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Re: Help - Content not available
jchuzi #18210 10/12/11 11:45 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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No dice on all counts.

I went to HD and into my home folder and it won't allow me to delete anything (just like before).

That article on Disk Utility is useless since my iMac didn't come with any disks. So I apparently can't repair permissions or anything else for that matter.

As for making "changes to your User account like adding accounts, deleting accounts, changing passwords, and/or changing the type of account", what would that be in aid of?!

- - - - -

I found a Disk Utility application in my Utilities folder. It doesn't allow me to repair the disk (ie, Repair Disk is greyed out).

I was able to repair permissions on a bunch of modem related issues, which were the only things Verify Disk Permissions found out of sorts, except for:

Warning: SUID file “System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent” has been modified and will not be repaired.

What's up with that? I have no idea what any of that means or whether it's a disaster.

Moreover, one of the Disk Utility's instructions states:
If the disk needs repairs, start up from your Mac OS installation disc, and then choose Utilities > Disk Utility.

Yeah, how with no Mac OS installation disc?!?!?!?

This all seems to be a cruel sick joke designed to drive people like over the edge. It's pretty much working.


Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18211 10/12/11 12:17 PM
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You can still use Disk Utility to repair permissions. It is located in Applications/Utilities. Perhaps the easiest way to get there is by clicking Finder's Go menu and then selecting Utilities. Double-click DU to launch it. In the DU window, select your hard drive and then click Repair Permissions (don't bother with Verify).

If you need to run Repair Disk, you have to boot from the Recovery partition that was created in Lion. Start up while pressing Command-R; release the keys when you see the Apple logo. You can read the complete instructions in Preparing your Lion repair kit.

Let's see if I can give you a better idea of the usefulness of accounts. OS X was designed for multiple users, so that you don't need multiple computers for each person who needs a computer. Each user can have a separate account with its own email, preferences, desktop, etc., just as if he/she had a separate computer.

It is useful to set up an account for troubleshooting purposes. If you are having difficulties, diagnosing the cause can be helped by this. Lets say, for example, that Safari is crashing. The problem might be caused by something in your main account or it might be due to a problem outside of the User folder. To test this, you can log into the test account and try Safari from there. If the problem is gone, the cause is in your main account and you can troubleshoot from there. If the problem still occurs in the test account, the cause lies outside the Users folder.

In the Users & Groups section of System Preferences, click the lock icon to open it and enter your administrator password at the prompt. Then, click Add (+) and follow the prompts. I find it useful to make the test account an administrator account and I have named mine Emergency. Follow the rest of the prompts to complete the process.

When you want to log into the test account, go to the Apple menu and click Log Out. All apps will quit, the desktop will disappear, and you'll see a list of available accounts. Click the test account and you'll be in.

The test account will be pristine, as if nobody had set up any preferences, Safari bookmarks, email accounts, etc. It's probably best to leave it as unsullied as possible for testing purposes. When you want to get back to your main account, log out as before and then log into your main account. It will have been untouched.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Help - Content not available
jchuzi #18212 10/12/11 12:28 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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I added a bit to my previous post just as you put in yours.

I appreciate your thorough instructions, but I'm way too insecure to try any of them.
Even if I were able to muddle way through the mechanics of, say, setting up another 'account', just as here, I wouldn't have a clue what to do with it. (So what's the point of even trying?)
I'd rather have a machine which operates marginally rather risk one that doesn't operate at all. That'd take me right back to DOS days, when I'd just sit there watching the C-prompt flashing and not having clue how to go any further and never did learn how. (That's why I got into Macs in the first place. Now I'm right back where I was 30 years ago ... and I don't like it.)

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18213 10/12/11 12:44 PM
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I can't speak for Lion, but the SUID messages in previous OS's could be ignored. It's beyond me why Apple hasn't fixed this issue because it just serves to alarm and/or annoy people. For more info than you ever want, read Mac OS X: Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore. FWIW, I get a ton of them. At least you're limited to one (for the moment, anyway).

