Deleting Fonts From User Library: Font book/Finder crashing
I have just experienced serious problems with OSX 10.6, this was clearly caused by the OS's handling of fonts (specifically using font book), and I would to share the solution and seek futher advice on correct procedure for deleting fonts from the user/library/fonts.
Yesterday I copied my font library onto my new mac, from my old G5 PPC's external backup drive.
I used Font Book to do this, which ran its validation process and filtered out fonts that wouldn't work.
Today I booted up to find that safari was using incorrect fonts (first boot after installation of fonts). I opened up Font Book to find that there were multiple duplicate fonts, so I disabled the duplicates using Font Book.
The problem wasn't fixed though. This was because there were conflicts/duplicates between the HD and User font libraries (HD/Library/Fonts & HD/User/Library/Fonts).
To fix this I trashed the contents of the User font library. This, however, crashed both Font Book and Finder!
I booted in safe mode, which re-enabled any system fonts (HD/System/Library/Fonts) allowing everything to run normally again (WARNING: DO NOT TOUCH YOUR SYSTEM LIBRARY, EVER!).
Why Font Book EVER disabled any system fonts is beyond me! (It may have to do with the fact that OSX searches for fonts in User first, then Library, then System - surely that's the wrong way round and a recipe for disaster!)
Rebooting normally everything still worked fine, because my font collection was in the trash and they couldn't be re-enabled (NOTE: If the font collection had been left in User/Library/Font they would have been re-enabled, when I booted normally, and I'd be back to square one).
I then deleted the fonts from the trash. I only did a quick empty not a secure empty (which I had started but was taking AGES!).
I'm going to clean my hard drive (after less than a week!), but I'm also considering wiping it and re-installing the OS, just to be on the safe side.
MOST IMPORTANT LESSON: DO NOT IMPORT FONT COLLECTIONS USING FONT BOOK, UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
When you import a font collection to font book it automatically enables all the fonts, which can cause massive problems (especially if it's a large collection because, conflicts aside, it keeps them all running all the time, which WILL slow down your Mac)
QUESTION:
Is there anything I should have done that I missed?
How can I best manage my font collection?
I hope the above helps anyone that experiences the same problem, and thanks in advance for any further advice.
Yesterday I copied my font library onto my new mac, from my old G5 PPC's external backup drive.
I used Font Book to do this, which ran its validation process and filtered out fonts that wouldn't work.
Today I booted up to find that safari was using incorrect fonts (first boot after installation of fonts). I opened up Font Book to find that there were multiple duplicate fonts, so I disabled the duplicates using Font Book.
The problem wasn't fixed though. This was because there were conflicts/duplicates between the HD and User font libraries (HD/Library/Fonts & HD/User/Library/Fonts).
To fix this I trashed the contents of the User font library. This, however, crashed both Font Book and Finder!
I booted in safe mode, which re-enabled any system fonts (HD/System/Library/Fonts) allowing everything to run normally again (WARNING: DO NOT TOUCH YOUR SYSTEM LIBRARY, EVER!).
Why Font Book EVER disabled any system fonts is beyond me! (It may have to do with the fact that OSX searches for fonts in User first, then Library, then System - surely that's the wrong way round and a recipe for disaster!)
Rebooting normally everything still worked fine, because my font collection was in the trash and they couldn't be re-enabled (NOTE: If the font collection had been left in User/Library/Font they would have been re-enabled, when I booted normally, and I'd be back to square one).
I then deleted the fonts from the trash. I only did a quick empty not a secure empty (which I had started but was taking AGES!).
I'm going to clean my hard drive (after less than a week!), but I'm also considering wiping it and re-installing the OS, just to be on the safe side.
MOST IMPORTANT LESSON: DO NOT IMPORT FONT COLLECTIONS USING FONT BOOK, UNLESS YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.
When you import a font collection to font book it automatically enables all the fonts, which can cause massive problems (especially if it's a large collection because, conflicts aside, it keeps them all running all the time, which WILL slow down your Mac)
QUESTION:
Is there anything I should have done that I missed?
How can I best manage my font collection?
I hope the above helps anyone that experiences the same problem, and thanks in advance for any further advice.
MacBook Pro 15" (mid 2010) & G5 PowerPC (Late 2005), Mac OS X (10.6.4)
