Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#7): Finder slowness may be Spotlight related; Network slowness -- More on DNS entry fix; more

Finder slowness may be Spotlight related We continue to report on dramatically slower Finder navigation and window refresh speeds under Mac OS X 10.4.5 -- an issue with a variety of causes and subsequent manifestations.

It appears that in some cases, these issues may be Spotlight-related.

MacFixIt reader James writes:

"I'm also having slow Finder operation after updating to 10.4.5. I'm on a 20" Intel iMac, 1.5 GB RAM.

The console reports: 334: Can't checkin with server named com.apple.metadata.mdserver, error 0x10000004

"when I am in column view and the Finder is trying to create the preview. This happens with any type of document, even documents that Quicktime doesn't understand (and so do not have a preview - just an icon)."

It appears that in James' case, there is an issue related to accessing the Spotlight database -- as indicated by the mdserver reference (mds is a System Process spawned by Spotlight).

As such, users experiencing a similar problem might want to try one of the following workarounds:

1. Force Spotlight to re-index any problematic folders per this article.
2. Use a utility like Spotless to temporarily disable Spotlight, and check for persistence of the issue.

Network slowness -- More on DNS entry fix We continue to cover issues with network slowness under Mac OS X 10.4.5.

Yesterday we reported that entering a usable DNS address to the Mac OS X's TCP/IP settings has proven successful for resolving some network slowness issues under Mac OS X 10.4.5.

MacFixIt reader Fred Moore reports that he had to take some additional steps for proper DNS entry on all Macs in his network, extracting the DNS server entry from the router and applying it to each Mac (see yesterday's article for instructions).

Fred writs:

"I have a router between my cable modem and my local Mac network. For the DNS fix to work, I had to get the DNS dotted quad from the router, then put it in the Network Prefs 'DNS Servers:' box on each Mac running 10.4.5. Then I had to restart each of these Macs; the 'Apply Now' button wasn't enough. Now web pages load very quickly. The only potential problem is if/when my ISP changes its DNS server number some time in the future--I hope I'll remember all this in a year or two if they do."

AirPort issues We've had a few reports from readers who have issues with AirPort networks spontaneously disconnecting or exhibiting other issues since the update to Mac OS X 10.4.5.

MacFixIt reader Emiliano Severoni writes:

"I updated to 10.4.5 the same day Apple released it. No problems until now: I usually stay connected to the internet 24 hours a day, last night I found that my connection was lost. Airport seemed to work fine, my ADSL modem lights showed connection, but I couldn't use anything: no mail, no Safari, and so on, they worked like my Mac was disconnected from the internet. I solved the problem by deactivating and then reactivating airport. But the problem reappeared again a couple of hours later."

The workaround Emiliano used -- turning AirPort off then back on -- is one of the many solutions for this issue listed in our tutorial "Improving AirPort reception, avoiding dropouts/lost connectivity, working around card/Base station recognition issues."

Photoshop CS2 freezing MacFixIt reader Jeff Grunewald reports issues with Photoshop CS2 freezing.

He writes:

"Sometimes the brush becomes unresponsive, the whole app hangs and 'Application Not Responding' is the message in the dock, other times, the endless beachball appears when the brush palette is opened. I have had problems with Photoshop CS 2 hanging but it seems worse since 10.4.5 was installed. I spent 5 hours trying to finish work on a 674MB Photoshop file. Photoshop hung 5 times before I could save the changes."

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

After Effects issues Meanwhile, MacFixIt reader Mark reports difficulty launching Adobe After Effects after the update:

"After installing the OS update I tried launching AE to have a few bounces followed by nothing, not even a splash screen. Installing the app on an external drive with Mac OS X 10.4.4 works fine, but reinstalling on the Mac OS X 10.4.5 drive doesn't help."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#6): Network slowness -- More fixes; turning off IPv6 can solve other networking problems; Slow Finder operation -- another fix; more
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#5): Slow Finder interface operation -- possible fixes; Confirmation for network slowness fix; more
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#4): Network slowness -- possible fix; Slow Finder operation; More on Mighty Mouse problems; more
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#3): Mighty Mouse issues -- won't scroll down; Special permissions can be ignored; more
• Mac OS X 10.4.5 (#2): General purpose workarounds; Reverting to 10.4.4; USB Overdrive broken, now fixed; QuickTime problems; more
• Apple releases Mac OS X 10.4.5 in PowerPC, Intel, Server versions

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