Here is how to restore old screen savers in Mavericks

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mhschmieder
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Here is how to restore old screen savers in Mavericks

Post by mhschmieder »

My Altiverb screen saver went away when I upgraded to Mavericks. I did figure out how to get it back (you have to go to "Classic" mode under System Preferences for Screen Saver), but now I can't find where it's installed -- even after reinstalling!

No preferences file for Altiverb or Audio Ease shows up under All Users, my account, or under the Library->Preferences directory, and I couldn't find the screen saver file(s) through searching my discs either, or anywhere in the user manual.

Can't believe I spent over half an hour on this, but at least the National Geographic screen saver is a better default than that awful swirling neon display that it defaults to.
Last edited by mhschmieder on Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Shooshie
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Re: Anyone know where Altiverb screen saver is installed?

Post by Shooshie »

I could not find mine, either, and I only have Mountain Lion. I'm wondering if you can install it from the plugin itself. Altiverb has undergone radical changes over the years, so I no longer know all its little secret nooks and crannies.

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Re: Anyone know where Altiverb screen saver is installed?

Post by mikehalloran »

Try using Find under the File menu in the Finder. While the drop-down menu defaults to Kind and Any, it excludes system files (what ?!?). Change to System Files and Are Included, then type in Ativerb and see what you get.

If that doesn't work, search for hidden files.
http://apple.stackexchange.com/question ... -in-finder

If it is nested in a hidden folder, you will have to use one of the shareware or other apps to try and find it - search won't work. I never have the need.

BTW, if you have been using the following Terminal Command to reveal hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

It no longer works in Mavericks. It is now this one:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Notice the capitalization on finder has changed.

killall Finder

still resets the Finder without rebooting or affecting your other applications (even Time Machine is unaffected). Capitalization remains unchanged. Since syntax and capitalization are critical, it is always recommended to copy and paste commands into Terminal.

Likewise, hiding the files again is

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder
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Re: Anyone know where Altiverb screen saver is installed?

Post by mhschmieder »

Oh, thanks, will try tonight -- I think when I installed mavericks it re-defaulted some stuff (as a developer, I always want to see ALL files).

Post-Leopard, I've never been very successful getting the Finder to find things, or especially Spotlight, even after some Googling on Best Practices. So I usually hunt for files instead.
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Re: Anyone know where Altiverb screen saver is installed?

Post by leigh »

mhschmieder wrote:Post-Leopard, I've never been very successful getting the Finder to find things, or especially Spotlight, even after some Googling on Best Practices. So I usually hunt for files instead.
You might want to look at PathFinder:
http://cocoatech.com

It has a lot of flexible searching features which I use a lot.

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mhschmieder
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Re: Anyone know where Altiverb screen saver is installed?

Post by mhschmieder »

Thanks for the hints; I'm just now logging in after spending a half hour on this off-line. I haven't looked at the link yet, but eventually found my way around the confusing Finder that used to be so easy pre-Snow Leopard. It reminds me of Windows. :-)

Anyway, once the Altiverb file started showing up, under System/Library/Screen Savers, I noticed it's in the older pre-Mountain Lion ".screenSaver" format which is no longer supported, and of course it doesn't show up as selectable in the System Preferences.

I found this helpful hint on-line though, which I just implemented successfully:

If you have slidesaver files (i.e. files that have the extension ".slideSaver") simply right click the context menu for "Show Package Contents" and drill until you see the images folder.

Now copy the images folder to the "Default Collections" folder under /Library/Screen Savers.

Highlight "Ken Burns" in the System Preferences on the left-side panel if you want the images to scale to full screen and subtly animate during slide transitions (otherwise select "Classic"), then in the right-side panel choose your newly created image folder (probably via "Choose Folder").

This worked like a charm. And here I was struggling with how to use Quartz Composer to convert the old file to a QTZ file, which is what the new screen savers use in Mavericks!
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Eastman T486RB, T64/V, Ibanez PM2, D'angelico Deluxe SS Bari, EXL1
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mhschmieder
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Re: Here is how to restore old screen savers in Mavericks

Post by mhschmieder »

Fortunately, even the plug-in updaters vs. the full installers for Audio Ease Altiverb 7, now include the screen saver and set it up properly.

I re-found this old thread when I noticed my Altiverb screen saver could no longer be found after switching computers this weekend and cloning my old one.

It was just as well, as it spurred me to update Altiverb 7 itself and to become aware of compatibility issues with DP9 if using the latest update, so I have now backed out to the previous update.
iMac 27" 2017 Quad-Core Intel i5 (3.8 GHz, 64 GB), OSX 13.6.1, MOTU DP 11.31, iZotope RX 10
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Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35
Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, Johhny Marr Jaguar, 57 LP, Danelectro 12
Eastman T486RB, T64/V, Ibanez PM2, D'angelico Deluxe SS Bari, EXL1
Guild Bari, 1512 12-string, M20, Martin OM28VTS, Larivee 0040MH
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