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Level 2

272 points

Quicktime Damaged/Missing

Hello All

I have a 2009 iMac which recently had the RAM replaced due to some issues. I have since gotten it back and installed a fresh copy of Mountain Lion and updated it to the latest version (10.8.4).

I have not been able to play any quicktime files, as Quicktime 7 just displays a blank player with 00:00:0 being the time reading, no playhead and no video. I have installed Perian and since removed that along with Flash, as Flash is usually the culprit. Then i recently discovered that Skype no longer works. Just yesterday I was using it fine and the day before yesterday Skype auto updated.

I had not restarted my computer in a while so I decided to do so after finishing up with Skype and when I started the computer up today and tried to open Skype, I got the following error. http://imgur.com/JFGlNh1 I even tried completely uninstalling Skype and reinstalling and I still get it.

I did some looking around on my mac. I looked in Quicktime 7 after uninstalling Perian and still could not play anything, it either locked up and beachballed or game me a strange error code. I then tried to open the same file in Quicktime X and just got an instant crash. So I went to the Finder and tried to quick look a video file and promptly received a crash. The same occurs with really any media file. Audio and video alike. And now I get this in iTunes. http://imgur.com/24VSHoL

Everything is updated in the updates section of the Mac App Store. I tried this command

plutil -p /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Resources/Info.plist

which yields:

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Resources/Info.plist: file does not exist or is not readable or is not a regular file

I am now absolutely certain the QuickTime frameworks are damaged. Now I just need to know. Do I have to do a fresh clean install? Coz that would be a serious pain in the neck. Can I just reinstall Mountain Lion over the top?

It was also suggested to me to try and extract the Quicktime installer from the Mountain Lion installer. I cannot find a single package for quicktime, but I have found the Essentials package in the Install ESD and I just need to know which folders to copy. I will detail steps taken upon request.

This suggests that some changes were made to Quicktime, maybe some of them went wrong?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5806?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Many thanks in advance,

xeni

Posted on Jul 20, 2013 4:27 AM

26 replies

XENiCraft Author

Level 2

272 points

Jul 28, 2013 5:50 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Absolutely.

Here is the crash log I found in the Console for Quicklook's crash when trying to view an audio file:

http://pastebin.com/saApHwhJ

(expires in one month from now)

I hope that's better than dumping the entire log here 😝

Jul 30, 2013 12:00 AM in response to XENiCraft

Reinstall of Security Update 2013-003 seems to fix the SKYPE problem... but has broken my apple mail...

There is something very wrong with that update!

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:22 AM in response to XENiCraft

I can't coax 10.8.4 to have any issues with skype/quicktime/quicklook - even after letting an older version auto-update. The Finder crash report suggests problems from some third-party software, although only dropbox shows in the list. It might be worth those having this trouble comparing extra s/w & add-ons.

XENiCraft Author

Level 2

272 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:30 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Hi Andy

The thing is, OneBlueSky can replicate it on four different macs, all different models (i think) and from a clean slate (reformat and install), it still does this.

xeni

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:41 AM in response to XENiCraft

I see, I'd forgotten that when posting, but the Finder crash does look like something else was involved.

Re quicktime being damaged - if repeatable it should be possible to identify what's changed & when, then run fs_usage as skype re-opens or logs in & see what process does it. A hassle though, & easier to disable updates.

XENiCraft Author

Level 2

272 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:50 AM in response to andyBall_uk

hmm maybe OneBlueSky can try this? I really don't have the time reinstall, just today i lost an hour to reinstalling, and I have a lot going on at the moment.

Thanks for the tip tho.

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Jul 31, 2013 5:57 AM in response to XENiCraft

I quite understand - since preventing updates means no problems, stick with that.

XENiCraft Author

Level 2

272 points

Aug 2, 2013 7:11 AM in response to andyBall_uk

Recently Skype released an update for Skype, and although there was no specific note about my situation, YAY! it seems that with Skype 6.7.0.373 my problem has been eliminated!

Even after multiple restarts, uses of QuickTime and Skype, I have not had any obvious issues.

Hopefully this is it, and I can stop worrying about reinstalling the OS every week.

If it isn't I will continue on this thread. I will mark this post as the solved one.

Many thanks to all who contributed!!

xeni

PS. @OneBlueSky, please update all of your Macs to the latest Skype version, here is the direct download link: http://download.skype.com/macosx/Skype_6.7.0.373.dmg

Please let me know if this fixes the issue!

XENiCraft Author

Level 2

272 points

Aug 6, 2013 12:11 AM in response to XENiCraft

NO!

It seems that it did not address the problem, Quicktime is still broken D:

Quicktime just started refusing to play files. I guarantee next restart it will break completely.

Someone really needs to address this at Microsoft's Skype team, and fast.

lopezio

Level 1

9 points

Aug 20, 2013 6:31 AM in response to XENiCraft

Hi, thanks to the hints in this post I noticed that there seemed to be a broken symlink in my QuickTime folder. I tried to restore it and then it worked:

In Terminal:

sudo -s cd /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickTime.framework/Versions mv Current Current.Broken ln -s A Current

then started skype, it works. QuickTime does not seem to work yet, but probably it will after the next login.

Whatever it was that broke it (eerie). Thanx for all the hints here.

marksto

Level 1

0 points

Aug 30, 2013 9:17 PM in response to lopezio

You are a genius. I don't know what that did but, after a month of pain, my system is now working again.

This seems to be much wider than Skype. My Office for Mac (2008) kept crashing and the debug log indicated the reason was QuickTime failing (no idea why QuickTime is needed for Excel...).

Thanks.

Quicktime Damaged/Missing