Adobe, Archive and Install
I recently did an Archive & Install of OS X Tiger only to find that double-clicking files mapped to Adobe apps only launched or brought the application to the front without actually opening the file (the same thing happens when dragging the file to the application’s Dock icon). I found the solution here but wanted to lend a little bit of my Google juice to help others facing to this annoyance.
Adobe apps use some sort of kludge involving Scripting Additions to handle the opening of their files, placing the necessary file, Adobe Unit Types, in your /Library/ScriptingAdditions/ folder (not to be confused with /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions/). The ScriptingAdditions folder is not restored when performing an Archive & Install—but it is backed-up with your previous system in /Previous Systems/Previous System [1-n]/Library/.
So to correct this issue just copy /Previous Systems/Previous System [1-n]/Library/ScriptingAdditions/ into /Library/ and get back to work!
Update
You will need to quit all open Adobe applications for this solution to work. Also note that the folder is named ScriptingAdditions and not Scripting Additions as it appears in Adobe’s own documentation of the problem. Could this discrepancy be the reason this file wasn’t properly restored during the Archive & Install?
If you’ve already deleted your Previous System folder you can download the Adobe Unit Types scripting addition from one of these two locations. (Thanks for those links Jamez.)
030 Comments
Shaun,
I discovered this a while ago, but it had bugged people in my office for quite a while. The mystery was that two systems could drag and drop on the Adobe icons, two couldn’t. We eventually figured it out through a search of Adobe’s support site.
I’m sure with so many people upgrading to Tiger, this has come up. Good thing to share!
Same thing here, I was glad that adobe support actually had a solution for once. One thing that has come up which I have not been able to resolve is that copying things from Illustrator CS to Photoshop does not always work anymore. Some error about not being able to copy because its the wrong version or something (I’ll have to check tonight).
Any advice for those who, thinking they’d gotten everything out of Previous Systems, have already deleted it? (Just hypothetically, of course…)
i had this problem on my windows 2000 machine. it never bothered me enough to think that there might be an easy solution. i’ve since moved to a laptop with fresh installs so i haven’t had the problem. does anyone know if there is a simple solution for windows also? I don’t know what caused the error as i definitely wasn’t installing Tiger or any other OS upgrade (aside from a possble windows update) to the system. curious
Lucky me, I get to be the guy that this trick doesn’t work for. Oh well, it’s not really that big a deal. I’ll just wait until I get the new CS2 package.
Hey Mike, there are a number of
/Library/folders in OS X, just make sure you’re putting it in the right one. The correct one is the/Library/right off of root (not in your user directory and not in the/System/folder). Also you need to quit any open Adobe apps and then double-click a file to see it work.“Could not import the clipboard because the specified format is not in the edition.” - The error I get when I try and copy from illustrator to photoshop.
Oh well answered my own question, looks like you have to uncheck the PDF option in the clipboard preference and check the AICB option. This obviously stinks since you lose transparency support.
Feaverish: I am in the same situtation as you. After a bit of searching I found the file. Photoshop works like a champ again.
Thanks Shaun for posting this I have been going nuts about this problem since the Tiger upgrade.
The file and I mirrored it
I actually logged this bug with Adobe whilst beta testing Creative Suite in 2003, resulting in this Official fix. Quite annoying it was, too.
Hmm for some reason this doesn’t appear to work for me. Guess i am the only one it doesn’t work for.
Yeah Dave, you and Mike S. are the only ones. :P Make sure there’s no space between
ScriptingandAdditions. All the documentation I’ve seen saysScripting Additionsbut that is incorrect, it should beScriptingAdditions.I wonder if that discrepancy is the reason that folder isn’t properly restored…
Thanks Shaun. That is the one library I keep forgetting is there. Generally for me it’s the
/System/or the/User/Library/that I’m messing around it.Thanks so much for the extra clarification, it’s very much appreciated.
Thanks for the post on this issue. I was going to erase and reinstall. However, I just wanted to point out that my
/Library/folder had noScriptingAdditionsafter the archive and install. Not sure why. So I actually had to copy the whole folder from myPrevious Systemfolder over.Ok thanks again.
I think I might know why Adobe apps use the ScriptingAdditions ‘kludge’.
On Windows, there’s something called an Icon Handler, which is a DLL file that when supplied with a filename (by the shell) will supply an icon for it. This is how .HTM files created with Word (example only!) have a different icon from others. This is also how Illustrator files look different by version. (MS Doco here for those interested.)
I’m guessing that Adobe’s equivilent technique on OS X is to use scripting. Of course, having never used the Mac versions of Adobe apps on OS X, I could be wrong.
sdfsdfsfsdf
to: shaun, mike s. and dave. i too tried the fix (dragged the ScriptingAdditions FOLDER over to the root library, restarted and… nothing. still the same problem. when i went back and looked intot the the ScriptingAdditions folder, only the 1 of 2 files copied over for some reason. there was a ‘qxp…’ file and the ‘adobe unit types’ file, but only the qxp file transfered. so double check to make sure the adobe file transfered over in the /library/scriptingadditions/ folder.
and thanks for the post shaun.
Hail to the computer NerdDom HAIL HAIl HAIL!
Thx a bunch for posting this solution
THANks THANKS THANKS i was about to destroy My G5 it was close
After installing Tiger, I also get error messages upon apple-tabbing to Photshop with graphics in my pasteboard. I wonder if this is related to the above mentioned problem?
Thank you. This has been bugging me since early May and I just decided to stop using Photoshop forever. Okay, not really. But I was /that/ close. I posted this problem over at mezzoblue back on May 5 when Dave did a quick Tiger review.
Search the Abobe site? Yikes. Total nightmare.
I can’t thank you guys enough for this thread. I think i had every issue that was mentioned. Including the copy/paste issue Alexis had. HUGE HELP! Thanks!
First, thank you for posting this solution. However, I still get the error when trying to copy/paste from Illustrator to Photoshop. I quit all Adobe apps, downloaded the Adobe Unit Types from your link, replaced the existing one in the correct Library folder with the downloaded one, double-clicked an Illustrator doc, and I still get the same error message. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.
Sorry Blake, I don’t know anything about that error. Somebody else brought it up.
Anybody know how to resolve the “Adobe Type Units” missing file issue in Mac OS 10.4.2??? Please help - double-clicking photoshop files still launches app but not file in 10.4.2.
Thanks!
“Could not import the clipboard because the specified format is not in the edition.” - The error I was getting when I tryed to copy from illustrator to photoshop also.
Went into Illustrators pref’s - Clipboard and changed the format from PDF to AICB. Cut and paste into Photoshop no issues. I then changed the setting back from AICB to PDF and was able to successfully cut and paste from Illustrator to Photoshop again.
I haven’t had any issues since. Hopefully Adobe begins to recognise that they have a few issues with Tiger and offer some patches or upgrades soon.
THANKS JOHN! +++++++++++++++++++ I’ve had the same prob and thx to u, things are working fine now! +++++++++++++++++++
Thank you. After weeks for frustration, you have been a gem.
john, you’re the man. fixed my copy problem as well.
Wow… Unbelieveably helpful. I only wasted half a day thanks to you all. THANK YOU! (John especially)
thanks this file solve me the problem,