November 7th, 2007
Leopard file move bug zaps data
Online sources replicate a bug that destroys data when moving files around Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The problem can occur with local and remote storage, the sites say.
The most compelling reason not to upgrade yet to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard cropped up earlier this week with Tom Karpik’s blog warning of a Massive Data Loss Bug in Leopard. It seems that if you Move (not Copy) files to another disk or network volume, all of your data may disappear.
Leopard’s Finder has a glaring bug in its directory-moving code, leading to horrendous data loss if a destination volume disappears while a move operation is in action. I first came across it when Samba crashed while I was moving a directory from my desktop over to a Samba mount on my FreeBSD server.
Ric Ford’s Macintouch news site confirms the problem for network shared and expanded it to local connected FireWire drives.
Most often Leopard uses the Copy command instead of the Move command, so this may not affect most Mac users. You have to specifically invoke Move by holding down the Command key. When dragging files around in the Finder, the Copy status shows a green dot with a plus sign in it.
A number of developers I’ve pinged in the past week pinged expressed disappointment about Apple’s process for the Leopard Golden Master. Apple didn’t circulate the GM version to developers before release. Some bug fixes were dropped, while others were introduced in the days the launch.
“I don’t know why I bother [with the beta releases],” said one longtime Mac vendor. “I should just wait for the [final] release like everyone else. This is much worse than [with] Tiger.”
Read More in Developers Remain In the Dark About Leopard GM Bug Fixes.
Perhaps it’s time for Apple to bite the bullet and put a moratorium on Leopard upgrades?
Apple must have known there were problems with the Leopard Installer and with the release itself. But the company (or should we say Steve Jobs) weighed the choices: wait another couple of months and lose face and revenue for the quarter, or release an under-cooked product and hope that the early adopters are backed up. They appear to have gone with the latter path.
For more posts on the Leopard Update, check out:
David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Subscribe to The Apple Core via Email alerts or RSS.
| 11/07/07
