Applications refuse to load.

[sonofhypnos]

Hi,

Certain of my apps have lately refused to load either from the dock or elsewhere, e.g. directly from the applications folder (imac G5/OSX/tiger). These include Safari, itunes, .mac mail and the ilife dictionary. Other apps that won't respond include skype, yahoo, msn etc. Fortunately Firefox and Opera still work.

I have tried launching these from a different user account (clean) but still no luck. The icons bounce once or twice in the dock then nothing! I would appreciate any guidance or suggestions. Many thanks

[barhar]

Consider launching 'Disk Utility' (in the '/Applications/Utilities/' folder), select the boot drives' icon (in the left side list), select the 'First Aid' tab; and finally, click on 'Repair Disk Permissions'.

When the process is completed, repeat (at least once); and then quite 'Disk Utility'.

Try launching the unwilling applications now.

[sonofhypnos]

Thanks barhar, for your quick response! Appreciated.

I followed your instructions to the letter but sadly there has been no change in the situation. I even re-booted after using disc utilities 'Repair Disc Permissions' twice.

The first thing I tried to launch after rebooting was Safari from the applications folder as the icon is no longer in the dock and the Safari icon appeared for about a second in the dock then vanished.The strange thing is that not all the <b>ilife</b> applications are affected. Grab, iphoto, preview, garage band and address book all function normally.

I can't imagine what could be causing this problem apart from perhaps some corrupt file somewhere but anything recently downloaded has been securely removed [as far as I can tell] and to the best of my recollection that was only 'second life.'

I would appreciate any other advice you may have.

Many thanks once again.

[barhar]

01. Boot from the 'Install Disc 1' disc, and proceed past the first (select a language) window.
02. Select the 'Utilities, Disk Utility' menu item.
03. Click on the 'Repair Disk' button, and repeat - at least once.
04. Click on the 'Repair Disk Permissions' button, and repeat - at least once.
05. Quit 'Disk Utility'.
06. Select the 'Utilities, Startup Disk...' menu item.
07. Select your boot drive and <option> click on the 'Restart' button - to reboot the Mac.
08. After the reboot process, try launching the unwilling applications.

[sonofhypnos]

Hey again,

Well I haven't tried this so far but I just want to check with you first... will this not cause loss of data (i.e anything that has not been backed-up), or is it safe to boot from disc this way without deleting picture and document files etc?

[barhar]

'... will this not cause loss of data ...' (?) - it should not.

'... is it safe to boot from disc ['Install Disc 1' assumed - barhar] this way without deleting picture and document files etc?' - it should be.

[tux_do]

I am having this exact same problem, and it seemed to happen just after I installed the new os x update. I have tried repairing disk permissions, but those applications still do not open. And I have no clue where my install disk is, so I can't re-install mac osx.

[sonofhypnos]

This isn't good! I managed to restore my applications functionality after using the install discs [Thanks Barhar] but pretty soon I received a prompt for OSX updates.. accepted the ones I thought applicable and found upon restarting my computer that 80% of my itunes library had gone! Much of this I'll never recover and I couldn't make a back-up of the playlists etc because itunes was one of the apps that wouldn't open. I don't have those files anywhere else either [like an ipod] so I'm reluctant to accept any upgrades now. I hope you find your install discs. Good luck!