Photo Mechanic 5 Not remembering any preferences in OSX 10.8.2

[brayphoto]

I recently had a a major system crash with resulted in the logic board of my Macbook Pro being replaced. Now PM 5 will not remember any preferences and when I enter info int the IPTC Stationary pad, close it, and then re-open it all  of my info is gone. I have tried to reinstall PM5 but the problem persists. Any suggestions?

[Kirk Baker]

I recently had a a major system crash with resulted in the logic board of my Macbook Pro being replaced. Now PM 5 will not remember any preferences and when I enter info int the IPTC Stationary pad, close it, and then re-open it all  of my info is gone. I have tried to reinstall PM5 but the problem persists. Any suggestions?

Have you run a Repair Permissions on your system with Apple's Disk Utility since you got your computer back from the repair shop?

Sounds to me like PM can't write to your account's Preferences folder.  Photo Mechanic needs to be able to write to the following path:

/Users/<your username>/Library/Preferences/com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic/

Note: Apple has decided to hide your Library folder so you won't be able to go to the above path directly.  In the Finder choose the "Go to Folder" command on the "Go" menu.  Enter:

~/Library

Then you can check the permissions on each part of the path (use "Get Info" from the "File" menu) and make sure you can read and write to the above path.

I would first try the Disk Utility and if that doesn't fix it, manually check and adjust the permissions on each folder along the "/Users/<your username>/Library/Preferences/com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic/" path.

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

Ok, I ran repair permissions and then made sure all of the items in the screenshot below had read/write access but the problem is still there. Any other ideas?

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

Ok, I ran repair permissions and then made sure all of the items in the screenshot below had read/write access but the problem is still there. Any other ideas?

Please post a screen shot of the com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder showing all of its contents.

Thanks,

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

Here is the screen shot you requested

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

Here is the screen shot you requested

OK, well it looks like the preferences file has been updated today.

Let's try this:

1) Quit Photo Mechanic if it is open.
2) Rename your com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder to com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic.bak
3) Run Photo Mechanic again and try to make a change (like changing your IPTC Stationery Pad) and see if it sticks.

Let me know if it still doesn't work properly.

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

Looks like it is still not working. Could it be an OSX preference that is causing this issue?

[Kirk Baker]

Looks like it is still not working. Could it be an OSX preference that is causing this issue?

What does the new com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic directory look like?

Perhaps you could also send me your PM.log file?  It is in the following location by default:

/Users/<your user name>/Library/Caches/Photo Mechanic/

Contact me privately for an email address to send it to.

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

I have completely installed PM5 downloaded a new copy from your server and now reinstalled it and the problem continues. So Im guessing its not something with PM itself but a problem with OSX

[brayphoto]

This is what the preferences folder currently looks like

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Kirk Baker]

I have completely installed PM5 downloaded a new copy from your server and now reinstalled it and the problem continues. So Im guessing its not something with PM itself but a problem with OSX

There may indeed be something wrong with your OS install.  I noticed in your screen shots that some of the toolbar icons in your Finder windows have '?' marks instead of the usual icons.  Have you checked your system and console logs for any error messages?  (Use the Console application in the Applications/Utilities folder to view the logs.)

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

I have sent you my PM log files and I took a look in console and didn't see any red flag but I also only have a vague idea of what I am looking at.

[Kirk Baker]

Brian,

I have sent you my PM log files and I took a look in console and didn't see any red flag but I also only have a vague idea of what I am looking at.

OK.

What I'd like for you to do is:

1) Quit PM if it is running.
2) Delete everything in the com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder
3) Delete the PM.log file in the /Users/<your user name>/Library/Caches/Photo Mechanic/ folder
4) Start PM up and quit it as soon as you can.
5) Email me the new PM.log file and the contents of the com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic folder (just compress the folder)

Thanks,

-Kirk

[brayphoto]

It would appear that deleting all of those files and restarting has fixed my issue. PM now seems to be operating normally. I am going to try to restore some of my saved snapshots from my backup file and see if everything keeps working.

[brayphoto]

I have now restored all of my iptc snapshots and FTP snapshot settings and PM is still operating normally so I think we have fixed the issue. I would like to thank Kirk for all his help! Your customer service has been second to none.