: When I try to open Screen Saver or Desktop Prefs, I get "There was a problem connecting to the server 'iDisk.mac.com'". I have a new MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion. How can I change the prefs, and stop getting the annoying message that again pops up as soon as I click "OK"?
You have an alias to an image that was on your iDisk somewhere. You may be able to find it by searching your home folder in Spotlight with the criterion "Kind is Other: alias".
Thank you. I found 68 suspects; how do I find the culprit?
Look for aliases to image files, and check the targets by opening the Finder Info dialog. It will be a tedious job. You could automate the task with AppleScript, but you'd have to ask somebody else for help with that.
They are all websites on Safari; could that still be the problem? I've deleted a few items that I thought could have caused this, but still have the problem. Also, where do I look for the target, under "Where from" in the info window? Thank you for your help. Sorry I'm not getting it yet.
The Info dialog will show "Kind: alias" and below that "Original".
I've done what you said, and the info boxes show "Kind: Web Archive". No aliases. (These are all web pages I've saved, but will probably never read again ;-) ) This is weird.
Quit System Preferences if it's running. In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following item, if it exists:
Caches/com.apple.systempreferences
and move the following item to the Desktop:
Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
Launch System Preferences and test. If you still have the issue, put the item on the Desktop back where it came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the item.
Dang! I tried that and the message still shows up.
You get the warning only when opening the Desktop & Screensaver preference pane?
Yes: only when I open that pane.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
grep -R idisk ~/L*/Preferences
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste (command-V) into the Terminal window.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
Post any lines of output that appear below what you entered — the text, please, not a screenshot.
If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.
Franks-MacBook-Pro:~ [my name]$
This is all that appeared after I pasted "grep -R idisk ~/L*/Preferences". It took 1 or 2 seconds. I'm sorry that's all I got: probably not much help.
When you open the preference pane and select the Desktop tab, you see on the left a hierarchical list of desktop images. At the top is Apple, and below that, iPhoto and Folders. What, if anything, is selected in that list?
"Desktop Pictures" is selected. The annoying message shows up no matter what is selected; there are 6 built-in Apple folders, plus "Pictures" under "Folders". iPhoto doesn't always show up and there is no triangle next to it. Even weirder.
Temporarily move the Pictures folder to the Desktop. Relaunch System Preferences and test.
Error message in System Prefs > Screen Saver/Desktop
