Several times now I've installed Box.com's BoxSync app only to find out after it's installed that I cannot empty the trash. I use Box.com a lot for clients and turns out they're using it more and more but Box.com's installer needs some work and I've emailed them a few times to let them know with not results.
What happens is you install the app, toss the installer into the trash and hit Empty Trash or your favorite key combo (mine is COMMAND + SHIFT + OPTION +DELETE) and the Mac yells at you about how it can't do that and tosses up an error code of -8003.
Rebooting then emptying the trash doesn't help.
Holding down option when you empty trash (see key combo above) doesn't work.
Trying to securely empty trash doesn't work.
What I've had to do a handful of times now on different Macs with different versions of the OS installed to delete BoxSync (this applies to anything that refuses to be deleted) is this:
1. Launch the Terminal
2. Type EXACTLY and without quotes "cd .Trash" hit return.
3. Type EXACTLY and without quotes "ls -al" hit return and see all the stuff that's in the trash.
4. After you confirm what you want to delete is in the trash type EXACTLY and without quotes "rm " that's lower case rm and a space(bar), then type the first letter, paying attention to capitalization of the file and tap TAB to auto complete it. This is for FILES not folders or packages!
5. Hit return and it should be gone.
If it's a package like Box Sync Installer is then step 4 is slightly different. Type EXACTLY and without quotes "rm -rf " thats lower case rm a space(bar) a dash and lower case rf then another space(bar). Then type a capital B and tap TAB to auto complete it. It should look like this:
rm - rf Box\ Sync\ Installer.app/
Hit return and it should be gone. Finally.
TECHNICAL STUFF:
If you really want to find the offending file and don't have a ton of stuff in the trash you can move items back where they were, meaning back on the same volume, drive, folder or whatever, just not in the Trash. I put stuff from one drive into a new temp folder I name "TRASH THIS!" so they're not loose all over the place on that drive.
Then put them in the trash and delete them one by one. Eventually you'll hit a folder or file that won't delete. Recently I had a file that was actually a package that wouldn't delete and tossed up the -8003 error.
Here's what I did once I found the file that refused to be deleted.
- Launch the Terminal
- Type "cd" space-bar then drag the folder that has that file into the terminal, it'll fill out the path then hit Return.
- Type "ls -al" to list the files. (If you want to get fancy type "ls -FaGlh" for a nicer looking file list in the Terminal)
- Type this EXACTLY, "rm" space-bar, then the first letter of the file that won't delete, then the Tab key. Hitting the Tab key will fill out the rest of the file name saving you from typing or worse, mistyping it.
EXAMPLE:
If the file is called roughcut.mov type "rm" hit the spacebar and type "r" then Tab key. The Terminal will show something like:
rm folder/roughcut.mov
Hit Return and it should delete the file.
If it's a folder, from inside the folder that folder is in (see "cd" above) it's in, add a -rvf to the command. This will show you all the things it's deleting.
-r will delete folders and their contents
-v shows you all the stuff it's deleting
-f tells the rm command to ignore files that aren't really there
If you want to confirm every file before it's deleted I think you can add an "i" to the string of switches like "-rvfi"
Careful with all this, using the rm command can seriously ruin your day if you're not careful. To read more about rm type this into the Terminal and hit enter:
man rm
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Suddenly Slow Exports
I noticed today that an export was going along smoothly then suddenly crawled to nearly a halt. Glancing around I just happened to notice that the hard drive the file was being exported to had only a few gigs left on it. Another case of someone putting something into the trash and failing to empty it.
After emptying the trash -and freeing up over 30 gigs of space- the export speed seemed to pick back up to what would be expected. I'm not 100% sure that was the cause, it could have just coincided with exporting (and rendering out since nothing was pre-rendered) a particularly graphic laden section or something.