You can run Verify Disk without booting from the Recovery partition by launching Disk Utility as you did before. If everything is OK, you'll be told, obviating the need to go further. Otherwise, the procedure should be harmless at worst and helpful at best. I sympathize with your insecurity but rest assured that it's OK to do this.

Adding an account is a GOOD THING. I strongly urge you to do it.

Last edited by jchuzi; 10/12/11 12:45 PM.

Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18214 10/12/11 01:03 PM
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Rant:

[I just moved this to the Lounge. Focus needs to be on resolving the "Content not available" issue here.]

Last edited by grelber; 10/12/11 01:45 PM. Reason: Rant moved to Lounge
Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18230 10/12/11 10:49 PM
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I went into ~/Library/Preferences (yet again) and still could not "delete" the help-related plist items. When I opened the files, the title bar indicated that they were locked. However, I could erase the contents manually. ?!?!
I could also (as suggested by X Lab) drag the file to the Trash and also empty the Trash.

Results:
Offline — Help seems to work fairly well.
Online (for info for which "Content not available" pops up upon search when offline) — Hit or miss, about 50/50, but at least 50% of the time it works now.

So, for the moment at least, problem solved and approach noted (ie, Trash, rather than Delete).

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18235 10/12/11 11:53 PM
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I guess it's a terminological problem. I'm quite sure that everyone else in this thread meant "drag the file to the Trash and also empty the Trash" when they advised you to "delete" the file. That's what it means to delete a file.

That's what it meant in OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6.

That's also what it meant in OS 9.



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Re: Help - Content not available
dkmarsh #18239 10/13/11 07:16 AM
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh
I guess it's a terminological problem. I'm quite sure that everyone else in this thread meant "drag the file to the Trash and also empty the Trash" when they advised you to "delete" the file. That's what it means to delete a file.

That's what it meant in OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6.

That's also what it meant in OS 9.

It's not at all unreasonable for grelber to have thought that "delete" meant "select the item to be deleted and hit command-delete," which is what it meant in OS....

Edit: And dragging an item to the Trash to delete it is not the least bit intuitive in the face of command-delete, which is how I've always deleted files unless they don't allow me to do so.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
dkmarsh #18245 10/13/11 09:31 AM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh
I guess it's a terminological problem. I'm quite sure that everyone else in this thread meant "drag the file to the Trash and also empty the Trash" when they advised you to "delete" the file. That's what it means to delete a file.
That's what it meant in OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6.
That's also what it meant in OS 9.

When it comes to computers, I'm a literalist.
Not to belabor the point: Delete means delete (via the key which reads 'delete'). Trash or drag to trash +/- empty trash means something else (ie, what it says).
I've never considered delete and trash to be synonyms; and probably I've never thought about the issue (until now) when I've gotten rid of a file by dragging it to Trash. My bad.

Re: Help - Content not available
artie505 #18246 10/13/11 09:54 AM
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Quote:
...dragging an item to the Trash to delete it is not the least bit intuitive...

laugh



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Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18248 10/13/11 10:03 AM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Not to belabor the point: Delete means delete (via the key which reads 'delete'). Trash or drag to trash +/- empty trash means something else (ie, what it says).
I've never considered delete and trash to be synonyms; and probably I've never thought about the issue (until now) when I've gotten rid of a file by dragging it to Trash. My bad.

As I said, your literal interpretation of the proffered advise was on the mark.

But neither trashing files nor emptying the Trash is, as a rule, necessary to reach your end in instances such as this; as a matter of fact, we generally advise users to drag files to their desktop to test whether or not they need to be trashed rather than immediately trash them.

(This is the first instance I recall running into in which a user was prevented from deleting a file without being offered the opportunity to authenticate.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
artie505 #18253 10/13/11 10:49 AM
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Quote:
It's not at all unreasonable for grelber to have thought that "delete" meant "select the item to be deleted and hit command-delete," which is what it meant in OS....

Except that grelber didn't say anything about command-delete: "Delete means delete (via the key which reads 'delete')." Ergo, it's pretty clear that he was selecting the item to be deleted and simply hitting "delete."

