The Mac OS 10.5.6 update saga continues
Apple suggests fix for Mail suicides
Apple is hoping that its latest support bulletin will calm down some of the uproar over problems caused by its latest Mac OS X upgrade - in this case, the propensity of Apple's email client to unexpectedly quit.
As we reported first one week ago and then again last Friday, the Mac OS 10.5.6 update has gone less than swimmingly for Apple - or, we should instead say, for Mac users who run the most recent version of the company's operating system, Leopard.
As we and many others have discussed, Mail.app has been particularly problematic. Point your browser to MacInTouch's 10.5.6 discussion, for example, and seach for "Mail" - as of this morning, you'd find over 100 references.
Apple's support bulletin confirms what many users have suspected: that Mail's unexpected serial suicides are the result of "outdated third-party Mail plugins." Apple also allows for the possibility that the errant behavior might be the result of a "copy of Mail that wasn't updated properly."
The fix? First run Software Update to see if your copy of Mail is, indeed, up to date - which we're assuming it is, because no Mac user smart enough to read The Reg would be dumb enough to not keep their apps up to date.
Then review your Mail plug-ins to make sure you're running the most-recent versions. Apple suggests that two particularly problematic offenders may be Christopher Atlan's OMIC and Sente's GPGMail.
If all your Mail plug-ins are fresh and healthy, try moving them all out of ~/Library/Mail/Bundles and/or /Library/Mail/Bundles anyway - hey, you never know where file-corruption might lurk.
If all is still not well - and if you've been around the Mac for a while - you know what Apple suggests that you do next. Correct: back up all your files, perform an Archive and Install reinstallation of Mac OS X 10.5 (preserving settings), then run the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Update. Again.
Hey, it's the holiday season - you've got plenty of free time, right?
COMMENTS
Just uninstall
God people. Just uninstall the update and wait for the f...i...x Oh wait. Its Apple. You are fracked.
What's all the fuss about?
Running 10.5.6 on PPC G5 and no glitches as mentioned above even with Sentes GPG. I do not understand why some users report so much grief with macs. The only trouble I've had recently was due to a 3rd party audio effects card. If I ever have any problems, which is rare, I fix them - end of story. I don't spend my entire life re-installing stuff, I usually do it properly the first time.
Spot on AC :)
I use Windows because that's all I have ever used. I have never used a Mac, ever, and haven't really seen the need to. But then I don't push my PC to any limits. I don't play PC games as I have consoles, so all I need is an internet access 'box' and something I can store my music and photos on. XP does this very well and I don't have any issues with it at all.
I would like to be able to spend some time on a Mac to see if it is easier/faster/prettier, but I don't know anyone who owns one.
As long as everyone else is venting :)
The real problem with Macs is that they enrage the Windows folks who have spent half of their adult lives learning how to get their PCs to work. Very few windows users are honest enough to admit they use windows because they have always used windows and that they honestly thought that was all anyone used.
upgrade all you like - leopard is still a virus
6 'point' upgrades on - sixth or seventh clean install, tried on both a PPC G4 and an intel macbook pro, tried two different installer DVDs, macuser since system 7.5 - and i've got to say leopard is the most rancid POS excuse for an operating system i've ever seen.
* items decide whether or not to appear or not on desktop, on a whim, after every restart
* firefox will sometimes launch - most often crashes and burns
* apps refusing to launch - console errors showing permissions problems, even tho' i'm the admin account on the comp
* OS doesn't even recognise its own bloody file formats: dmg [OSX native disc image format] files open in disc utility, OS doesn't know WTF pkg files are at all [OSX native installer format]
* fire up apps and find that i [apparently!] only have two fonts available; helvetica and lucida grande.
* every app launch is a lottery... 'will it, or won't it?'
* apple's support forums up to their usual 'bury your head in the sand' standards; someone posts about a horrendous leopard problem, apple fanboi replies blaming the original poster for messing up their own computer, apple marks the thread 'solved' and locks it.
leopard is god's vengeance on mac users for all the laughs we've had at the expense of windoze drones over the years. even at its most crash-filled, security-hole-riddled worst, surely no version of windoze can ever have been as risible as OSX leopard.