After emptying the trash -and freeing up over 30 gigs of space- the export speed seemed to pick back up to what would be expected. I'm not 100% sure that was the cause, it could have just coincided with exporting (and rendering out since nothing was pre-rendered) a particularly graphic laden section or something.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Using .EPS files in Final Cut Pro
A client sent me a slew of images the other day and some were CMYK while others were RGB, yet most were .eps files despite me requesting that they send them as RGB .jpg or .tiff to save time (ermagerd duh deadlinez!) [This is the same client who thought we'd edit the video over the course of a normal workday...day...as in single 8 hour day even though we'd shot for over two full days weeks earlier and I still had no script so no VO]
FCP prefers images to be RGB so I had to convert the CMYK ones in Photoshop (or Pixelmator) but since these were .eps files I had to save them as .Jpgs or .tiffs or something. For some reason some clients really really insist on .tiffs in video projects "They're uncompressed!" they'll tell me. Depending on my mood I'll correct them or just plod along mindless nodding.
Anywho, when you open a .eps file in PS you'll see something like this:
I changed it to something like this:
FCP prefers images to be RGB so I had to convert the CMYK ones in Photoshop (or Pixelmator) but since these were .eps files I had to save them as .Jpgs or .tiffs or something. For some reason some clients really really insist on .tiffs in video projects "They're uncompressed!" they'll tell me. Depending on my mood I'll correct them or just plod along mindless nodding.
Anywho, when you open a .eps file in PS you'll see something like this:
I changed it to something like this:
Since it's a .eps file you can bump up it's resolution while you're here and have something nice a big and hi-res to work with in FCP. Just save it out as a .jpg or if the client is particularly persnickety a .tiff, dump it into FCP and be on your way.
Your Startup Disk is Almost Full
I was editing on a computer that I don't normally use today and suddenly Mac OS X yells that Your Startup Disk is Almost Full, from out of no where.
Being on a machine I've never used before I had no way of knowing what had been done to it. Usually this stuff is caused by caches, render files or someone setting the capture folder to the wrong place, or a surprising amount of the time, multiple exported full-res versions of a project.
I looked around at macupdate and found an app called DiskWave which shows sizes of folders in a pretty simple to use format.
In this case it was Adobe's Cache folders in the user's Library folder, about 5 GBs worth. I trashed 'em without asking the client and went on working.
So if you run out of space this little free app is pretty handy.
Being on a machine I've never used before I had no way of knowing what had been done to it. Usually this stuff is caused by caches, render files or someone setting the capture folder to the wrong place, or a surprising amount of the time, multiple exported full-res versions of a project.
I looked around at macupdate and found an app called DiskWave which shows sizes of folders in a pretty simple to use format.
In this case it was Adobe's Cache folders in the user's Library folder, about 5 GBs worth. I trashed 'em without asking the client and went on working.
So if you run out of space this little free app is pretty handy.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
A Simple Way To Keep A Hard Drive Spinning with FCP
I have several hard drives that for whatever reason, likely their firmware, will spin down no matter what you tell them otherwise in system prefs, their own generally useless software or anywhere else.
This old tip still works.
However, here's a super quick and simple tip to keep them spinning while using FCP 6/7:
Tell FCP to autosave to a folder on the drive that spins down.
1. Hit SHIFT + Q in FCP
2. You'll see "Autosave Vault" and a Set button. Push it.
3. Tell it to save to a folder -preferably one you make so the saves are not loose all over the drive- and done.
Almost.
You'll have to figure out how long it takes for the drive to decide to spin down after the start of inactivity. As an example, lets say you figure out it's about 15mins.
Now, in FCP hit OPTION + Q and under the first tab, called "General" at the bottom left you'll see "Autosave Vault" make sure the check box is checked. Then after "Save a copy every" set it to something less than the time you figured out for the hard drive spin down. In this example set it to 14mins or 10mins to be safe. Hit Ok.
Adjust the other options under Autosave Vault to you liking. I like to set "Keep at most" to something between 20 to 40 depending on the importance of the project and how complex it is and the rate of changes I make to it.
