After updating to OS X 10.9.3, a number of OS X users have found the Users folder that contains home directories of all users on the system, has gone missing. While the Users folder is not often directly accessed, and while it can still be accessed by opening your current account’s home folder and then moving up one directory in the Finder, this situation has caused a little concern in some who have experienced it.
The problem at hand has not affected all who have updated to OS X 10.9.3, and appears to have happened through the release of iTunes 11.2.
While a number of fixes and workarounds have surfaced to address the problem, Apple has identified it along with a few other bugs found in the iTunes 11.2 release, and has addressed the issue with the release of iTunes 11.2.1.
In addition to addressing this problem, iTunes 11.2.1 offers improved Podcast browsing and an unresponsiveness problem when updating Genius playlist information.
FYI: For anyone visiting the Apple Downloads site, this update is still listed as iTunes 11.2 on the main page. If you click through to the downloads page – two clicks in – you will see the actual version number, 11.2.1. By the way, nowhere (that I can find) does Apple mention the user folder hiding issue. We know this update solves the problem because users have reported the fix on various forums. This is consistent with Apple’s policy of not acknowledging their mistakes unless severely pressed to do so. All they list for this update are some of the same feature enhancements that were posted for the original 2.1 update. If you delayed updating iTunes by even a day you would never even encounter the issue except on Apple related blogs like MacIssues and Macworld – and, of course, on the Apple’s own forums. No doubt Apple hopes that if they close their eyes this problem will never have existed. Color me cynical.
You’re not cynical, but accurate. That’s what happens when they rush things out without properly testing them.
I updated to iTines 11.2 to find that it blocked at ” unresponsive” when updating my podcasts. 24 hours later I updated to 11.2.1 and there was no improvement. I have bombarded Apple with my crash reports…
Good luck with that. You might want to do some routine system maintenance with Disk Utility, like repairing permissions. Though deprecated by some, I’ve found repairing permissions can clear up a number of odd behaviors. It won’t hurt anything, even if it doesn’t fix your podcast problem. I suspect, though, that after updating both OS X (assuming you did) and iTunes you will find quite a few permissions issues reported in Disk Utility.
Many thanks Jefferson, I’ll try repairing permissions which I haven’t done for a while. I’m updated on to Mavericks etc and everything has been working fine until,now.
I have deleted the podcasts and am reinstalling them and that seems to work. Many I don’t listen to, so a spring clean was due too.
However, iTunes with podcasts worked ok until the latest update, and from my point of view didn’t need “improving”. I will think twice before updating on trust from now on.
Thanks again
Kx