Installed too many fonts into font book, HELP!!!

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Level 1

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Installed too many fonts into font book, HELP!!!

Hello community!

A friend of mine gave me a folder with nearly 3000 fonts. I mistakenly opened my font book, dropped folder onto the app, and voila I thought my new mac had 3000 cool new fonts! Little did i know it seemed to slow down every program and when i tried to pull the folder that my friend gave me with all of the fonts to the trash and empty, it said everything was in use so i couldn't.

When I tried to open the Font Book and delete it there font book just stalls and doesn't respond. One thing i've done so far is start up my computer holding shift (safe mode?). When i did this the folder my friend gave me was no longer on the desktop, and I couldn't seem to open Font Book in that mode. I then restarted and turned my computer back on in safe mode. The good news is it seems my programs aren't trying to use the 3000 fonts, and the folder seemed to have disappeard from my desktop. The bad news is Font Book still wont open, and i can see it is still recognising that the folder exist because it shows up on the side bar before is stops responding. Please help!!!

-Daniel

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 11, 2015 9:31 AM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,596 points

Mar 11, 2015 11:24 AM in response to DMWILSON234

3000 fonts is way too many for any OS to be active all at the same time. Font lists take forever to populate, and that many eats up a lot of RAM.

The fonts aren't on the desktop because you put them in the trash. However, they were all active, so the OS wouldn't let you delete them.

Also, you note you started in Safe Mode again, and the programs aren't trying to use the fonts. This is normal. In Safe Mode, only certain fonts and processes are allowed to load. If you're still currently in Safe Mode, empty the trash.

Restart normally. Among other things, a Safe Mode startup clears Font Book's database and removes all cache files of the account you logged into in Safe Mode.

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Answer 2

DMWILSON234 Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 11, 2015 12:04 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Thanks Kurt!

So far i have done all of this and my computer seems to be running normally. My last and final issue is that Font Book still will not open and goes into (not responding) mode upon opening. I would like to be able to install fonts (1 or 2 at a time 🙂 ) as normal and my work depends upon it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks again.

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Answer 3

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,596 points

Mar 11, 2015 12:14 PM in response to DMWILSON234

The font collection files are probably damaged. If you have a backup, do this:

1) Boot into Safe Mode.

2) In your user account, open the ~/Library/FontCollections/ folder (the ~ means your home account, you won't find a folder by that name)

3) Delete all of the .collection files.

4) Copy all of the same files from your backup into the folder.

5) Restart

If you don't have a backup, you can still just delete all of the .collection files. They have no special purpose. They're just the default sets OS X installs, and none of them are necessary for OS X or Font Book to operate.

If you prefer, move the .collection files to the desktop, then launch Font Book. If it works as expected, then one or more of those files are damaged. You can try putting them back one at a time (shutting down Font Book each time, putting one back, then launching again to test). When Font Book balks, the last one you put back is junk.

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