This is actually important. Save files for FCP 6/7 are HUGE XML files. Huge. You can easily get into the multi GB range in terms of size. They're highly compressible though which is great. So if you keep too many saves for a project you could potentially fill up a lot of space on a drive fairly quickly.
This old tip still works.
However, here's a super quick and simple tip to keep them spinning while using FCP 6/7:
Tell FCP to autosave to a folder on the drive that spins down.
1. Hit SHIFT + Q in FCP
2. You'll see "Autosave Vault" and a Set button. Push it.
3. Tell it to save to a folder -preferably one you make so the saves are not loose all over the drive- and done.
Almost.
You'll have to figure out how long it takes for the drive to decide to spin down after the start of inactivity. As an example, lets say you figure out it's about 15mins.
Now, in FCP hit OPTION + Q and under the first tab, called "General" at the bottom left you'll see "Autosave Vault" make sure the check box is checked. Then after "Save a copy every" set it to something less than the time you figured out for the hard drive spin down. In this example set it to 14mins or 10mins to be safe. Hit Ok.
Adjust the other options under Autosave Vault to you liking. I like to set "Keep at most" to something between 20 to 40 depending on the importance of the project and how complex it is and the rate of changes I make to it.
This is actually important. Save files for FCP 6/7 are HUGE XML files. Huge. You can easily get into the multi GB range in terms of size. They're highly compressible though which is great. So if you keep too many saves for a project you could potentially fill up a lot of space on a drive fairly quickly.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Saving Autosaves Into Individually Compressed Archives
If you take a look at the size of your Autosave Vault folder it's likely huge. Mine is 4GBs right now. Every once in a while, when I think about it, I archive it off and save some space.
Why archive it at all you ask? It's nice to have saves along the editing process so you can go back and pull up any changes from long-ago or specific tests or whatever bizarre things clients tend to ask for years later. Another reason to archive them (meaning compress them, also) is since they're essentially just .xml files they compress nicely.
I archive my Autosaves in all those .fcp folders which requires a tiny bit of setup because rather than archive all those folders into one huge archive we're going to batch compress each folder into it's own archive. This way they're still named and individually archived so it's fast to get to them and transport them if need be.
It's not too hard to just right click on the whole Autosave Vault folder and compress it into a .zip archive. On my drive here my Autosave Vault folder is about 4GBs, compressed though it's 291MBs. That's a huge amount of space saved. But it's also messy if you want to just get at one particular project's autosave (.fcp) folder.
Here's what I like to do instead:
1. While in the Finder hit COMMAND + OPTION + G and in the resultant dialog box type "/system/library/coreservices" (capitalization doesn't seem to matter).
2. In the new window that opened up locate "Archive Utility" (it may be called "BOM Utility" or "BOMArchiveHelper" or something like that depending on the version of OS X you're using). BOM stands for Bill of Materials, if you're wondering.
3. Optional: Drag the app (it's okay, really) to your Dock or Sidebar or make an alias of it where you find it handy.
4. Launch it.
5. Hit COMMAND + , (comma) to open its preferences.
6. Look for something like "Use archive format" and set it to "Zip archive". Close the prefs. (Close the Core Services window too, if you'd like; we're done with it.)
7. Now, highlight and drag all the Autosave folders inside your "Autosave Vault" (not the Autosave Vault folder itself) onto the Archive Utility icon and watch the magic. It may take a while depending on how many projects you have and how many files are in those folders.
8. Once it's done you'll have a messy mix of folders and compressed folders. Simply set the window to List view (Command + 2) and then tap the Kind sorting column. Highlight all the "Folder"s and trash 'em with Command + Delete then Empty trash with Command + Option + Delete.
9. Quick Archive Utility.
10. Place those archives wherever you want them. They're tiny and portable and archive nicely to Dropbox or Box.com.
11. There is no step 11 :)
Bonus Tip:
Tell DropBox if you use it to backup your autosave vault and you'll never lose another save. If you use Box.com you'll need to tell FCP to save into Box.com's folder since as of this writing Box.com doesn't understand aliases or even symlinks.
