Tiger upgrade issues with iCal
Sunday, May 1st, 2005
Yesterday I did the Tiger (Mac OS X.4) upgrade and it went quite well. I have to applaud apple for their Migration Assistant application that allows you to easily move old stuff into a new install.
In the old days we just installed a new system right over an old hoping to keep our custom stuff in place. Some people did clean installs and then painstakingly rooted through folders trying to reassemble and clean and update. It was a nasty job and it rarely went well.
Apple finally got their act together with the last few versions of X and now when you buy a new computer you simply boot it up, hook the old to the new, and click a button and all your files and user settings are brought over, simply, cleanly and smartly.
For Tiger, I used SuperDuper! and did a backup onto an external hard disk, then booted the Tiger DVD, ran Disk Utility within the installer and initialized my internal hard disk, then did a clean install of Tiger.
At the end of the install the installer script asked if I wanted to migrate information from an old system/computer and I said yes, connected my external, found the right partition and directories and let her rip. About 20 minutes later I was all setup.
I played around with some of the new stuff and then ran various apps and in this the only app that had problems was iCal. This is a new (v. 2.0) version that came with Tiger.
I tried everything I knew of including doing a reinstall of it from the DVD but nothing worked. It did produce crash reports which were all Greek to me but I sent them on to Apple’s black hole of crash reports.
I found a thread on Apple’s Discussion area where others complained of similar problems: Topic: ical2 won’t open–help!! and posted there but the only person to solve it ended up doing a complete reinstall of Tiger by a different method (archive then install, ugh). I decided I was going to dig a bit more before going that route.
This morning I was up early and my friend Steve Splonskowski out in Oregon was also up (he’s a very early riser) and he’s my main Mac guru these days. He’s also an Apple developer and has been running Tiger for a while.
I sent him my crash report and he went through it line by line and tracked the launch events and then the crash and found an area he thought might be a problem when iCal was trying to load a plugin.
Well, we found the problem: a system level plugin installed by some other app (maybe a 3rd party app I no longer have) that came over in the system migration but might not come over with an archive/install.
Here’s the fix, in case you need it:
Let’s assume you’ve got iCal and all your calendars installed and it’s crashing and you’ve done nothing yet to change things.
1. In the finder, click on Macintosh HD and then click on the system level Library folder.
2. Within Library there will be a folder called InputManagers that may or may not be empty.
3. If InputManagers contains a folder called SIMBL, drag it to the desktop.
The SIMBL folder or its contents is the source of the problem and Steve did not have it on his computer which means it is not a generic part of Tiger.
4. Launch iCal and it should work.
I am saving the SIMBL folder for now as I’m not sure what it does but my friend Steve did not have it so maybe it was installed by a 3rd party app I had or still have. We have both noted in googling this that others have had similar launch problems with other application and their crash reports noted the same folder.
Anyway, the upside is iCal just told me to pay the mortgage. Now I’m sorry I fixed it!
have you noeticed that the time in “date received” for mail is now the server time (GMT) and not local time?
Did iCal also tell you to order a Canon 20D? If not, make sure you get that listed!
Here’s an update: I tried to burn a CD post taking the SIMBL folder out and lo and behold, got an error. Put it back, CD burned fine, iCal crashed.
So, I opened the folder and found two items in it:
SIMBL.bundle
Info
I took Info out, left SIMBL.bundle in and logged in and out and now I can run iCal and burn CDs.
I’m now looking for another hatchet to fall but if that was it, I’ll be happy.
Very helpful info. Thanks.
Oh! and what Gary said! ;-)
Hey you two: 20D comes before end of sale but not until I decide which wide zoom to buy. Hey Gary, wheres YOUR 20D? Dale, where’s YOUR 24-70? Hmmmm?
I am having somewhat of a similar problem I can open the application but I do not see any of my calandars, and the machine is very slow I think I will do a clean reinstall and use the migration utility to import all of my data.
I duid an “archive & install” the first time, and was having some funkiness. I decided to redo as a clean install and then copy over my home and application foelders. This worked much better for me.
