Mac Help Missing

Hi everybody. I got this little thing maybe you guys can help me with... when I launch Mac Help from the Finder, he Help Viewer window comes up.

I get the "back" and "forward" arrow icons, the "home" icon and the "ask a question" line.

But below that...nothing. A blank window.

If I try to "ask a question", still NADA.

If anybody has any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.

Cheers,

Go to :

Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility

Select your HD on the left of the Disk Utility window and choose the "Repair Permissions" option at the bottom.

When its done that, reboot and try the Help Viewer again.

D3v1L80Y said:

Go to :

Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility

Select your HD on the left of the Disk Utility window and choose the "Repair Permissions" option at the bottom.

When its done that, reboot and try the Help Viewer again.

Click to expand...

I´ve already tried that to no avail. I do it about twice a month and I first noticed this about 3 months ago

But just today I decided to do something about it and look for help... ironic, isn´t it?

LOL

OK, if a permissions repair and a reboot didn't help, the next thing would be to reset your PRAM.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Then boot from your Install/Restore CD and run Disk Repair.

If after all of those steps, you might want to do an Archive and Install of your OS to bring the Help Viewer back.

D3v1L80Y said:

OK, if a permissions repair and a reboot didn't help, the next thing would be to reset your PRAM.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Then boot from your Install/Restore CD and run Disk Repair.

If after all of those steps, you might want to do an Archive and Install of your OS to bring the Help Viewer back.

Click to expand...

OMG 1000 posts make this guy a mod!!

sorry its off topic

Try trashing these preference files:

/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpui.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpviewer.plist

And then trash the /Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui folder.

Then restart the computer.

iWhat said:

Try trashing these preference files:

/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.help.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpui.plist
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.helpviewer.plist

And then trash the /Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.helpui folder.

Then restart the computer.

Click to expand...

LIKE A CHARM iWHAT, thanks a lot!! I got my help back!!!!

You got my vote for reelection...

planetfiber said:

LIKE A CHARM iWHAT, thanks a lot!! I got my help back!!!!

You got my vote for reelection...

Click to expand...

no wonder you got that Gold. I think it makes ya look like Mr.T

Glad it worked planetfiber!

I pity the foooo! And don't use drugs! And children, you can never eat too much fiber.

It's a shame that solution seems to be only temporary on Tiger (with all updates and without) on a number of Powerbooks, including mine. I'm still trying to figure out the real problem but no luck yet. Taken to examining the files within "Mac Help.hlp" but no luck yet. I will at some point take the issue to Apple, or to our technical team (I work in an Apple Centre) but I have done all they would have done and including the excellent advice in this thread.

Vicky :flower:

I had the exact same problem on my Mini, and the funny thing is (well, actually NOT funny) I didn't encounter it at all until I upgraded from 10.4.1 to 10.4.2. After much frustration, I phoned Apple tech support and after about 2-3 calls they suggested iWhat's solution and everything worked well for a time - about 2 days.

Since then (a few weeks now), I've been without Mail Help (I'm tired of calling tech support), but all other application Help menus are available. I also experience several seconds of lag while waiting for the Mac Help menu to appear (sometimes it won't appear), and sometimes this depends on whether or not I'm connected to the Internet.

The bottom line is that Apple must be aware of this problem by now, at least with Tiger users, and I really hope they come up with a better solution then deleting cache files soon. Still being a recent switcher, I hate not having access to my Mail Help and having my Mac Help be hit-and-miss.