Why archive it at all you ask? It's nice to have saves along the editing process so you can go back and pull up any changes from long-ago or specific tests or whatever bizarre things clients tend to ask for years later. Another reason to archive them (meaning compress them, also) is since they're essentially just .xml files they compress nicely.
I archive my Autosaves in all those .fcp folders which requires a tiny bit of setup because rather than archive all those folders into one huge archive we're going to batch compress each folder into it's own archive. This way they're still named and individually archived so it's fast to get to them and transport them if need be.
It's not too hard to just right click on the whole Autosave Vault folder and compress it into a .zip archive. On my drive here my Autosave Vault folder is about 4GBs, compressed though it's 291MBs. That's a huge amount of space saved. But it's also messy if you want to just get at one particular project's autosave (.fcp) folder.
Here's what I like to do instead:
1. While in the Finder hit COMMAND + OPTION + G and in the resultant dialog box type "/system/library/coreservices" (capitalization doesn't seem to matter).
2. In the new window that opened up locate "Archive Utility" (it may be called "BOM Utility" or "BOMArchiveHelper" or something like that depending on the version of OS X you're using). BOM stands for Bill of Materials, if you're wondering.
3. Optional: Drag the app (it's okay, really) to your Dock or Sidebar or make an alias of it where you find it handy.
4. Launch it.
5. Hit COMMAND + , (comma) to open its preferences.
6. Look for something like "Use archive format" and set it to "Zip archive". Close the prefs. (Close the Core Services window too, if you'd like; we're done with it.)
7. Now, highlight and drag all the Autosave folders inside your "Autosave Vault" (not the Autosave Vault folder itself) onto the Archive Utility icon and watch the magic. It may take a while depending on how many projects you have and how many files are in those folders.
8. Once it's done you'll have a messy mix of folders and compressed folders. Simply set the window to List view (Command + 2) and then tap the Kind sorting column. Highlight all the "Folder"s and trash 'em with Command + Delete then Empty trash with Command + Option + Delete.
9. Quick Archive Utility.
10. Place those archives wherever you want them. They're tiny and portable and archive nicely to Dropbox or Box.com.
11. There is no step 11 :)
Bonus Tip:
Tell DropBox if you use it to backup your autosave vault and you'll never lose another save. If you use Box.com you'll need to tell FCP to save into Box.com's folder since as of this writing Box.com doesn't understand aliases or even symlinks.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Client Keeps Seeing Outdated Version Through Browser?
I ran into this recently and it threw me for a loop.
A client kept saying that they were seeing the old version of a short video when viewed in their browser via a direct link. I checked it it was the newer version.
We ran through all the cache clearing stuff, relaunching the browser, rebooting her computer and even trying another browser but no luck; they kept seeing (and me hearing over the phone) the older version.
Snooping around (which means calling a bunch of friends) I found out that they too, were seeing the old version. This was insane. Until one friend hit some keys and like magic I heard the new version playing over the phone.
Me - "Okay, what's that worth to me you're thinking, right?"
So-Called Friend - "Yeah, I was thinking a free lunch. I like those."
Long pause...
Me - "Fine."
So-Called Friend - "Any place?"
Me - "Any place."
So-Called Friend - "Cool. Meet me at (his favorite place) for lunch and I'll tell you there."
Evil.
At lunch, he goes, "Put a question mark at the end of your url. It'll trick the ISP into serving up the right version and bypass their cache."
I tried it. It worked. The client's ISP sucks. So I billed my friend's free lunch to the client. Shhhh...
A client kept saying that they were seeing the old version of a short video when viewed in their browser via a direct link. I checked it it was the newer version.
We ran through all the cache clearing stuff, relaunching the browser, rebooting her computer and even trying another browser but no luck; they kept seeing (and me hearing over the phone) the older version.
Snooping around (which means calling a bunch of friends) I found out that they too, were seeing the old version. This was insane. Until one friend hit some keys and like magic I heard the new version playing over the phone.