I did a clean install too and used the migration tool built in and still had problems so no method is perfect. Once you do any kind of install its important to check everything: launch all apps, burn CDs and DVDs, watch a movie, etc. Fixing one problem may cause a cascade of others.
yes I agree I allway do a clean install and then copy over all of my personal data and apps but I think tonight I am goint to do a clean install and then use the migration utility to see if it work better. and I am still waiting a little to upgrade my main machine, because there I have some unix app runing and that is even harder to migrate.
I’m glad read about these installation issues and tips with Tiger. And glad my copy of Tiger, ordered from Amazon, isn’t here yet. Good to have some time to learn from your experiences.
When you get Tiger, I highly recommend taking Apple’s online tour that’s exclusive for buyers of Tiger. It will show you amazing stuff and you can stop it at any time and experiment and take notes. I’m loving it. Started it this morning and have yet to get all the way through. Very useful.
So far, spotlight is the killer integrated piece of Tiger. It is so amazing to be able to search anywhere and get fast results. It is going to seriously change the way I use my computer.
Not sure how I feel about the RSS as part of Safari; it’s a great implementation of an RSS reader and in the long run may win my heart but I’m so used to NetNewsWire it’s hard to dump it. Switching default newsreaders is a simple pref so you can experiment with Safari easily and then switch back.
where is that demo?
also try out the HD movie trailers pretty amazing…
You should have gotten an email about the demo from Apple. Follow the link in the email.
I didn’t get that email either
mmm I do not think I got the email :( can you post it?
I found a link to it on the .mc main page, (once logged in).
I just wanted to say a big Thank You for the iCal 2 tip on Tiger. I have had the crashing issues for days now, and I was about to throw in the towel. Now, my problems are fixed. Nice blog too!
Alexander, I am very happy that I was able to help a few people who found themselves in a similar situation with iCal. Of course, keep testing to see if that solution causes other problems but so far so good here. Thanks for the kind feedback.
Here is a link to a page that goes into more detail on the folder in question:
http://culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php
Now I’m not quite sure what it is or what app installed it and why I can’t function without it.
I’ve been on a developer preview of Tiger for a while, and I’d have to say my favorite 2 features are Dashboard and Safari RSS. I’ve tried a number of different RSS aggregators, but none of them do it as gracefully (or as fully) as Safari does. Being able to aggregate a number of feeds, then filter them, bookmark it, and be able to return directly to the filtered results with the click of a button is wonderful.
As for dashboard, I’m sold. Before, I constantly underestimated the near necessity for these things, because I like a clean Desktop. Now, with the click of a button, I’m able to see all my widgets (The dashboard jesus is my favorite. go to apple’s dashboard site and search for Hula girl). at once, then another button and they’re gone.
Speaking of, a person can write a widget to post to their forums . . . Richard . . .
Scott: I’m sure there will be a widget version of MarsEdit or Ecto eventually but not everything needs to be a widget, some things are better as apps in their own memory space. So far I think of Widgets as the old Desk Accessories in earlier systems and those eventually got out of hand and grew into small applications.
I think calculator, stock tracking, and the weather are perfect: hit a key, see the stock ticker, click and it’s gone. I love it. But, I’m pretty happy with an app for doing things like text editing or posting to this weblog.
I’ve used NetNewsWire for a while so the move, if I did it, to Safari for RSS reading will take some time. I do like the implementation so time will tell. Hey, one can have both and see which wins.
LOL!
I meant that as a joke, not as a serious suggestion. :-)
In truth, I agree with you. I’ve found a number of widgets that try to be full blown apps, and thats just not the point. I think an excellent example of true widget form and function is yahoo’s Local Traffic aggregator. You can tell it where you are and how large a radius to look in, and it goes and finds traffic accidents, jams and such.
A more questionable one is YaGoohoogle, into which you type a string, and it brings up Yahoo! and Google in different frames of the Safari page.
On topic: Without delving in too deep, SIMBL is a program that essentially stops applications from accessing shared frameworks that can cause the said app to crash. As you mention, another application probably loaded SIMBL, which (for some reason) prevented iCal from accessing the frameworks it needed.
…but why would SIMBL prevent me from burning a CD? That function is a generic part of the system, not controlled by a third party app, right? Something else must be up in “River City” so I’m not through diggin’.
Thanks for the info.
thank you. i had the same problem with ical and you had the solution!
This is great news. Glad to help.
Hello again. I just wanted to post a follow up to the iCal vs. SIMBL problem.