If that's ever been the way to delete a file on a Mac, it was longer ago than System 7.



dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
Re: Help - Content not available
dkmarsh #18254 10/13/11 11:29 AM
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh
Quote:
It's not at all unreasonable for grelber to have thought that "delete" meant "select the item to be deleted and hit command-delete," which is what it meant in OS....

Except that grelber didn't say anything about command-delete: "Delete means delete (via the key which reads 'delete')." Ergo, it's pretty clear that he was selecting the item to be deleted and simply hitting "delete."

If that's ever been the way to delete a file on a Mac, it was longer ago than System 7.

The same thought crossed my mind, and I typed it into my post, but then I decided that the misstatement was an oversight on grelber's part, because, after all, it's a fair assumption that he has deleted at least one or two files during the eleven years he's been running his iMac, and deleted it.

But now that you've put it that way, it becomes clear that that's exactly what he was trying to do...that the system sound he heard when trying to delete was OS X saying, not that he couldn't delete the files, but that he couldn't delete them that way, and my questioning the lack of an authentication dialog box is thus moot (and ganbustein's question is answered too).


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
joemikeb #18329 10/14/11 05:25 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Edit: This post was originally a reply to joemikeb's Re: Erasing & formatting thumbdrive.


Originally Posted By: joemikeb
As to your comment about not finding anything in the Apple help files about this are you implying Apple should account for every eventuality with every developer's hardware?

No. Apple Help Center via Help Viewer will not yield anything but "Content not available" no matter what I do.

Last edited by cyn; 10/15/11 12:31 AM.
Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18343 10/14/11 08:04 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Originally Posted By: joemikeb
As to your comment about not finding anything in the Apple help files about this are you implying Apple should account for every eventuality with every developer's hardware?

No. Apple Help Center via Help Viewer will not yield anything but "Content not available" no matter what I do.

Is that the entire content of the pop-up you're getting, or are you still getting that "Not connected..." stuff? (Would your copying and pasting the contents of the pop-up into a post be more informative?)

Edit: Please post a couple of search terms for which you're not getting any results and let us try them for ourselves on Macs other than yours.

Last edited by artie505; 10/14/11 08:05 PM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
artie505 #18349 10/14/11 08:51 PM
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grelber Offline OP
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Originally Posted By: artie505

Is that the entire content of the pop-up you're getting, or are you still getting that "Not connected..." stuff? (Would your copying and pasting the contents of the pop-up into a post be more informative?) Please post a couple of search terms for which you're not getting any results and let us try them for ourselves on Macs other than yours.


The same old thing - Help Center in Help Viewer:
Content not available
This information isn't available because your computer isn't connected to the Internet.
To view this information, connect your computer to the Internet. If you have trouble connecting, use Network Diagnostics.

Samples:
Repairing permissions
Spring-loaded folders (see that thread for more commentary)

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18352 10/14/11 09:34 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
The same old thing - Help Center in Help Viewer:
Content not available
This information isn't available because your computer isn't connected to the Internet.
To view this information, connect your computer to the Internet. If you have trouble connecting, use Network Diagnostics.

OK, then... Let's try Network Diagnostics (the instructions for locating which in OS X 10.6.x are, I note, incorrect both on my deuced Mac(hina) and on-line): Launch /Applications/System Preferences > Network, and if your Lion looks like my Snow Leopard you'll find an "Assist Me" radio button at the bottom of the pane.

Work your way through its easy-to-follow instructions and see what, if anything, it tells you.

Edit: The aggravating thing about this is that I know I've experienced your issue, likely back in the days when I was running a modem, but it was so long ago that I haven't got a clue how it was resolved.

Last edited by artie505; 10/15/11 01:23 AM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18369 10/15/11 01:25 AM
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Damn!!! I lost this post when cyn locked the thread!!! Aaargh!!! mad :resigned:

I just had another thought, again predicted on the assumption that your Lion looks like my Snow Leopard: When you launch /Apps/SysPrefs > Network you should see a sidebar that lists all or some of AirPort, Ethernet, FireWire, Thunderbolt, and, I assume, Modem.

