Bridge will not open all film strips, but each will open when clicked

[john7price]

Possibly since I downloaded Catalina ( not certain) when I open a folder as a filmstrip in Bridge I get a strip of black boxes not the images as thumbnails. But when I click on each one they open OK. Any advice would be appreciated.

John Price

[gary_sc]

Hi John,

Yup, it's Catalina's fault. The problem is that Catalina's protection level is set to "beyond high." 

To reslve this, select the folder that your content is in and press Command-i (i for information). A new window will pop up on the left side of the screen. On the bottom you will see a region called "Sharing & Permissions:"

To do anything here, you need to unlock the padlock on the bottom right. Click it and a window will pop up asking you for your authorization (your Mac password). Once that's done, clic on the "Everyone" and on the right change "Read only," to "Read & Write."

Now, if there are folders inside this, go to the dropdown gear below and select "Apply to enclosed items..." and you can save yourself some time.

HOWEVER: be judicious when you do this. This should ONLY be done if there are nothing but documents inside these folders. Never ever do this if there are applications or preferences or other application-related files. Don't ask me how I know this to be true. Otherwise, I do this all the time as necessary.

[john7price]

Thank yoiu Gary, all is well now,  I appreciate your advice. JOHN.

I do have another strange fault, which is if say I have two or more attachments in an email, the first will open when I click on it, but the second does not? However, if I close the email and re open the second one can be opened, but not the first. this is jpegs word and xl.Ant ideas? Best wishes. JOHN.

[gary_sc]

HI John,

Hmm, that's a great mystery. What happens if both are selected and you double-click?

Have you restarted your computer recently? 

Other than doing general maintenance on your computer, I'm at a loss.

You might try using some of the maintenance software out there, Onyx is free [https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html] and I've used (OS) Cache Cleaner for many many years with satisfaction (the name changes as the OS changes so Mojave Cache Cleaner, Catalina Cache Cleaner, etc.) This is a try for free and then pay the nominal price if you wish [https://www.northernsoftworks.com/catalinacachecleaner.html].

Regardless, I must say that I've no idea why you are experiencing this issue and cannot say that either of these applications will have any affect on the problem. My only reason for bringing them up is that you are experiencing unusual behavoir on your computer implying that something is not right. Sometimes symptoms are indicators that something else is going on or mean nothing more than what they are all by themselves.

If you wish to resolve this, I suggest that you do the easiest to the more complex. That is, first try rebooting your computer. If that fails, than go into the Mac Recovery mode:

Boot in Recovery Mode

1. Turn off your Mac.
2. Turn it on and hold Command-R until you hear the startup chime or see the Apple logo.
3. Click Disk Utility when the macOS Utilities window shows up.
4. Click the disk that's running Catalina.
5. Click Repair Disk.

You might also wish to try booting into "Safe Mode." Ostensably this is used to start your computer with no internal applications running beyond what's necessary to make the computer work. I was having one issue and was advised by Apple to boot into Safe Mode but after doing that, it not only resolved the primary problem I had, but also resolved other strange problems I had that I was just ignoring. (Note, when I did this it took a VERY LONG TIME to actually start up. Apparently there was a lot of repairs being done on my system. Just be patient.

To load your Mac in Safe Mode, press and hold the Shift key while it boots. You can stop holding the Shift key when you see an Apple logo and progress bar. To leave Safe Mode, just reboot your Mac without holding the Shift key.

If that fails, they try one (or both) of the recovery software mentioned above

Let me know what you did and what results you get.