No Help in Help Viewer

Here's Dr.Smokes Troubleshooting Help Viewer.

Cheers!
DALE

Apparently some people are having trouble with Help after upgrading to 10.4.5
This Apple article addresses the problem:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25667
Miriam

Hi, MGW.

The article you cited applies only to Panther and earlier, not Tiger. Hence my FAQ.

One can tell the article does not apply to Tiger as the kmosx4 keyword is missing from the list of keywords at the bottom of the document.

If you want to refer people to advice to really help them with Help Viewer on Tiger, refer them to my "Troubleshooting Help Viewer" FAQ, as Dale did. It is the definitive resource on Help Viewer issues.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Hi, dogman.

There are a variety of procedures outlined in my FAQ. The Reset Help Viewer procedure generally works for most, but there may be other issues. In general, there is no silver bullet for some of the problems which plague Help Viewer.

I suggest you consult the FAQ again and work through all of the procedures associated with whatever particular problem you are having with Help Viewer.

It would also help if you could be more specific in defining what you mean by "no help menus are accessible." For example, it's unclear from that description whether you are encountering the "Help Viewer displays a blank window" issue, for which there are five potential solutions, or the "Help Viewer links do not work" issue, for which there are three possible approaches.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

dogman45 wrote:

"The help links do not work."

OK. Then perform all three of the troubleshooting steps cited under Solution 2 in the "Help Viewer links do not work" section of my FAQ. If Reset Help Viewer is not solving the problem permanently, then one of the other steps thereafter may reveal the cause.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Have followed Dr Smoke's advice (including removing iTunes Helper from login items) after having followed that of Apple article 25667. Each time Help Viewer starts in the Finder, allows me to click on one link and then goes home. Same happens when I log in as 'root' so I conclude that the problem has its causes in the upgrade from 10.4.4 to 10.4.5. Help Viewer still works fine in other apps, it's just the basic Mac Help which fails.

Hi, jasperhound.

It sounds, like others, you may have stopped at simply the Reset Help Viewer advice and not gone beyond. For example, have you also tried "Rule out Internet-related issues"?

There are five potential solutions to try in resolving the "Help Viewer displays a blank window" problem and three (for Tiger users) w.r.t. "Help Viewer links do not work."

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Thanks, Dr Smoke

I have even fewer of the 'safe' internet plug-ins installed than you show on your list. 'Ping' shows a perfect (100% returned) internet connection (I'm using IPNetMonitorX). I have no VoIP equipment installed. And the problem only showed after moving from 10.4.4 to 10.4.5. Nonetheless I will try your other suggestions when I've more time. Right now this is only an irritation, I can still use Help Viewer for everything except Mac Help.

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I've done more work since posting 4 days ago. I've followed Dr Smoke's suggestions up to the point where he suggests the RARE need to reinstal Help Viewer. I haven't done this as it works fine for everything EXCEPT 'Mac Help?'. So I conclude that there's something about the move from 10.4.4 to 10.4.5 that is affecting my machine.

To get here I followed these steps:

1. trashed files & folders specified by Dr Smoke. Emptied Trash.
2. confirmed that I have no internet plug-ins other than those on the 'safe' list.
3. started up in 'safe' mode.
4. pinged Apple's server from Terminal. This had the benefit of teaching me that Airport doesn't work in Safe mode.
5. hardwired to modem/router.
6. restarted in 'safe' mode.
7. pinged again with 100% success.
8. enabled Help Viewer logging in Console
9. tried to get 'Mac Help?', got front page but no links worked nor could I ask a question.
10. saved Console log which shows that Help Viewer was able to communicate with outside world as it downloaded several idx files.

Anyone have any ideas on what I do next?




Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi, jasperhound.

Exorcism? 😉

1. Open your Macintosh HD > Library > Documentation > Help folder. Then open the Get Info window for MacHelp.help. In the General panel, does it show "Version: 3000.1"?

2. Let's be sure there are no other general troublemakers: run the process specified in my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.

3. Are you using any third-party interface modifications, menu extras, Login Items, or Widgets? If so, check for updates to them, disable them, or uninstall them. It's a long-shot, but some of these items may affect your Internet connection and if Mac Help works normally when you are disconnected from the Internet that may be worth checking.

4. Are you listening to streaming media when this problem occurs, e.g. iTunes Radio?

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Exorcism! Good idea, Dr Smoke. But competent exorcists are rare in these parts so I'll try to follow your points.

1. I'm using Version 3000.8.
2. I'll give this a try when I'm fresh. Night has fallen here.
3. The machine only arrived early February. All the stuff loaded is new in that I'm only now moving up from OS 9. Also Mac OS Help doesn't work when I'm not connected to the net. Help Viewer works fine however for other programmes when I'm disconnected.
4. I don't run iTunes at all. My music comes from a totally separate set-up.

So back to item 2, I guess. By the way neither TechTool Pro 4.0.4 nor Disk Warrior run on Intel kit yet according to their makers.

Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)



Intel iMac Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Hi, jasperhound.

1. re: Version 3000.8. Interesting. That must be what's shipping on the new Intel-based Macs. I don't have an Intel-based Mac with which to test at present, but I hope to add one to the Lab soon.

This makes me wonder if the MacHelp.help file itself is corrupted on your computer. There are instructions in my FAQ for reinstalling this file from the Mac OS X install disc, but they are for PPC Macs. The instructions depend on Pacifist, a tool for reinstalling bits-and-pieces of the OS from the install discs. Currently there's no Universal Binary version of Pacifist.

If you have a second Mac running Tiger, you might be able to pull the MacHelp.help file off your Intel-based Mac's Software Restore & Install disc using Pacifist, then transfer the file to the new Intel-based Mac and replace the existing copy. Note the permissions (via Get Info window) of the current file before replacing it, then assure the permissions are set the same on the replacement after you have replaced the original.

Given that you have an Intel-based Mac, the only way I know of at present to reinstall a part of the OS would be to perform an Archive and Install of the full OS.

Unless CharlesSoft releases a Universal Binary of Pacifist, or someone else develops an alternative, the Archive & Install process is going to be very popular with users of Intel-based Macs!

2. OK. Re: DiskWarrior and TechTool Pro: yes, looks like everyone is still waiting for universal binaries. However, the check with Disk Utility should work and there are Universal Binaries available for the cache cleaning tools Cocktail and YASU.