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Solving AppleWorks Corruption Problems

Apple recently released a pair of software packages that resolve corruption problems occasionally encountered when saving AppleWorks files on a server. The corruption, which prevents users of AppleWorks 6.2.8 or earlier from opening files, occurs if you are running any version of AppleWorks 6 under Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar and use AppleWorks’s Save or Save As command to save your work on an AppleShare or other Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) server.

As a workaround, you can save files on your hard disk then copy them to a server using the Finder without fear of corruption. Users running AppleWorks 6 under Mac OS X 10.3 Panther won’t experience this problem.

Apple’s two new software releases fix the problem and let AppleWorks users repair previously corrupted files; they add no new features to AppleWorks.

Fixing the Problem — Apple’s new AFP Client Update 1.0 resolves the AppleWorks file corruption problem on the Jaguar user’s Mac, enabling files to be saved to a server without corruption. Installing AFP Client Update 1.0 also reportedly prevents open AppleWorks files from being corrupted on logout. The AFP Client Update 1.0 is a 580K download from Apple’s Web site.

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ afpclientupdate.html>

We recommend this update to all AppleWorks 6 users who are running under Jaguar and saving files on a server. Users running under Panther need not install this update; nor is there any reason to install it if you never save files to a server.

Fixing the Files — AppleWorks 6.2.9 includes built-in file repair routines that automatically fix these corrupt files when they’re opened. The repaired files may then be saved without corruption as long as the user is using Panther, or Jaguar with AFP Client Update 1.0 installed. And once those files have been repaired, older versions of AppleWorks 6 can open and save the files with no trouble (as long as the users of those older versions are also running under Panther, or Jaguar with AFP Client Update installed).

The simple fix for corrupted files is thus to upgrade to AppleWorks 6.2.9 and, if you’re still using Jaguar, to install the AFP Client Update. However, network administrators who want to fix many files at once may find it worthwhile to use Apple’s new AppleWorks File Repair Utility 1.0 to fix damaged files. To fix a damaged file, just drag it onto the AppleWorks File Repair Utility. Unfortunately the utility works by creating a new version of the file, after which you need to remove the old file and rename the new one. You can download the 436K utility from Apple’s Web site.

<http://www.apple.com/appleworks/update/>

<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ appleworksfilerepairutility.html>

To stay up to date on important news about AppleWorks, consider subscribing to the AppleWorks News Service, a low-volume mailing list run by the 15,000-member AppleWorks User Group.

<http://www.awug.org/news/list.html>

<http://www.awug.org/>


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