Mark Adelman
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Corrupted font causing Fontbook to crash

I've been having a problem with Firefox crashing recently. On Mozilla's forum, someone suggested that corrupted fonts can cause apps to crash. I opened Font Book to check on this. I was able to find and disable one font that Font Book listed as corrupted. However, there's another font that I think is corrupted but can't do anything about. Just clicking on the font in the Font Book window causes Font Book itself to crash! Is there any other way to disable this font (matura management capitals)? Can I just delete it from the Font folder in finder?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 30, 2012 10:30 AM

by Kurt Lang,Solvedanswer
Kurt Lang Kurt Lang
Level 8 (37,999 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Disabling won't help when it's so bad the Finder won't even let you touch it. That alone may make it difficult to remove. Some things to try:

 

1) If you have OS X installed on another drive (I always have an external with OS X on it for emergency booting), start up to that drive. Your main drive will then be just another data drive. The font will not be active and you may then be able to remove it.

 

2) Copy any good font to the desktop. Give it the exact same name as the bad font. Then drag and drop the good (but deliberately misnamed) font into the folder containing the bad one. Tell it to replace the existing file.

 

3) If you can't do number 2 because the system tells you it's in use, boot into Safe Mode (restart and hold down the Shift key). When you do that, only certain fonts are allowed to load, which means the bad font will not be active. Try replacing it again with an identically name file, or see if you can just delete from the Finder window.

 

4) While still in Safe Mode, launch Terminal. Enter the following line, or copy/paste it from here:

 

sudo rm -R

 

Don't hit enter yet. Put a space after the -R, then drag and drop the bad font into the Terminal window. It will add the path and name of the font to the command. Now press Enter and enter your admin password (it will ask). The font should be removed.

Posted on Jul 1, 2012 2:56 PM

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Mark Adelman

Q: Corrupted font causing Fontbook to crash

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  • Helpful answers

  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Jun 30, 2012 11:04 AM in response to Mark Adelman
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Jun 30, 2012 11:04 AM in response to Mark Adelman

    Start with Font Management in OS X

  • by Mark Adelman,

    Mark Adelman Mark Adelman Jul 1, 2012 2:23 PM in response to baltwo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2012 2:23 PM in response to baltwo

    Thanks for the link. I've tried installing a few different font management programs to see if I can disable the font that I think is causing a problem. The font doesn't even show up when I open the font libraries in like three different programs. I don't really know what the deal with this font is, but I'd like to get it off my computer to see if my app crashes resolve. Can someone suggest a way to delete it? Just to recap, clicking on the font in Font Book causes Font Book to crash, other font managers don't even recognize the font as being in my font library, and if I try to click on it in a finder window, it seems to just crash and then reload the finder window as well. Any suggestions?

  • by Kurt Lang,Solvedanswer

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jul 1, 2012 2:56 PM in response to Mark Adelman
    Level 8 (37,999 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 1, 2012 2:56 PM in response to Mark Adelman

    Disabling won't help when it's so bad the Finder won't even let you touch it. That alone may make it difficult to remove. Some things to try:

     

    1) If you have OS X installed on another drive (I always have an external with OS X on it for emergency booting), start up to that drive. Your main drive will then be just another data drive. The font will not be active and you may then be able to remove it.

     

    2) Copy any good font to the desktop. Give it the exact same name as the bad font. Then drag and drop the good (but deliberately misnamed) font into the folder containing the bad one. Tell it to replace the existing file.

     

    3) If you can't do number 2 because the system tells you it's in use, boot into Safe Mode (restart and hold down the Shift key). When you do that, only certain fonts are allowed to load, which means the bad font will not be active. Try replacing it again with an identically name file, or see if you can just delete from the Finder window.

     

    4) While still in Safe Mode, launch Terminal. Enter the following line, or copy/paste it from here:

     

    sudo rm -R

     

    Don't hit enter yet. Put a space after the -R, then drag and drop the bad font into the Terminal window. It will add the path and name of the font to the command. Now press Enter and enter your admin password (it will ask). The font should be removed.

  • by Mark Adelman,

    Mark Adelman Mark Adelman Jul 2, 2012 6:59 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2012 6:59 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    I was able to use the terminal command to delete the font file. Firefox seems to be working fine now. Thanks for your help!