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Level 1

66 points

How to find invisible preference/plist file?

I ran PreferentialTreatment because my Mac (10.6.1) has been getting sluggish no matter how many times I have DiskWarrior repair it (it always has incorrect critical values in the volume information), it (PT) stopped because there was some plist file that was "empty", but I can't find it.

I did "Find" in the Finder and set Kind to invisible, but nothing came up under that. I also did a Google search but nothing seemed to be spot-on, I remember doing something a while back (via the Terminal?) in the same situation but I don't remember what it was.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. The file's name is .a23t.mk4e.plist if it matters (The error message reads: "Conversion of string failed. The string is empty.)

Dual-Core 3.0 GHz Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.1), 2GB RAM, 22" Samsung T220 LCD, 500GB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro

Posted on Oct 17, 2009 12:06 PM

Best reply

Carolyn Samit

Level 10

165,615 points

Posted on Oct 17, 2009 12:19 PM

HI,

Go here for help to find .plist files.

http://web.me.com/carolynssamit/CarolynsMac_Blog/Path_for_.plistfiles.html

"has been getting sluggish"

PT can help to a certain extent but perhaps you need to more trouble shooting.

Boot from your install disk, run Disk Utility to check for errors on the disk and repair if necessary.

Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
*(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)*
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart

While you have the Disk Utility window open, look at the bottom of the window. Where you see Capacity and Available. *Make sure there is always 10% to 15% free disk space*

If you need to free up disk space go here.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html

Go here for help Maintaining Mac OS X

Also, according to VersionTracker PT is only compatible up to 10.5. You may want to delete the app to see if that is what's causing your Mac to slow down.

".a23t.mk4e.plist" <--- no idea what file that is or belongs to.

You can <a href=http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319> Force Background Maintenance without using 3rd party software.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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20 replies

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 21, 2009 7:22 AM in response to K T

Yeah—this is the whole point—I can't find it (it's listed as being in the username/library/prefs, and I've set the Finder both to include System Files and Invisible Files but nothing appears—although it did find a copy in my SuperDuper clone using these parameters! [I deleted that one.])

Also I ran DiskWarrior from my backup (still getting a Critical Values error every time) and I ran the "Files" test and it came up with this specific file as being the only damaged one, so I have to think this might be the culprit to my constant beachballs and sluggishness (so I really want to figure this out, I don't understand why the Finder can't locate it.)

In Terminal, enter: find ~ -iname ".a23t.mk4e.plist" -exec mv {} ~/.Trash \;

Thanks I think this is what I need to do.

Message was edited by: Oliver Lu

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 21, 2009 7:21 AM in response to Tony T1

Thanks I think this might be what I need. Hopefully the errors will go away afterwards.

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 21, 2009 9:22 AM in response to Tony T1

In Terminal, enter: find ~ -iname ".a23t.mk4e.plist" -exec mv {} ~/.Trash \;

This seems to have done the trick—things are snappy and DiskWarrior doesn't find errors or a bad .a23t.mk4e.plist file when checking from the backup drive.

Thanks

Message was edited by: Oliver Lu

Tony T1

Level 6

10,232 points

Oct 26, 2009 5:07 PM in response to Oliver Lu

Remember to empty your Trash (its there, but you won't see it as its hidden, but emptying the Trash will delete it) (If you want to verify that its there first, run "ls -la ~/.Trash" in Terminal )

Oliver Lu Author

Level 1

66 points

Oct 27, 2009 6:41 AM in response to Tony T1

Yeah I did empty the Trash even though I noticed it appeared empty I figured it was an invisible file to the trash as well.

How to find invisible preference/plist file?