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JustinD · May 3, 2005, 07:40 PM

This is a first in my many many years in the world of computers.

Okay it's OS X specific, but still, odd. Did a few quick searches on it but I thought I could get some good feedback here. (running 10.4, iMac G5, 2GB RAM, 400GB HD)

Two of my applications, Photoshop 7 and ImageReady, are no longer recognized as applications - they're documents! The odd thing is, I can still Show Package Contents, and even launch the apps from within there...

Two things I did immediately before seeing this problem: attempting to run the G5 AltiVec Update for Photoshop 7, and copying the program MacHacha to my Applications folder. I did not do anything else to the system after the last time I successfully used Photoshop (launched it from my Dock and all...)

Here are two screenshots of the info windows:

Photoshop
ImageReady

The reallllly strange thing is... I tried AFPing into my computer at work to copy the known good applications I have there... and they showed up the same way, both when viewing the info on the apps remotely, and after copying them to my computer!

Ran FSCK, everything checks out OK, fixed permissions, tried deleting that MacHacha program but the two apps just associated as another programs documents.

Very very odd.

Any ideas?

JustinD · May 3, 2005, 08:39 PM

Well, I fixed it, but am still DYING to know how this happened. I think it has something to do with MacHacha - since that is an app that combined split files (ending in extensions like .0, .1, .2, etc) I think when I installed it it screwed up associations, since my apps were named "Adobe Photosop 7.0". Now, normally there's a hidden ".app" extension, but in those apps cases, it looked like there wasn't!

After changing the name manually in the Info window to "... 7.0.app", it was recognized as an application. After that, I removed the manually added .app extension and replaced it with the proper name "... 7.0.app" - the FInder then (properly, in my case) hid the .app extension, and all looks good now.

How very annoying!

Chuckit · May 3, 2005, 08:56 PM

Yep, it needs the .app extension to know that a bundle is an application rather than a document or a folder. The .app extension is hardcoded to always be hidden, even when "Display all file extensions" is turned on, unless the extension is ambiguous (i.e. the program is named SneakyVirus.jpg.app).

hoopz · May 3, 2005, 09:26 PM

Nice catch, JustinD!

The same thing happened with my Photoshop Elements 2.0. Tiger actually interpreted the .0 as a file extension (interestingly, double clicking it launched Script Editor). I've never used MacHacha, so that's not it. I'm not sure I ever would have thought to try this (even though the answer was staring me in the face, as I like to have the Finder display file extensions).

Hmm . . . the Apple and Adobe customer support people are going to be very busy if everyone has this problem.

CharlesS · May 3, 2005, 11:42 PM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

Yep, it needs the .app extension to know that a bundle is an application rather than a document or a folder. The .app extension is hardcoded to always be hidden, even when "Display all file extensions" is turned on, unless the extension is ambiguous (i.e. the program is named SneakyVirus.jpg.app).

Not anymore. In Tiger, the .app extension shows up in the Finder when you select "Show all file extensions."

JustinD · May 4, 2005, 12:29 AM

Well I'm glad I wasn't the only one Hoopz! It's a fully reproducable bug for obvious reasons - get info on an app, remove the .app extension and replace it with something like "6.0". Bam, your app is now a document. I fixed the problem with my Adobe apps by renaming them "...7.app" in the Info window. I can't even get the names back to normal - if I try to put the normal "Adobe Photosop 7.0.app", the Finder will forcefully show the ".app" at the end!

VERY odd, and it happened out of the blue. Sent a report in to MacInTouch in case anyone else runs into the problem...

Superchicken · May 4, 2005, 01:24 AM

Weird... that's why I normally remove numbers from my App's names... PS Elements 2 is just Photoshop as far as the Finder is concerned.

workerbee · May 4, 2005, 01:53 AM

Same happened here: after updating to Tiger, Photoshop 7.0 and ImageReady were morphed into documents. Appending .app in Finder Info fixed this. (Maybe it's time to upgrade to PS CS2 anyway? And possibly ditch IR -- I don't think I've ever used it).