Me - "Okay, what's that worth to me you're thinking, right?"
So-Called Friend - "Yeah, I was thinking a free lunch. I like those."
Long pause...
Me - "Fine."
So-Called Friend - "Any place?"
Me - "Any place."
So-Called Friend - "Cool. Meet me at (his favorite place) for lunch and I'll tell you there."
Evil.
At lunch, he goes, "Put a question mark at the end of your url. It'll trick the ISP into serving up the right version and bypass their cache."
I tried it. It worked. The client's ISP sucks. So I billed my friend's free lunch to the client. Shhhh...
Thursday, September 6, 2012
DVD Studio Pro Keeps Burning An Old Version of a DVD
If you've run into the problem of DVD Studio Pro burning off an older version of a project, or a completely different project than you have open and expected to burn, it's likely you have some leftover AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS files in your Documents folder.
Look here: /Users/YOURACCOUNT/Documents/DVD Studio Pro Documents
If you see an AUDIO_TS folder and VIDEO_TS folder these are likely the ones that are being burned off rather than the project you expected.
To verify these are the culprits:
1. Drag the VIDEO_TS folder atop of DVD Player application and hit play.
If it's the the culprit delete this VIDEO_TS folder and the AUDIO_TS folder.
Why did this happen?
Well, it's likely that at some point you formatted and project and DVD Studio Pro dumped the files there, or DVD Studio unexpectedly quit sometime ago.
What if there are no folders there in DVD Studio Pro Documents?
1. Open DVD Studio Pro and hit COMMAND + (COMMA) to open it's preferences.
2. Click on "Encoding"
3. Select "Build/Format" next to the "Show:" menu.
4. The location shown for "Location" is likely where the problem VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders are.
5. Delete 'em.
6. Restart DVD Studio Pro and do a test burn. A simulation won't show you a problem, only a disk image or actual burned DVD will.
Some additional info:
Another way to check to see if DVDSP is pulling the wrong or old files is to hit COMMAND + F for Format. Look at what is shown in under the General tab under Disc and next to "Name:" and compare it to what is shown next to "Name:" in the Inspector palette; if they're different, then DVDSP is pulling old files from somewhere.
A clue that you've solved your problem is if you see this window appear when you hit COMMAND + F (for Format).
Look here: /Users/YOURACCOUNT/Documents/DVD Studio Pro Documents
If you see an AUDIO_TS folder and VIDEO_TS folder these are likely the ones that are being burned off rather than the project you expected.
To verify these are the culprits:
1. Drag the VIDEO_TS folder atop of DVD Player application and hit play.
If it's the the culprit delete this VIDEO_TS folder and the AUDIO_TS folder.
Why did this happen?
Well, it's likely that at some point you formatted and project and DVD Studio Pro dumped the files there, or DVD Studio unexpectedly quit sometime ago.
What if there are no folders there in DVD Studio Pro Documents?
1. Open DVD Studio Pro and hit COMMAND + (COMMA) to open it's preferences.
2. Click on "Encoding"
3. Select "Build/Format" next to the "Show:" menu.
4. The location shown for "Location" is likely where the problem VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders are.
5. Delete 'em.
6. Restart DVD Studio Pro and do a test burn. A simulation won't show you a problem, only a disk image or actual burned DVD will.
Some additional info:
Another way to check to see if DVDSP is pulling the wrong or old files is to hit COMMAND + F for Format. Look at what is shown in under the General tab under Disc and next to "Name:" and compare it to what is shown next to "Name:" in the Inspector palette; if they're different, then DVDSP is pulling old files from somewhere.
A clue that you've solved your problem is if you see this window appear when you hit COMMAND + F (for Format).
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Install QuickTime Player 7 in Mountain Lion
I've had a few people ask me if Mountain Lion supports QuickTime Player 7. Apple says it does (your mileage may vary, however).
Here's Apple's page on how to install it.
Here's Apple's page on how to install it.
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