Out of Memory - Powerbook

In certain conditions you may get an out of memory error followed by a crash when using the File Synchronization control panel that comes with some PowerBook computers. This article discusses the cause and a workaround.

DISCUSSION

Cause

The behavior is related to error dialog boxes appearing when you are synchronizing folders with custom icons. Whenever there is a dialog box and an item you are synchronizing has a custom icon, you will get the "Out of Memory" error and a crash. Just opening the Preferences menu item, for example, will generate a dialog box and will cause the error. Folders at lower levels inside can have a custom icon without causing the error.

If a folder's icon appears as anything but the ordinary folder icon in the Finder, then it has a custom icon. To tell if a folder has a custom icon, you must look at the original folder itself, not the folder icon in the File Synchronization control panel. In some cases the icon in the File Synchronization control panel can appear as a generic folder even when the actual folder has a custom icon.

Workaround

The easiest way to prevent this error is to eliminate the custom icons on the folders being synchronized. To do this, make sure the File Synchronization control panel is closed. Then go to the folder(s) with the custom icon. Select it and do a Get Info command (Command-I) and then click on the icon in the Get Info window. You will see a box around the custom icon. Then type Cmd-X (or choose Cut from the Edit Menu). This reverts the custom icon back to the default generic folder icon.