preview launch but doesn't display anything

Quit Preview. Go to /users/your name/Library/Preferences/ com.apple.Preview.plist and delete that file. Then, retry launching the files.

The wake up issue may be a login item. Go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items and remove them. Test. If that's not it, you can replace the login items.



-mj

Create a new account, name it "test" and see how your apps work in that User acct? (That will tell if your problem is systemwide or limited to your User acct.) This account is just for test, do nothing further with it.

Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" make it an admin account.

Remember to put some .pdf/jpg files in /Users/Shared to test before creating the new account.

Let us know.



-mj

Log back into your problem account:

Here's the whole litany for thoroughly checking your home folder. It's not as daunting as it looks.

1. Navigate to ~(YourHome/Library/ Fonts - drag this folder to the desktop.

• Restart and test your applications.
• If they work start adding the fonts back few at a time.
( Likely suspects are Times RO, Helvetica Fractions and Times Phonetic, also if you do not use Classic you can trash the classic fonts.) If not, replace your Fonts folder.

2. Check Preferences Thoroughly;

• Navigate to ~(YourHome/Library/ Preferences drag this folder to the desktop.
• Restart and test your applications.
• If this works, save the old preferences folder somewhere else or on disk, name it "old prefs" .
** Note: A very important file is the " com.apple.Mail.plist" preference file located in the Preferences folder which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences (hold this one and replace if your problem is not with Mail).
You'll have to go through some of your System Preferences and apps to set the preferences back to how you like them. (Or if you have the time and inclination, "cherry pick" through until you find the problem one or two.)

3. Check Permissions Inside Home Folder

• Navigate to YourHome/Library.
• Get Info (Command - i) on folders for apps you are having problems with.
• Open the "Ownership & permissions" disclosure triangle.
• Make sure you are the owner, with "read and write" access.
• Click on "apply to all"
• If this is correct, open the "Applications Support" folder and do the same procedure (Command+I) for the folders with the names of the applications you are having trouble with.
(Note:The reason to check this is because repairing permissions with Disk Utility doesn't touch permissions inside your home folder.)

4. Navigate to YourHome/Library/ Caches and drag this folder to the trash, then log out and back or restart. There is no need to replace this folder.



-mj

There is also a very obscure temp folder used by Preview that can cause this problem. However, if there is problem with this folder, it should have been causing a failure in Preview from the beginning, and is the result of doing an upgrade install from Tiger to Leopard, and then changing some things yourself afterwards. But if macjack's advice doesn't help, you might look into it. The details are explained here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7277942

See if any of that sounds like it applies to you.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder

Francine Schwieder wrote:
There is also a very obscure temp folder used by Preview that can cause this problem. However, if there is problem with this folder, it should have been causing a failure in Preview from the beginning, and is the result of doing an upgrade install from Tiger to Leopard, and then changing some things yourself afterwards. But if macjack's advice doesn't help, you might look into it.

Check that first, it's quicker!
/Applications/Preview.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/MainMenu.nib
EDIT: (Right-click on Preview choose "Show Package Contents" to follow file path)



-mj

Message was edited by: macjack

Well, that is peculiar! The path to my temp folder is:

"/private/var/folders/90/90gu9daQFSitP4FD2179ck +TI/-Tmp-"

Everything thru "90" belongs to system, group wheel. The next folder, with the unwieldy name, belongs to me, group staff, and the -Tmp- folder itself belongs to me, with no group shown in Finder's GetInfo, but Terminal shows this:

NoobiX:~ francine$ ls -al /private/var/folders/90/90gu9daQFSitP4FD2179ck +TI
total 16
drwx------ 30 francine staff 1020 Jun 17 00:32 -Caches-
drwx------ 2 francine staff 68 Jun 22 11:29 -Tmp-
drwxr-xr-x 6 francine staff 204 Jun 22 13:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Nov 8 2007 ..
-rw-r--r--@ 1 francine staff 6148 May 25 15:44 .DS_Store
drwxr-xr-x 2 francine staff 68 Jun 22 13:07 TemporaryItems

The stat -x command returns this:

NoobiX:~ francine$ stat -x $TMPDIR
File: "/var/folders/90/90gu9daQFSitP4FD2179ck +TI/-Tmp-/"
Size: 68 FileType: Directory
Mode: (0700/drwx------) Uid: ( 501/francine) Gid: ( 20/ staff)
Device: 14,8 Inode: 8148301 Links: 2
Access: Sun Jun 22 15:55:36 2008
Modify: Sun Jun 22 11:29:44 2008
Change: Sun Jun 22 11:29:44 2008

I'm sure if one of the real Terminal/UNIX gurus see this they might be able to tell us a command to fix your problem. I'm not such a guru, although I sometimes play one, as long as the only lines I have to deliver are simple ones!

I believe the system is supposed to autmatically create that folder. Anyway mine was created at 11:29:44AM today, which is the same time as the login window stuff ran (I am set-up to automatically login). The two accounts that are NOT logged in do not have the -Tmp- folder at the moment.

You might take a look at your system.log file using Console, and see if any errors occur when the login window calls are being run.
Francine


Francine
Schwieder