Photobooth is will not open properly

Select the Photo Booth icon in the dock, hold+click, choose "show in finder".
Select the application icon in the finder hold "ctrl" + click, select "show content" from the pop up menu, open the folder (double click) OS and double click the black file reading "exec".
Photo Booth will open and display a black screen, click once in the window and your picture will be displayed. Close terminal in the applications menu upper left of your screen.
Click + hold the icon that appears now in the dock, select "keep in dock".

Message was edited by: CodLBi

Hello basekick88

It sounds to me like your Photo Booth application may be damaged. Before reinstalling, I suggest trying all possible easier options.

Here are the things I would try if I shared the problem you report. I would do them in this order, checking after each one to see whether the problem still exists before trying the next:

• Disconnect (and leave disconnected) all peripherals to eliminate possible hardware conflicts

• Restart your Mac

• Repair permissions

• Try all relevant suggestions from Apple's How to Troubleshoot iSight

• Quit Photo Booth, throw away its preference file, and restart Photo Booth

• Reinstall Photo Booth

If you need more help with any of these procedures than you can find by searching your Mac's Help or iSight Discussions, post back and let us know which.

EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.1)  External iSight

You're welcome, basekick88

Your posted system info in your initial post showed Mac OS X (10.5.1). However, your latest post shows Mac OS X (10.4.8). Because you mention Leopard in your latest post, the following responses are based on the belief that you are using 10.5.1. If you are really using Tiger (10.4.x), my comments about your Leopard disk will not apply.

Use your Mac's Disk Utility program to repair permissions. It is located in your Finder/Go/Utilities folder. After you launch Disk Utility, you can search its Help for "Repairing disk permissions" (without the quotation marks) for detailed instructions.

To reset your Photo Booth preferences, quit Photo Booth and then throw away the com.apple.PhotoBooth.plist file located in your Home/Library/Preferences folder.

I don't think the terminal suggestions can help you, so I offer no comment on that part.

Your Leopard install disk would be best. However, if you have a working backup, you could restore Photo Booth from the backup without using your Leopard install disk. If you did not back-up your system while it was working, and if you do not mind installing third-party software, instead of Photo Booth you can try Funny Photographer for still images with "effects" and WebcamTweaker for videos with "effects."

Hopefully, you will get things working. However, if you need to post back for more help, please clarify which Mac OS you are using.

EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.1)  External iSight

You're welcome again, ~Nick

Thanks for letting me know you use Leopard.

... there was no file for the photobooth application inside ...

Be sure you are looking for your Photo Booth's .plist file in the "Preferences" folder in your HOME "Library" folder located in the "Users" folder inside your Mac's hard disk root level.

Your "Home" folder is named for your user account, and the folder icon looks like a little house.

The "Library" folder that you can see in the same location as your "Users" folder is the WRONG Library folder.

Would downloading a new copy of it fix the problem?

I do not know of any legal place to download a copy.

... about 1/4 of the way done stating that there is "less than 1 minute" left, ...

So does mine. That is normal in 10.5.1.

Take a look at some of the threads in this search for how it is working for others.

... it doesn't move an inch no matter how long I leave it open.

Especially the first time you do it, depending on how may permissions must be reset, repairing permissions can take a long time (even overnight).

If you have waited more than an hour without progress, check your  > Force Quit... menu command dialog box to see if it shows that Disk Utility is " Not responding".

Unless you see the " Not responding" message, Disk Utility is still trying to repair your permissions. In the unusual case where Disk Repair cannot fix your disk, it is designed to tell you so in an error message, so be as patient as you can.

Mine stays still for more than two minutes on my 160GB startup drive. Then it moves slowly for about another minute before the "less than 1 minute" numbers begin to change. In total, my 160GB drive takes a minimum of three minutes to verify that there are no problems. It can take twice as long or more if repairs are needed.

Your iNtel Mac might need even more time, and different size drives or different kinds or numbers of files might also effect the amount of time needed, especially the first time you correctly repair permissions.

If you still have concerns, seek help from an experienced OS X user you know, or see your retailer or Apple Authorized Service Provider for help doing your first Permissions Repair.

... am I out of options now?

No. I see these four options:

(a) If you have NO other problems, ignore this, and don't use Photo Booth.

(b) Instead of Photo Booth, you can use the freeware app, Funny Photographer for stills,
  and, for "effects" videos, use WebcamTweaker.

(c) Buy another Leopard disc so you can reinstall Photo Booth.

(d) Overcome your "hate" and find your Leopard disc so you can reinstall Photo Booth.

You did not mention that you have a backup from when your system was working correctly, so I have not included the option to restore Photo Booth from a backup.

Please let us know how it goes and whether you need any other info before you can mark your topic "Answered."

Cheers,
EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.1)  External iSight

When you need to reinstall a specific component of OS X (an application, extension, etc.), it's best to get it from a known-good installation of the same version of OS X that you're trying to fix, since the component you're trying to reinstall, as well as support software for it, may have been updated beyond the version on your installer discs, so that replacing it with the older version that's on your installer discs, may cause trouble. If you don't have access to a known-good installation of your system version, one roundabout method for getting one, is to install OS X onto another drive, update it to the version you're trying to fix, then copy the item you want, from that new installation.

Also, sometimes the OS X installer doesn't list the specific item you want to reinstall. But if you still want to use your OS X installer discs just to reinstall the specific item you want, you can use the utility named Pacifist to extract it from those discs.