Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#8): More on Address Book data being erased; Another solution for non-mounting FireWire drives, other issues
Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#8): More on Address Book data being erased; Another solution for non-mounting FireWire drives, other issues
More on Address Book data being erased We continue to receive reports from a significant number of users indicating loss of Address Book data after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4.3.
For many users, the issue does not occur directly subsequent to the update, but after a day or two of usage.
MacFixIt reader Joan Covington writes:
"In the last couple of days I have twice lost both Address Book and iCal databases, and fortunately had recent backups. (I am now backing up those applications every time I make even one change, just in case of a recurrence of the problem.) However, I have had 10.4.3 for several days -- since about 2 days after its release -- and I am not sure if it is 10.4.3 itself that is the culprit, or its clash with some other application. The problem did not occur immediately upon the 10.4.3 installation."
Another reader adds:
"I did the 10.4.3 update a few days ago, put my ibook to sleep on and off for the next few days. but the next time i rebooted (two nights ago) my entire address book database was gone!"
Andy corroborates:
"This morning I started up my iBook, recently upgraded to 10.4.3, and... My Address book database is also completely gone."
If you are experiencing a similar problem, please let us know.
Another solution for non-mounting FireWire drives, other FireWire issues We continue to report on a bevy of FireWire issues apparent after the update to Mac OS X 10.4.3.
The most common problem is an inability to mount FireWire drives, or recognize other FireWire devices like iPods. Our previously posted solutions have proved successful for a number of readers -- particularly the double-punch of re-applying the Mac OS X 10.4.3 combo updater and repairing permissions from an alternate startup drive.
MacFixIt reader Orc Lonn reports that manually mounting drives from the Terminal may be successful in other cases. Orc's steps are as follows:
- In a terminal window I logged in as root (use sudo bash in order to get root status).
- I created a directory for the Firewire disk; mkdir /Volumes/myDisk
- Then I issued the mount command mount disk1 /Volumes/myDisk
"Voila! The disk mounted and the Finder alerted me that the Superblock was corrupt. Now the partition did show in Disk Utility and I could attempt to repair the disk (although no errors were actually found)."
Users are reporting some separate FireWire issues under Mac OS X 10.4.3 today.
One reader reports freezes when disconnecting or connecting an iPod:
"Since I upgraded my G5/1.8 (single) to 10.4.3, docking or removing my 3G iPod occasionally will hang the Mac solidly, after dumping as many as 29 copies of this message to '/var/log/system.log':
"/SourceCache/AppleFWOHCI/AppleFWOHCI-252.4.0/AppleFWOHCI.cpp 3539: ERROR: FireWire (OHCI) Apple ID 42 built-in: handleUnrecoverableErrorInt."
USB Overdrive conflict? MacFixIt reader Robert Spryn reports some issues with USB input devices that were resolved by disabling the USB Overdrive utility.
Robert writes:
"I found that after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.3 I started having a rather annoying issue where if I didn't touch my computer for awhile (say a half an hour) that I lost all responsiveness from any USB input peripheral (mouse, keyboard, and tablet.) One time I was able to fix this by disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cabling, but the subsequent times that solution failed and I was forced to hard reset. It may be a bit early to say for sure, but it appears my problem might have been stemming from USBOverdrive. I have uninstalled it and restarted, and so far today the issue is gone."
Automount problems MacFixIt reader Pete Wargo reports issues with network automounts under Mac OS X 10.4.3:
"We have a mixed network that uses NIS accounts and NFS automounts for home directories as well as shared data, etc. Under 10.3 and 10.4.2, everything is fine. However, two of my users upgraded to 10.4.3, and automounts are now broken. Badly. NIS works fine, however the user's home directory (or any directory) is never automounted. I've spent a couple of days picking this apart with no results."
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.
SCSI issues Russ Crum reports some previouisly unidentified SCSI issues for which we are seeking confirmation:
"I recently updated from 10.4.2 to 10.4.3 using the combo updater on a 400 Mhz Gigabit interface G4, with an Adaptec 2930CU factory installed SCSI card. There is a ZIP 100 drive and a Umax S-6E scanner on the SCSI chain. Both functioned fine under 10.4.2 once I removed the Adaptec System extensions except for Adaptec78XXSCSI.kext. After upgrading to 10.4.3 everything functions fine except I cannot unmount a zip disk without re-booting the system. A disk will mount fine but attempts to unmount it give an error message that the volume is busy and to quit the application that is using it. The catch is there are no applications that I know of using it!"
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Previous coverage
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#7): More on Combo disk image not mounting, possible cause/solution; System hangs on first restart after update
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#6): Combo updater disk image fails to mount; FireWire devices (including iPods) not mounting/recognized; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#5): More on excessive fan activity; Command-Tab application switching may swell log files; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#4): What to do if you have an incomplete update; Fan problems (continued); Disk Utility problems; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#3): More on increased fan activity; Motion sensor on some PowerBooks/iBooks no longer recognized; more
- Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#2): First restart may be longer than usual; General purpose fixes (try these first); Mail 2.0.5 issues; more
- Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.3 (client and server editions), update recommendations
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