Corrupt Dropbox config

When I download and look at any of the .plist files in Dropbox, they're no longer XML files? I can see all of the DDK files fine (using EditX and Dreamweaver).

Here's a snippet of the first line (several unviewable characters show as blanks):

bplist00¢CÖ

@VmethodUbrandTtypeScatZemptycodesUcodesRgcW

Any idea why the dropbox backup files are being corrupted? I also have to delete the Codes file for it to download a new one (ie it won't override the existing file?)

Z

 

Those aren't corrupt, that's just a variant of Apple's plist format. It's the binary version of it. They can be converted back to plain XML on Mac OS X using this command:

plutil -convert xml1 yourFile.plist

Thank you.

ahh... That explains a lot. I'll google Plist on Win 7 and see what I can find to convert it. Will a converted (ie not binary) file import correctly after I've edited it, or is that going to be an issue?

I anticipate the next question is why muck with it at all :slight_smile:

I'm trying to confirm some learned Onkyo IR codes that seem to be too long (ie feedback led flashes for 2-3 seconds and command randomly fails, so I suspect it may not have been learned correctly?)

Plus I'm very nosy :slight_smile:

Thanks,

Z

The two file types are completely interchangeable. Makes no difference which type you use where.

Learned IR codes can sometimes be too long or contain too many repeats if the button was for instance held down too long while learning. Editing the code itself can be a solution for that. The basic technique is to look for the huge number and slice off everything after that. You'll see something like a sequence of 12,20,12,20,12,20 and then suddenly you will see 12,20,3450,12,20. If you cut off everthing after the 3450, that generally removes the extra repeats from a learned code.

Thank you.

OK, I give up, I can't find a Windows Plist editor that doesn't look like bogus.. Any recommendations?

Z

Just send the file to support and we'll convert it to XML for you.

Thank you.

Thanks for the offer.

I found Plist Editor for Windows that seems to do the trick, so I'm dangerous once again :slight_smile:

Z

Windows users have access to plutil as well if you have itunes (see the following) Worked perfect for me!:

The program <b>plutil</b> is native to <a title="Mac OS X" href="http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X">Mac OS X</a> (as of 10.2), however it is also included when iTunes is installed on a Windows PC. On linux libplist <a href="http://cgit.sukimashita.com/libplist.git">[1]</a> also provides an equivalent of<b>plutil</b>.

plutil on a Windows PC is stored in:

C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesAppleApple Application Support

Which can be added to the PATH in Environmental variables so plutil can be run from anywhere If you could like to copy out the plutil executable to another directory it requires a number of DLL's to function. These dlls are: ASL, CFNetwork, CoreFoundation, Foundation, icudt46, libdispatch, libicuin, libicuuc, libtidy, libxml2, objc, ptheadVC2, SQLite3 and zlib. These are all found in the Apple Application Support folder along with plutil.exe.

To convert Binary plists to XML run the command:

<span style="color: #000000;font-family: monospace, Courier;font-size: small"><span style="line-height: 1.3em">plutil -convert xml1 file.plist

Here is the command I actually used:

</span></span><span style="color: #000000;font-family: monospace, Courier"><span style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;line-height: 16.899999618530273px">c:Program Files (x86)Common FilesAppleApple Application Support>plutil -convert xml1 "c:Usersg031678DropboxRoomieRoomieCodes.plist"</span></span>