Q: How to fix bad plist?
My wife's iMac (OSX10.8.5) has been booting erratically or not at all. Running Tech Tool Pro from an e-drive I find an "unexpected character in line 1" of a SystemConfiguration preferences.plist. Here are the first two lines of the plist:
>com_apple_ats_name_fond.Description</key>
<string>ชื่อ FOND</string>
The precise location of the plist is as follows: /Volumes/MacintoshHD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist
Obviously I'm in over my head here. What should I do? I want to get this computer running briefly so that I can export contacts and the 6,000 mail messages in a form acceptable to my wife's new IiMac running Capitan.
iMac, iOS 8.4.1
Posted on Jul 13, 2016 12:36 PM
I don't know what your issue is with this computer, so I cannot say if this will change anything. It would really help if you explained what happens when you boot & what errors or problems it has. Simply assuming this T.T.P. diagnosis is correct is a longshot in my opinion.
You could probably just take a copy of the entire system & 'migrate' the user account to access the mail or contacts on another Mac. Target Disk Mode can be used to make a non booting Mac's disk readable on another computer for example. You can also dig into her account & find the mail or contacts manually.
How to use and troubleshoot FireWire target disk mode - Apple Support – you need approbate cables to make use of this mode.
You could obviously delete or just move the plist - I dare say TechTool Pro will have an option to do that somewhere in it's fix or repair sections?
That plist manages lots of network & system level settings, so the OS will recreate it with default values after you remove it & reboot. I'd suggest you move the file to a new location & reboot incase you need to restore it. TTP may simply be finding an error where non exists (I have had it do that for me in the past - making a Mac unbootable!).
What state is the Mac in? Can you get to a user login? Is your only aim to access the user data?
Posted on Jul 14, 2016 5:44 AM