It just so happens that it isn’t the entire SIMBL ’structure’ that crashes iCal upon its launch. The specific problem is the BurnoutMenu enabler plugin that leverages SIMBL. That makes perfect sense, since BurnoutMenu of course exchanges data with iCal.
This also means that you can still use SIMBL with PithHelmet to block adverts in Safari, and yet keep using iCal without it crashing.
In summation, just delete the BurnoutMenu plug in! It is located in:
[Hard Disk] / Library / Application Support / SIMBL / Plugs / BurnoutMenuEnabler.bundle
Ah, this is a very useful and important update. I had installed BurnoutMenu and then tossed it as I didn’t like it but before I did I turned off iCal integration but it did not pull that plugin. Thanks for the update.
did a clean resinstall last night and imported all of my personal data and it seem to be all working fine. richard falowed your advice and use the migration tool and your right it is very good.
now I just need to migrate my main machine…..
Great news Edward. Yes, the transfer/migration tool is very good. What would be a nice addition would be the equivalent of “Spring Cleaning” where it looked at all that “stuff” deep in Libraries that is left over from apps no longer present, and flagged it as questionable for the new system. Sort of a “rebuild desktop” re-alignment of apps and their support files so that one would not transfer stuff that was unneeded.
I try to do this manually often but I do miss things, like the above mentioned SIMBL folder and files. I think a script could take care of this nicely, either during a transfer or any time a user wanted to clean out the crud.
did you ever try sting cleaning is it good I tryed it once but I think it messed up a lot of files and did more damage then good.
THANKS! I’d been thrashing around, crying, etc. for days with these “iCal has unexpectedly quit” messages. This worked perfectly for me.
Edward: I never tried it but I have little faith in Alladin who published it.
Jennie: Great, I’m glad to be of help. Yes, when you put a lot of your life into iCal it’s a serious drag to not be able to open it.
ok so last night I tryed to synck my calandar with other computer and now I can open Icall but I can not see any other evens on my calandar and allso delicious monster could no longer start I had to trash it and reinstall. I think i am going to go and see a genious this weekend and see if they can fix it.
Hmmm, my Delicious Monster works fine. It loads anyway.
I’m not sure about iCal syncing, I’ve not done that yet or ever for that matter, except with my iPod and that’s working fine, I think…
do you have reminder in your calandar from delicious moston (when you have a checked out item) I think that is a third party plugin that could be the cause of probems.
Big Thanks Richard!!!! I came across your site from a google search and your suggestion solved my iCal problems!
I have the iCal problem but I have a brand new G4 had it a week before my upgrade to tiger. In my application support folder there is no simbl, neither can spotlight find it.
Did anyone solve it for those without that troublesome plugin?
Thanks. Glad to see that people are working through these bugs.
Thanks, tip worked for me. I did a regular upgrade install from 10.3 and was starting to think about starting with a fresh install instead..
Mike and Mark: great, I’m delighted to have been of help.
Laurie: I too have a relatively new G4 PowerBook (latest model of 15″, etc.) and before the Tiger upgrade I was running the latest system, latest version of iApps, etc. How did you do the install? And, what third party apps did you have on your computer before it, or, had you downloaded anything and then tossed it but forgot to dig into the library for any “crud” the now deleted app left behind in its install?
The key is this: if iCal produces a crash report, don’t dismiss it but copy it and save it as a text file. You can scan through it and watch the iCal load sequence (bottom to top) and possibly find what iCal is choking on. That’s how my friend Steve taught me to do it and that lesson should prove useful for future crashes where a report is generated as well. If you need help send me your crash report in email and I’ll try to decipher it. No promises, I’m a rank amateur at this stuff
I had the same problem under Tiger but with Safari : it would crash upon starting.
After reading this thread, I deleted the info file inside the Library/Input manager/SIMBL folder et voilà ! Problem solved.
The culprit was probably the pit helmet plugin v2.3 I had installed previously (on Jaguar) : it comes with a SIMBL package and somehow it is probably incompatible with Safari 2 on Tiger.
This is great news Phil, I’m delighted that the thread has helped so many folks. Thanks for letting me know.
[...] ioning well with the notable exception of iCal – easily fixed with the assistance of Richard’s excellent blog entry. I also had a very oddly [...]
