Serious and dangerous problem with Finder

[gw1500se]

Since updgrading to Tiger we have encountered a very serious, bizzare problem with Finder. Hopefully someone else has encountered this and knows what to do. We are currently at 10.4.3 but this problem started with earlier versions.

Under unknown circumstances Finder gets into a mode that loses files. If a user tries to copy or duplicate a file, the file is erased. It is not moved to the trash, it is just gone. Further, the most common manifestation of this problem is associated with the Addressbook. The Addressbook.data file, unbeknownst to the user, apparently gets deleted and then recreated empty. All the user sees is that all their addresses are gone. If I rename the ‘beforesave’ file (which is in tact at that point) to ‘data’ from Finder the file is erased. What I do instead is use a terminal session to rename the file and that works fine.

However, that is not the only manifestation but the other is more rare. That is when users try to manipulate files using Finder the files start dissappearing. Clearly this is a Finder problem. Does anyone have any clues? TIA.

[gw1500se]

Thanks for the reply. We have about 50 client machines and all users have their home directories on an OD server and use network logins.

Since commandline file manipulations work fine and this only happens in Finder, I cannot see how it can be a filesystem problem.

Unfortuately we cannot reproduce the condition at will nor determine any specific circumstances associated with the condition. It is not even clear what actions cause the condition to go away. At this point it seems to be completely random.

[agerson]

This is happening to me and at least one other person I know of. Apple is aware of it, but like you and I, can not reliably reproduce it. It is seriously dangerous and disturbing.

[agerson]

Please post this bug to apple so we can get attention focused on it.

https://bugreport.apple.com

[titanium]

I cant shed any light on this, but I can say that I was called by a client the other day who had a veryy similar issue. They were just copying files to the server from a local machine/user, changed there mind so cancelled it, and then discovered that the files they were copying on ther local machine were gone.
This only happened friday (NZDT), so havent had a chance to look at it yet. Will post more info if I can later.

[Anonymous]

For your information, we have this problem too.

Roughly the same configuration (OD, 50 clients working on network homes…, client 10.4.2 to 10.4.3, server on 10.4.4.)

I reproduced it once with a particular file (ppt). It just could not be copied without being destroyed, in a particular account. The same file in another account could be copied. Tested with different copy methods in finder, same result. The user was well below its quota.

This bug is REALLY worrying, since it’s still there 7 months later the first post on this topic.

[Anonymous]

[QUOTE BY= F. GILBERT] For your information, we have this problem too.

Roughly the same configuration (OD, 50 clients working on network homes…, client 10.4.2 to 10.4.3, server on 10.4.4.)
.[/QUOTE]

Another information that may be valuable : the volume hosting networking homes is on an XServe, on a sofware raid volume, stripping 2×250 Go disks.

[Anonymous]

This may be realted to the problem …

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2328043&#2328043

…either way, good luck.

[sstortz]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: gw1500se[/u]

Under unknown circumstances Finder gets into a mode that loses files. If a user tries to copy or duplicate a file, the file is erased. It is not moved to the trash, it is just gone. .

[/QUOTE]

We too have had the problem where duplicated files are deleted. I can log in on the server as root, and they are just gone.
Apple has a fix. 10.4.7 from the Apple doc http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303771
•Networking and Xsan

Addresses an issue that could cause files to be deleted when duplicating them in the Finder on a mounted AFP volume.

[Author]

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