If Modem is not the topmost item, click on the work wheel (the little gear-like icon towards the bottom of the pane), select "Set Service Order," drag Modem to the top, and click on "OK." (I assume you'll also have to save your change Edit: before you can quit SysPrefs.)

For good measure, shut down your iMac and start it up, and see if your situation has changed.

Backround: There are three ways to "save" changes you make to your system (such as trashing those Help plists):
  1. Logging out of your account and back in,
  2. restarting your iMac, and
  3. shutting down and starting up your iMac.
Each successive option gets deeper into the system, so I've recommended #3 as the most likely to do you the most, (fingers really crossed, here, if any) good.

Last edited by artie505; 10/15/11 01:27 AM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
artie505 #18385 10/15/11 08:53 AM
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I have no problem with the network connection because I'm on it and everything else works just fine.

I've shut down and restarted the machine several times. This has achieved nothing except saving electricity.

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18396 10/15/11 04:41 PM
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Via another hour-long telephone session with Apple support earlier today, I carried out the following instructions ...

In ~/Library/Preferences: Trash helpviewer.plist and helpviewer.plist.lockfile

In ~/Library/Caches: Trash all folders

In Macintosh HD/Library/Caches: Trash all folders

Restart iMac, and then Empty Trash.

Doing so (seems to have) corrected:
– The spring-loaded folder/file issue
– The Help Center / Help Viewer issues
– Who knows what else?

So, clearly there was much corruption in my iMac/OS X which has been dealt with.

If this overlaps with suggestions by others in these forums, then once again I thank assembled gurus.

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18402 10/15/11 05:19 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Via another hour-long telephone session with Apple support ...

In ~/Library/Preferences: Trash helpviewer.plist and helpviewer.plist.lockfile


As tacit suggested on page 1, to which you stated that only resulted in a "gong" -- and thus the topic of home folder permissions arose.

So, 'whither went the gong?' one wonders.

Re: Help - Content not available
Hal Itosis #18432 10/15/11 11:57 PM
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> So, 'whither went the gong?' one wonders.

Without searching this thread post by post for references... Apparently, the first time grelber tried to delete that file he simply selected it and hit "Delete" (Edit: not command-delete[!]), thus the gong.

I believe he later accomplished the deed by dragging the file to the trash.

Last edited by artie505; 10/16/11 12:50 AM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18434 10/16/11 12:48 AM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
I have no problem with the network connection because I'm on it and everything else works just fine.

I've shut down and restarted the machine several times. This has achieved nothing except saving electricity.

Since OS X, itself, directed you to Network Diagnostics, and considering your newness to OS X, your own analysis of your situation and resultant decision to ignore ND seem to me to be contrary to the best interests of a user who is really trying to help himself; I haven't got a clue what ND may have reported, nor, most assuredly, have you.

My suggestion was not to just shut down your iMac and start it up again; I posted a list of steps to be performed prior thereto. (Ref. previous paragraph.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Help - Content not available
artie505 #18440 10/16/11 08:31 AM
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Thanks. I misunderstood your suggestions.
However, the Network Diagnostics procedure would now seem to be moot.
See post #18396 above pointing out the procedure which seems to have corrected most, if not all, of the problems I've been experiencing.

Re: Help - Content not available
grelber #18447 10/16/11 06:15 PM
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Originally Posted By: grelber
Thanks. I misunderstood your suggestions.
However, the Network Diagnostics procedure would now seem to be moot.
See post #18396 above pointing out the procedure which seems to have corrected most, if not all, of the problems I've been experiencing.

Network Diagnostics are, indeed, moot for the moment, but I still recommend that you check in SysPrefs > Network as I suggested.

Even if your connectivity issue has been solved, having "Modem" as your top item would not hurt in the least and may, in fact, help something that you haven't even realized needs help.

I've read your posts detailing Apple's approach to your issues, and I've certainly got my fingers crossed for you, but I dunno... Some of Not all the issues you've detailed just don't seem to have been vulnerable to the steps you've taken.

Good luck, though! smile

Last edited by artie505; 10/16/11 06:22 PM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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