I agree, this piece of code, which I used in Panther to move my stuff from my old TiBook to this new Aibook is painless and quite good.
I notice turtle uses CarbonCopyCloner to do backups (I used it for a while too) but either it or SuperDuper and this migration script/app from Apple and the process of moving or upgrading is now slick and reliable.
My big question is this: why is it that some people who did a clean install, had things busted (like iCal) got them fixed with an archive and install? What is it about that script that’s different than the migration tool? I would think the migration tool would be better and I would also think that scrubbing one’s HD from time to time (check for bad tracks, etc.) is a good thing.
The less all of this feels like voodoo the better.
Many thanks, Richard!
After upgrading to Tiger yesterday my iCal promptly crashed. Read your notes, found and removed the SIMBL folder as described and hey presto! iCal’s back!
cheers,
Peter
This is great news Peter… wow, I’m amazed how well the web has faciliated all of this. Makes me happy.
Hi, I have been having the same issue with iCal, and I believe SIMBL is a bundle which provides PDF and word document viewing in browsers. Straight from the SIMBL installer “SIMBL (Smart InputManager Bundle Loader) - pronounced like “symbol” or “cymbal” allows you to build hacks for Cocoa applications and apply the code selectively based on an application’s unique identifier.”
hope this helps,
dan
Actually, I have no problem viewing pdfs in Safari without SIMBL. Thanks Dan.
iCal behaves sluggishly, and I don’t have anything in the InputManager folder. It never crashes, just losts of beachball-of-death. Any other fixes for a recent Tiger upgrader like myself? Any other suspect items in the Library? Help appreciated.
John: Do you have any iCal plugins that you know of or anything interacting with it (other sofware like widgets, etc.?).
I’d go into your library and look for any iCal prefs, not your calendars but prefs and move them to the desktop, then re-launch iCal and see if that helps. You can always do a reinstall as well but you’ll want to wipe out the old prefs first.
No matter what, back up the calendars folder in the library so if you have to do a reinstall you won’t lose them by mistake.
Hope this helps, let us know what happens.
Thanks Richard, I found a fix: I opened the iSync application and turned of the “Enable syncing on this computer” preference. Now iCal works like a dream. I had noticed while running the Activity Monitor app that the SyncServer took over the CPU whenever I tried to quit iCal. Got me to thinking. Luckily I don’t need to sync… but of course, this doesn’t really explain why iCal works well on a clean account I have on my computer.
I did try traching the iCal prefs, but that didn’t help.
Perhaps the iSync prefs are at fault?
j
John: maybe what has happened is that calendars and addressbook listings are synched to iPods with iTunes now. It’s built in and so iSync for that reason is redundant. Not for .mac accounts, still useful there but since I don’t sync stuff there, just to my iPod I dumped iSync.
However, I did all of this after I got iCal working so our problems were a bit different. Thanks for the report though.
Your welcome, and here’s a solution offered by someone on the apple support pages—which I’m nervous to try:
Chris Kelley wrote: “I can confirm that the earlier trick about the Source folder seemed to have worked. Previously, iCal was abominably slow. To rehash what I did:
“-Go to ~/Library/Application\ Support/iCal
-Remove (but backup, just in case) the entire Sources folder, including the folder itself–it will regenerate
-Launch iCal
“Initially, I didn’t see any calendars, but after a few seconds it loaded the default set of calendars (Home, etc) in addition to all of my personal ones. I checked and iCal regenerated the Sources folder.
“iCal is now much snappier. Hopefully I won’t have to do this again, but you never know…”
Richard, what do you think of this?
John,
I think it’s an excellent idea. The sources folder in the main library (not yours) just contains pointers for iCal to find calendars. It’s not the actual calendar data. The idea is to get rid of it so iCal has to reestablish the connection. And, in the process, get rid of sources no longer in use.
I just did it and it worked like a charm. I didn’t feel the need to but what the heck.
No need to toss the sources folder, just move it to the desktop.
So, quit iCal
Go to system library and find and move sources folder to desktop
Launch iCal.
Just as she said, it will come up with a generic screen (none of your stuff) but wait a few seconds and it will then reestablish the connection and there will be all your stuff.
If you check, there’s now a new sources folder in hte library and you can toss the old one.
Thanks John, this is a useful tip.
