Frequently Asked Questions about Mac OS X

Getting started with Mac OS X

• Learning about Mac® OS X
• Obtaining Help online

Prevention and preparation

• Backup and recovery
• Maintaining Mac OS X
• Running the Mac OS X maintenance scripts

Troubleshooting Mac OS X

• Applications
  • Multiple applications quit unexpectedly or fail to launch
  • Resetting Launch Services
  • Uninstalling applications
• Archive and Install: General advice on performing an Archive and Install
• AVI and DivX® files: Playing AVI and DivX files
• Cache cleaning: Side effects of System cache cleaning
• Console: Checking Console for clues
• Data recovery
• Disk Utility: The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
• Find by Content: Troubleshooting a failed indexing operation
• Finder™: Finder issues? How to delete its preferences
• Finding corrupted files
• FireWire®: General FireWire troubleshooting
• Font Book: Undoing Font Book
• Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
• Hardware Testing: The Apple® Hardware Test
• Help Viewer: Troubleshooting Help Viewer
• Kernel Panics: Resolving kernel panics
• Mac OS 9: Uninstalling Mac OS 9.
• Memory card readers: Unexpectedly eject the media
• Performance: Tuning Mac OS X performance
• Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space
• Resolving disk, permission, and cache corruption
• Software Update: Installing software updates
• The Spinning Beach Ball of Death
• Spotlight:
  • Spotlight tips
  • iCal® events launched from Spotlight™ search results do not open in iCal
• Startup Items: Troubleshooting Startup and Login Items
• Trash: Solving Trash problems
• VCD and SVCD Players

Beyond the book...

• Black rectangle appears after Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update
• Burning multi-session CDs in Panther®
• Computer Name screen saver appears as a folder under Tiger®
• Data corruption and loss: causes and avoidance
• Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
• Downgrading from the Mac OS X 10.2.8 Update to Mac OS X 10.2.6
• Examining Find in Panther
• Internet safety for children
• Journal-related kernel panic under Tiger
• Mac OS X Standalone Updates
• Optical media longevity
• Recover from renaming your Home folder
• Removing temporary files left by Symantec® LiveUpdate®
• Repairing a FileVault®-protected Home folder
• Resetting Energy Saver preferences
• Resetting the power-management chip in your Mac
• Shared printers cannot be seen on the local network
• Sharing an external drive between a Mac and a PC:
  • Sharing an external drive between a Mac and a PC under Leopard®
  • Sharing an external drive between a Mac and a PC under Tiger and earlier
• Simulating Pop-up Windows in Panther
• Sparse bundles defined
• Spyware legislation in the United States
• Taming secure.log under Panther
• Troubleshooting a corrupted sleepimage file
• Troubleshooting shared library errors
• Uninstalling the Front Row hack

Note: A vast collection of additional step-by-step troubleshooting procedures like those above can be found in our book Troubleshooting Mac OS X.