed it chief" or "It's busted, I'm clueless." (Not literally.)



    If the first, great, just type in 'reboot now' without the quotes, and hit return.



    If the second, run fsck again - keep it up until it just reports back OK.



    If the third, get back to us.







    Oh now there's an idea.



    In your Applications directory you'll find a Utilities folder. In that, you'll find the Console application. Try launching Address Book (note the time that you do this), then run Console. You should see an entry for Address Book in its list of known console files. Looking at the Address Book entry will let you know (hopefully) exactly what went wrong. The tidbits in there will be timestamped - copy out all the ones relevant to the launch you just tried, and paste them here.



    Here you go: 2004-05-27 16:18:23.908 Address Book[382] Exception raised during posting of notification. Ignored. exception: *** -[ABTextView setFont:]: nil NSFont given.



    2004-05-27 16:18:23.938 Address Book[382] Exception raised during posting of notification. Ignored. exception: *** -[ABTextView setFont:]: nil NSFont given.



    As you've guessed I'm no expert but it does seem to confirm my thoughts that it is looking for a font?
  • Reply 11 of 18
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Yup, that's my read on it - it's assuming a font will be there, and when it isn't... it takes the bad news poorly.



    Any chance you can recall what font it was that you removed, and from where?



    Or heck, toss a list of your fonts in /Library up here (assuming not too many) and we'll compare it against a default install list.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Yup, that's my read on it - it's assuming a font will be there, and when it isn't... it takes the bad news poorly.



    Any chance you can recall what font it was that you removed, and from where?



    Or heck, toss a list of your fonts in /Library up here (assuming not too many) and we'll compare it against a default install list.



    Maybe a dumb question, but actually is it possible to open your adress app from the app folder directly?



    If yes, i'd perform an export adress database asap, just in case...



    If none, i would copy the database manually with the finder. To do so, go to ~yourhome/library/application support/AddressBook. "AddressBook" is a folder, which contains everything associated with adressbook, read: the adresses.



    If you successfully have traced back your problem to a missing font, which you have accidently deleted, and you do not remember which one, than i'd perform a custum system install, fonts only, no big deal. Once the issue occured to me. That should do the job.



    best, perhaps this helpful.
  • Reply 13 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    Hi Guys



    Thank you so much for all your tips. My trouble is (apart from the f*****g Address Book) I?ve got piles of work I?m trying to get through at the same time as trying out these various fixes ? hence the big time gaps in my replies.



    I won?t be able to have a real go at all this again until next Tuesday (Monday is a national holiday over here in the UK). I?ll keep you posted what I try and what happens.



    Kickaha - I?ve compared the system fonts with others on other Macs here where I work and the lists are identical. I even replaced the set of system fonts I had from the ?new? OS10 installation (*see below) taken from the hard drive. I think I must have dumped the Helvetica Fractions from my normal font folder, but how AB was picking up on it in the first place beats me!





    Vox ? No, AB won?t open from the applications folder either.



    *Interestingly I loaded a copy of OS10 (not 10.3) onto a hard drive and booted up from that. Guess what ? the ?new? AB worked. I tried copying it over to my Mac (saving the data from the old AB) but it wouldn?t open fully (like yesterday) when I rebooted back to the Mac.



    I think the best way forward (but a pain in the ass) is to reload the OS10 system and fonts from the CD?s I have onto my Mac then download v.10.3 again (hopefully keeping a copy of any data I need ? printers/email etc).



    So for now I?d better get on with some work, have a nice 3 day break and talk to you guys on Tuesday.



    Thanks once again for your help - It REALLY is appreciated. Have a great weekend.



    Dave
  • Reply 14 of 18
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Of course, it could always be something silly like a corrupt prefs file...



    Try moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist somewhere else, then launching AB and see if that works.
  • Reply 15 of 18
    allinoneallinone Posts: 279member
    Did you ever try to launch Address Book as another user on the same machine? What was the result?



    Also, when you looked for fonts did you look in for both system fonts and user fonts?



    ~/Library/Fonts/



    and



    /Library/Fonts/
  • Reply 16 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    So sorry guys I haven't got back to you. I've just been too damn busy to try all these ideas out yet (doing things to your system folder while your best client is yelling at you for his next job is a difficult balancing act)



    On top of that I'm now off on holiday for a couple of weeks. So please bear with me and I'll pick this up again when I return



    Thanks once again - Dave
  • Reply 17 of 18
    david coasbydavid coasby Posts: 25member
    I'd given up on this problem until today - and suddenly I've cracked it!



    I always use 'Suitcase X1' for font management but for some reason or other one of my fonts just wouldn't open correctly. So I thought I'd quit out of 'Suitcase' and try using 'Font Book' for the first time (I never normally have it active).



    I didn't particularly want any of the default fonts listed in the 'All Fonts' collection so decided to disable them all before adding my own new collection... then the thought suddenly struck me... Dare I try opening 'Address Book' again? And yes, everything is as it should be - at last!!!



    I'm one very happy guy!



    Thanks everyone who tried to help me over the past few months.
  • Reply 18 of 18
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by David Coasby

    I'd given up on this problem until today - and suddenly I've cracked it!



    I always use 'Suitcase X1' for font management but for some reason or other one of my fonts just wouldn't open correctly. So I thought I'd quit out of 'Suitcase' and try using 'Font Book' for the first time (I never normally have it active).



    I didn't particularly want any of the default fonts listed in the 'All Fonts' collection so decided to disable them all before adding my own new collection... then the thought suddenly struck me... Dare I try opening 'Address Book' again? And yes, everything is as it should be - at last!!!



    I'm one very happy guy!



    Thanks everyone who tried to help me over the past few months.



    Believe it or not, i recently browsed through that thread again

    and one other hunch flashed my thinking: FontBook versus some other fontutility.



    greetings
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