I had had a birthdays calendar published on .mac for my family but I stopped publishing it because I’m dumping .mac when my year(s) runs out. That source is now gone but it was not before so this cleaned up my act too. Thanks, great tip.
Hi! I´ve just encountered a problem with iCal and hope that someone can help. For starters, I´m using an imac g5 and also a macintosh newbie.
I downloaded a program called OSXvnc and soon enough, ical “unexpectedly quits”. I´ve been looking for the InputManagers folder and the SIMBL that was discussed earlier, but I can´t find it in any folders. So that can´t be it… any ideas?
Del,
I don’t know what OS Xvnc is. Why did you download it? What is it for? Are you sure that downloading and installing it is what has disrupted iCal?
Hi all,
Turning off the “Enable syncing on this computer” preference did the trick for me! Thanks for the suggestion, I was getting quite desperate. (Amazing how quickly you get addicted to iCal.) No SIMBL or InputManager folders on my system, so I’m glad there was another tip that helped. Thanks again!
Silva: great, I’m glad you got it solved. I know that iSync is gone in Tiger so Apple must have figured out it was a problem. I take it you’re not running Tiger yet.
Hi Richard,
In fact, I am using Tiger (10.4.3). I updated my existing System Folder (too lazy to do a clean install and installing all my extras separately), so that might be why iSync was still there. I hadn’t even realised that iSync is gone in Tiger either (too lazy to read manuals and stuff). So I guess this served me right.
Maybe I should use my Xmas holidays to do a clean Tiger install and reconfigure my computer the right way…
Cheers,
Silva
Silva: I may stand corrected, I’m not sure. I do know that iSync is on the way out as Apple has various kinds of syncing built into the system but now I can’t remember if it was in Tiger and I tossed it or what. Oh well, toss it and all it’s crud in the library and maybe that will solve all of your problems forever.
Always good to do a clean install and with Apple’s migration assistant it’s very easy to pull your old stuff back into a new install of the system.
I am having all of the same iCal crash problems on my G5, but not a problem on my Powerbook which I installed TIGER on both yesterday. I have read all of the SIMBL advice and have none of these folders.
Also tried John’s entry:
“-Go to ~/Library/Application\ Support/iCal
-Remove (but backup, just in case) the entire Sources folder, including the folder itself–it will regenerate
-Launch iCal
I don’t have an iCal folder in my Support either
I do use .mac a lot to sync with so it is pretty important… any ideas?
Marc: its been a while since I’ve thought about this but let me make some suggestions.
iCal keeps a cache in your /library and you might want to dump it.
Maybe turn off any syncing services temporarily.
Do you have a Tiger widget for iCal? If so, take it offline temporarily and see if that helps. I had one for a while but it broke (although it never broke iCal).
Temporarily move your calendar files out of your library and run iCal. Does it run?
That’s about all I can come up with but I’m happy to dig a bit more if you need help.
Richard,
Thanks for your help, still not working though, but I have also just found something else… I now have the problem on my Powerbook. I had no problems with it (iCal that is) until minutes ago when I installed the new Garageband (from iLife6).
What is interesting is that I installed iLife 6 on both computers, but left Garageband OFF of my powerbook the first time because of space, and now installed it. My Powerbook version of iCal now crashes jusy like my G5. So I think that there is something in the new Garageband that is causing iCal to crash.
What do you think?
Marc
Marc,
Not sure about garageband but I’ve just installed iLife 6 on my PowerBook running the latest Tiger and a few bad things seem to have happened. I also use an FTP client called Transmit and a code editor Called BBEdit which I also updated recently but I’m having a few problems that I’m trying to sort out.
In sorting them out, I’ve tossed iWeb, an app I’ll never use and tossed various prefs and cache files. That seems to have helped a bit.
So, I can’t say for sure that iLife 06 is the culprit but it might be a piece of the puzzle.
I’ve got garageband running (newest) and iCal has no problems so I’m not sure it’s that on your computer although it might be.
Do a bit more digging and I will too. We’ll meet back here at some point!
Thanks for your report and good luck digging. There will be a solution, I’m sure of it.
I love reading the ical comments…they’ve been helpful to this newbie as well….my problem with Ical is that when I print calendars, it has random times posted that don’t show up on the screen. I’ve tried everythinig I know to remove them, but they still appear when I do a print….is anyone else having this issue and is it solveable?
