OS 10.6.8 I ran TTP6 and checking files, it found this problem but I don't if it's fixed or what it is. The file path is, /users/jondan/library/Application Support/MPlayerX/bookmark2plist. Earlier today a window appeared asking me for my password regarding a Completer app. I have never seen that before.
jaybass

Please clarify the nature of the "problem" TTP found.

completer.app popup? | Networking | FineTunedMac (There seems to be an epidemic.)

artie,
all it said was, unexpected character line 1 and then the file path. When I looked into the Safari bookmarks folder (460) I don't know which one it is. I ran DW and it also pointed out that file and that it couldn't be repaired. If I deleted the MPlayerX app, would that remove that file? jaybass

Jaybass take a look at Bensheim/s thread from yesterday on this exact topic.

That file has nothing to do with Safari. The "bookmarks" in question are MPlayerX's way of saving playback positions so you can resume watching where you left off.

Somebody else will have to confirm this, jaybass, but I think what you did was verified your xml files, and the unexpected character you came up with is no more than that...unexpected...but not problematic.

I'm not sure there's any reason for you to delete MPlayerX.

I went through the file path and found genio in the apps support folder. I deleted it and also the MPlayerX which I don't use. Checked files in TTP and everything is okay now. Thanks for answering. jaybass

That was a fast reply! As you can see with my reply to joe, I was looking in the wrong place. All's well that ends well. Thanks. jaybass

Did you go through the entire genio removal process?

Checking files with either TTP or DW is, to a large degree, a more or less useless procedure. My recollection is that I've never seen a report of either utility finding anything really wrong; their forte seems to be finding "unexpected characters", which, as I said, are no more than that...unexpected, but not problematic

Thanks DK, That was something else I didn't know. jaybass

artie, I just dragged that genio file into the trash. What else is there? Let me know. jaybass

Genieo makes itself very difficult to delete. In the thread I linked to there is a link to AdwareMedic which is donationware that purports to delete Genieo and several other adware apps. Given Genieo's ability to hide itself AdwareMedic seems worth a try. It found a couple of Firefox adware apps on my system.

I linked to Bensheim's thread in my initial post, but I forgot to make mention of the 10.6.8 (with both Bensheim and jaybass are running) problem.

Ignore the "unexpected character" error messages.

What's happening is that some older apps save their preferences by writing files into ~/Library/Preferences. This is understandable, since for a long time the operating system gave developers no help and only the vaguest guidance about how they should remember user preferences. Each developer had to come up with their own scheme.

OS X does now provide CFPreferences (in Core Foundation) and NSUserDefaults (the Cocoa equivalent), which automatically do all the grunt work, including saving values to files. All the files they create are stored in ~/Library/Preferences or /Library/Preferences, and are always written as property list files.

Developers who put together a working solution long ago, before CFPreferences/NSUserDefaults came along, continue to use it, even if it means they have to read/write the files themselves. ("If it ain't broke...") Many of them put their files in ~/Library/Preferences give them a .plist extension (because at the time that seemed to be what they were supposed to do) even though they were not actually in property list format. Nothing's actually broken. Those programs aren't using the newfangled preferences frameworks, so it doesn't matter what format their files are in.

Utilities like DW or TTP scan ~/Library/Preferences and report "unexpected character" for every file that isn't in property list format. The character may be unexpected by the utility, but not by the program that uses the file.

Just ignore the error. Everything is working fine.

Some tools scan your hdd for .plist files and run plutil -lint on them to verify their syntax. sometimes they will find a plist with a syntax error, or possibly a corrupt plist.