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Mountain Lion Bug -- System Cache Clearing

  • March 4, 2013
  • 2 replies
  • 24 views

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For the benefit of the JAMF community, I am sharing a recent troubleshooting experience.

I was unable to get Flip4Mac to load in any web browser after imaging a Mac using Casper Imaging. The following error message appeared in the logs as it attempted to load the wmv file:

Failed to communicate with qtkitserver: Connection invalid

When I built the core OS image with Casper Composer, I had selected the option to clear caches, not thinking twice about it. Apparently, there is a bug in Mountain Lion that prevents the com.apple.xpchelper.cache file from automatically recreating. This file is normally located in /System/Library/Caches.

The solution is to force the file to be rebuilt, and restart the Mac. Use the following command:

sudo /usr/libexec/xpchelper --rebuild-cache

According to my research, this can fix a bunch of media plug-in issues, including issues with Aperture and iPhoto. That file is somehow critical. That file is most likely deleted by any utility that clears System caches.

I hope this helps save someone else some time, as I spent nearly a week tracking this issue down!

2 replies

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  • Contributor
  • March 6, 2013

Thanks for posting! I have run into this bug as the xpchelper cache is responsible for Quicklook functioning properly. I was debating on a few different methods to fix it but your suggestion to use the rebuild cache command is perfect. Much appreciated!


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  • Author
  • Contributor
  • March 15, 2013

Glad I could help! The bug is still present in 10.8.3, unfortunately. I don't think Apple will fix it.