Max: random times instead of the right times or times printing where you don’t want any times printing?
Richard:
Random times appear where I don’t want any times to print…it only started to do this when ICal had its last update. I have a new G4 laptop with all the bells and whistles, Tiger, etc…
Max: I’ve just printed numerous calendars, with and without timed events and no random times.
Dang, I wish I remembered more about troubleshooting this.
Do you have any widgets or any other apps that are interracting with iCal, like maybe Delicious Library or something else? Maybe some other program is putting timed events into iCal calendars?
Or, have you subscribed to any calendars that aren’t local, like holidays or sports schedules? Maybe those calendars aren’t set up right.
Let us know if you learn any more or if any of my suggestions lead to anything good.
Richard, really useful site, I’m a bit behind the times here - probably going to install Tiger tomorrow (need google earth and other shiny stuff that won’t work on 10.3.5) so have just copied my hard drive onto ipod,
(don’t use ical just write important stuff on my hand as less likley to crash)
but take it when retreiving everything else after a clean install, my ipod should behave like any other external disk?
thanks
Rachel,
Your iPod should act like an external disk if you have it set up in iTunes to act that way. There are a set of iPod prefs there that allow it to remain mounted after a synch, etc. that you’ll want to look at.
I suggest you use the migration assistant to pull the stuff back. Actually, if you want to do it right, use SuperDuper! to make the backup as it will copy premissions and all the right stuff along with files. Fortunately or unfortunately (not sure which) the days of OS 9 are over; one cannot just copy things at will and expect them to work. There are ownership and permissions issues that have to be gotten right.
I’d certainly check out the migration assistant, it’s in your utilities folder. And, of course, let us know how it all went. Welcome to Tiger, better late than never and it’s a great version of the OS. Once you install it there will be many web updates to go through, hopefull you have broadband where you are and you can let your machine get the various updates. Good luck.
It nearly worked…
Did the upgrade but can’t use the migration assistant because it will only work from either another machine with an OS installed (and I can’t fool it into thinking my ipod is one) or a different volume, which it doesn’t believe the ipod is. So I have copied everything back and put it into a folder, guess I’ll just keep my documents and reinstall or download new versions of all the applications as they do seem to leave files all over the place, so my chances of getting it right are slim. Can’t remeber life before broadband.
Think I might have issues with permissions - when I did the backup it skipped some stuff because of them but wouldn’t tell me what…
Ical seems fine, might even start using it as I’d like to become more organised. Not so sure about the widgets - its snowing again and the thing keeps telling me its sunny.
Thanks for your help
Rachel
Rachel: permissions are meaningful… learn about them, work with them, obey them. Backing up and moving things around ain’t what it used to be and that’s why I use SuperDuper! and an external hard disk (not iPod) and it all works quite well. I’ve gone to backup numerous times to fetch things I tossed by mistake and SuperDuper! has never let me down. I’d say it’s worth the investment to get a small external HD in addition to the iPod. Good luck and thanks for letting us know what happened. Oh, the weather will improve as you update to the latest version of Tiger which improves the weather widget. Not sure it’ll stop snowing but at least what is will be reflected. I use a nice widget called “Radar in motion” which shows doplar radar of my area. I keep two copies of it running: my local view and a national view so I can see what’s coming tomorrow. Works well. Get it at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/
I cannot get Ical to open a calendar. I am using OSX 10.4.6 and Ical 2.0.3. I suspect a third party application is interfering but I really don’t know what’t going on
David, best to sort through what you’ve got going on bit by bit. Disabled any other apps that are making use of iCal, move pieces of iCal out of the library onto the desktop, etc. (as stated above).
Did you install something or do an upgrade that made this happen or has it happened for a while?
Very intersting discussion! My iCal issue is not with crashing, but with printing. My hP 2210 PSC prints everything els fine, but iCal pages print a thin line then spit out the page leaving the rest blank. I’ve tried changing the paper size, font size, view… all the same. I depend on iCal and often need to share calendars with non-mac folks, and paper is the easiest way to communicate at a cub scout meeting! Anyone else have this issue?
Leslie: I have other Tiger printing issues but not with iCal. Have you checked all the pagesetup settings?