[jojo999]

I deleted all plists, and now i cant open nothing,like Quicktime, Photobooth, iTunes, and other programs..what to do ?HELP ME PLS

[Thorzdad]

Did you re-boot after doing the deletions? Or, do you have a backup that you can restore the plists from?

[jojo999]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Did you re-boot after doing the deletions? Or, do you have a backup that you can restore the plists from?

No i didnt reboot after the deletion, but i have the Install iMac Disc.

[jojo999]

Will i loose everything like photos applications after using the Install iMac disc?

[CharlesS]

Just try rebooting first. Assuming you're referring to the contents of ~/Library/Preferences, those should be regenerated automatically without your needing to reinstall the OS. Not to mention that reinstalling the OS won't reinstall anything in your user account anyway.

Think about it. Every time you make a new user account, it starts with no saved preferences. If you had to reinstall the OS every time you made a new user account, that would be a pain.

Of course, if you deleted something outside of the user home folder, than that could potentially be different, depending on what it is. It would help if you could be precise about exactly what you deleted.

[ibook_steve]

I think a better question would be why did you delete all the plist files?

Steve

[jojo999]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

I think a better question would be why did you delete all the plist files?

Steve

To make my computer clean, but What are these .plist files?

[Doc HM]

.plist files help your computer keep track of the settings relating to each application, such as the window state, any colour or account preferences etc. If you delete a .plist file the application will simply recreate it the next time it starts but the application window and all related data will revert to the default settings.

As such deleting these files should not cause any apps not to start. I'm thinking your "clean up" may have involved deleting some other more vital files?

[Spheric Harlot]

I've seen machines where "cleanup" involved throwing together "redundant" duplicates - such as combining the three different Library folders into one.

And people wonder why the ipad's lack of a file browser and system access is a good idea.

[-Q-]

Not to pile onto your misfortune, but I'd strongly recommend that, in the future, you figure out what a file does before you delete it.

[dzp111]

I've also recently deleted most of my iTunes playlists as well, except for 'recently added', 'recently played', and 'top 25 most played'. However I was not able to delete 'iTunes DJ' nor 'Music Videos'.

Every thing works fine, even before a restart.

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by jojo999 

To make my computer clean, but What are these .plist files?

What makes a computer "clean" or not clean? If you're randomly going through your System or Library folders trying to find things to throw out, you're just asking for trouble. As mentioned, if you don't know what a file is or does, don't throw it out (or at least have a backup).

If you're trying to save hard drive space, there are many other places to look to save much more significant space than the tiny plist files.

Steve

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by dzp111 

I've also recently deleted most of my iTunes playlists as well, except for 'recently added', 'recently played', and 'top 25 most played'. However I was not able to delete 'iTunes DJ' nor 'Music Videos'.

Every thing works fine, even before a restart.

plist files are preference files, not iTunes playlists.

[CharlesS]

Can you get the Console app to open? If so, you can then try to launch one of the apps that won't open, and a message should hopefully show up in the Console explaining why it didn't launch.

Originally Posted by jojo999 

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

I think a better question would be why did you delete all the plist files?

To make my computer clean

When you get your problem solved, use IceClean the following time you decide to "clean" your computer.

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

If you're trying to save hard drive space, there are many other places to look to save much more significant space than the tiny plist files.

There are GBs of data stored in your invisible /etc/ and /usr/ folders that are specific to various applications (e.g. TeXShop). Log files can sometimes get pretty big as well.

[jojo999]

Originally Posted by Andrej 

When you get your problem solved, use IceClean the following time you decide to "clean" your computer.




There are GBs of data stored in your invisible /etc/ and /usr/ folders that are specific to various applications (e.g. TeXShop). Log files can sometimes get pretty big as well.

I just get my problem solved.Now everything is Ok..thanks all for everything