[Artap99]

I reinstalled 10.4.5 last night and today my Address Book stopped working.



I'm not looking to reinstall the OS again...so is there any way I could just install it over again? Or download it? Or propose another question?
It says it's about 14MB. I'm not sure if that's its natural state. As always, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SpecMode]

My Address Book.app is 21.4MB under 10.4.5, so I'd hazard a guess that your update installer borked it. Did you use the combo or delta installer? If you used the latter, I'd suggest downloading and re-running the combo installer. If you used the former...well, you might try running it again, it shouldn't hurt anything (more than it apparently already has, anyway).

[chucker]

Are we talking Intel or PowerPC? My PowerPC Address Book.app is only 4.2 MB.

[Brad]

The size will vary if you've removed some language localizations. Mine (for PowerPC) is 21.1 MB.

That said, it would indeed probably be a good idea to re-run the combo update.

[chucker]

Well yes. I should have mentioned that; I only keep English and German.

[Artap99]

I didn't mean the updater. I meant the entire OS. I did a wipe and then a clean install. Would an updater contain the Address Book?

The worst part is that smiling face next to the message telling me that the program isn't working.

[SpecMode]

PowerPC.



Edit: Dang, you people are fast. As an addendum, I haven't removed any language localizations or modified the app in any way; in fact, I just did a format and reinstall just a couple weeks ago, so this is a relatively clean system.

[Artap99]

Oh wow. The plot thickens...anyone care to try and explain this one?



I have Final Draft, but it's Final Draft 6. Hmm.

[SpecMode]

That's...odd. Let me get this straight: Your Mac can't run Address Book.app because it thinks it is not Address Book.app, but instead an (apparently) incomplete version of Final Draft...and not even the version of Final Draft you have installed, but a newer one to boot.

Color me confused. Is your Final Draft app working properly?

[Artap99]

Final Draft is running beautifully. It went through an update, so there's logic in the other version getting in my computer. But not version 7.
Maybe Final Draft 7.0.0.33 is an ultra bare bones version of the program named Address Book and I'm just not using it properly.

[SpecMode]

I would try re-running the combo updater as suggested, and post with the results. If that doesn't work, you may try repairing your disk using Disk Utility (booting from your Restore DVD or a Tiger install DVD).

[Artap99]

I'll try the updater. When I ran the disc utility earlier, it told me that there were two things illegally named. I had high hopes, but when I restarted my computer, it still wasn't working.

[Artap99]

Success! The combo update for 10.4.2 did it!

[SpecMode]

..10.4.2? I thought it was generally a bad idea to downgrade the OS to an older revision. Any other opinions?

Does everything else seem to be working alright since you ran that particular updater?

[Brad]

10.4.2? I trust you mean 10.4.5, right?

[Artap99]

I tried 10.4.5 and it didn't work, so I went down to the next one offered. Then I upgraded back to 10.4.5.

Did I do something wrong? Am I going to back in here soon? Do I smell smoke?

[SpecMode]

For starters, Apple says that it's a bad idea.

That being said, newer versions of the operating system update key system files, and if you run an older updater to 'downgrade' the system, it's possible that some of those newer files are left alone, and (in some instances) they may not be compatible with OS components installed by the older updater.

Edit: Apple has a similar (and probably better) explanation on this support page. Look near the bottom.

[Artap99]

These "downgrade" installs may seem to work...

It's like it was written just for me.

[SpecMode]

Well, in any case, reapplying the 10.4.5 update would have negated any issues that 10.4.2 might have caused (if any). So, assuming that Address Book now works properly, I'd say you're good to go.