[Todd Williams]

It seems that Sherlock will not launch, I am running OS10.1.3. When I click on the sherlock icon in the dock nothing happens. I go to applications and the program is there, The same thing happens when I click to launch sherlock there. Any ideas on what may be wrong. or how to restore it without redoing the system.

Thanks for any help

[starfleetX]

Have you fsck'd your drive lately?
Have you updated prebindings lately?

I'll post some instructions if you haven't.

[Todd Williams]

I have not done any of the above. if you would post instructions when you have the chance it would be great.
Thanks,[/LIST]

[nigeljedi]

One thing you could do that helped me when I experienced this same problem is to trash Sherlock's preferences and reboot. They can be found here: /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Sherlock.plist
I had this same problem, and trashing the prefs worked fine. I haven't seen this problem since OS 10.0.4, though...weird!
Hope this helps. Also, try that prebinding thing that starfleetX is going to post...that helps things too.

[yoyo52]

To run the fsck (file system check, ) reboot while you hold down command s. A lot of mysterious code will write itself on your screen, but don't worry. When that stops, type in "fsck -y" (without the quotation marks) and hit return. When the computer finishes the check, if there has been some correction, do the same thing over again, and do it until your computer tells you that everything checks out OK. Then type "reboot" (again, without quotation marks) and that's it.

There's a way to do prebinding in the Terminal, but it's easiest to download something like System Optimizer X, or Xoptimize, and let the app do the job for you.

[starfleetX]

yoyo52 is close, but not 100% right.

The command to use is not "fsck -y" but "/sbin/fsck -y" Also, you don't need to reboot. Simply enter the command "exit" to finish booting.

To prebind from the terminal, enter the command "sudo update_prebinding -root /" and when asked for a password, enter your normal admin password. While it's updaging, a lot of text will be thrown into the terminal. Just ignore it. However, while it's updating, don't open any apps. You can use apps that are already open, just don't open or move or delete any while it's updating.

[Sven G]

I recently had a similar problem (no reaction in the Dock and no launch) when Sherlock by mistake trashed a part of the contents of its own application package (how this could happen remains a mystery, however!): replacing the damaged Sherlock.app with a fresh one from a backup solved the problem.

[Todd Williams]

Thanks for all the help.

Have tried prebinding but that did not solve. Is there some way /where to download sherlock and just replace the apparent corrupt program.

Thanks,

[Sven G]

A rather simple way to restore Sherlock is to use Pacifist to extract Sherlock.app from the 10.1 CD (the version is 3.2, the same as 10.1.3's Sherlock: but 10.1's Sherlock is only about 2 MB, while the latest language updates have ballooned its size to 10 MB, or even more...): Sherlock.app on the CD is located in /System/Installation/Essentials.pkg, if I'm not mistaken.

(P.S.: There's no specific update to Sherlock in the 10.1.3 Combo Updater, so there's no need to download that for this purpose.)

[chris v]

Originally posted by Todd Williams:
<STRONG>Thanks for all the help.

Have tried prebinding but that did not solve. Is there some way /where to download sherlock and just replace the apparent corrupt program.

Thanks,</STRONG>

I had the same problem a few weks ago.

Trashing Sherlock's preferences fixed it up for me, no reinstall neccessary. Try that before you despair.

CV

[michaelb]

Anyone know how to stop Sherlock losing keystrokes when called?

That is, the ones that I'm used to typing soon after command-F in the Finder, and has worked properly since, er, about System 7.1?

Don't worry, I know the answer: "Don't do that in Mac OS X." Get used to waiting. Patience. It's a Zen thing.

[Todd Williams]

I tried trashing the prefs and that didn't work. Thanks for the information on pacifist. I was able to extract and replace my apparent damaged Sherlock program.

Thanks for everyones help