Odd glitch opening Mathematica notebook on a Mac

[AES]

I recently dragged some older Mathematica notebooks created maybe
three years ago out of their folders and onto my desktop to run them
once again.

Each time I try to open any of these notebooks on my current model
MacBook Pro running fully updated Snow Leopard and Mathematica
8.0.1.0, I get a beep, and a "Why the Beep" window appears containing
a Mathematica icon and the message:

The file you tried to open was not found
or could not be opened. [OK]

. . . but fortunately, as soon as I click the OK button, the notebook
opens fine, and apparently operates fine.

These notebooks have .nb extensions on their file names and show
Mathematica as their default app in Get Info. I encounter the same
problem if I duplicate any of these notebook files (Cmd-D), or do a
Save As on them once they're open, and then dbl-click on the resulting
new file. Ditto if I shut down and then restart Mathematica and then
Open the notebook from Mathematica's File menu.

Creating a new notebook in Mathematica, then Copying and Pasting all
the cells from old notebook into the new one, does seem to solve the
problem.

Any ideas as to why this happens?

[I'd be unhappy to learn that this has something to do with my current
version of Mathematica 8 having a different activation code than the
earlier version 6 or 7 that I used to create these notebooks.]

[Tyler]

When that happens for me it's because of an old custom style file that
the notebooks were written with is no longer in the path. Just save
the file with a *new* style and it should go away. So, if you want the
same fonts, etc., for each type of cell as previously used, you should
make a new style file and make sure it's in Mathematica 8's path.

Cheers,

t.

[Murray Eisenberg]

Just a wild guess: check the file permissions.

This should have nothing to do with a different version of Mathematica,
let alone a new activation code.

Post by AES
I recently dragged some older Mathematica notebooks created maybe
three years ago out of their folders and onto my desktop to run them
once again.
Each time I try to open any of these notebooks on my current model
MacBook Pro running fully updated Snow Leopard and Mathematica
8.0.1.0, I get a beep, and a "Why the Beep" window appears containing
The file you tried to open was not found
or could not be opened. [OK]
. . . but fortunately, as soon as I click the OK button, the notebook
opens fine, and apparently operates fine.
These notebooks have .nb extensions on their file names and show
Mathematica as their default app in Get Info. I encounter the same
problem if I duplicate any of these notebook files (Cmd-D), or do a
Save As on them once they're open, and then dbl-click on the resulting
new file. Ditto if I shut down and then restart Mathematica and then
Open the notebook from Mathematica's File menu.
Creating a new notebook in Mathematica, then Copying and Pasting all
the cells from old notebook into the new one, does seem to solve the
problem.
Any ideas as to why this happens?
[I'd be unhappy to learn that this has something to do with my current
version of Mathematica 8 having a different activation code than the
earlier version 6 or 7 that I used to create these notebooks.]

[Joseph Gwinn]

Post by AES
I recently dragged some older Mathematica notebooks created maybe
three years ago out of their folders and onto my desktop to run them
once again.
Each time I try to open any of these notebooks on my current model
MacBook Pro running fully updated Snow Leopard and Mathematica
8.0.1.0, I get a beep, and a "Why the Beep" window appears containing
The file you tried to open was not found
or could not be opened. [OK]
. . . but fortunately, as soon as I click the OK button, the notebook
opens fine, and apparently operates fine.
These notebooks have .nb extensions on their file names and show
Mathematica as their default app in Get Info. I encounter the same
problem if I duplicate any of these notebook files (Cmd-D), or do a
Save As on them once they're open, and then dbl-click on the resulting
new file. Ditto if I shut down and then restart Mathematica and then
Open the notebook from Mathematica's File menu.
Creating a new notebook in Mathematica, then Copying and Pasting all
the cells from old notebook into the new one, does seem to solve the
problem.
Any ideas as to why this happens?
[I'd be unhappy to learn that this has something to do with my current
version of Mathematica 8 having a different activation code than the
earlier version 6 or 7 that I used to create these notebooks.]

I would be suspicious of cached and/or OBE output data in the notebook.
I would make a copy of the notebook, and in the copy select delete all
output and save. Exit Matheamtica then open the newly saved copy, and
see if it makes any difference.

Joe Gwinn

[Gary Wardall]

Post by AES
I recently dragged some older Mathematica notebooks created maybe
three years ago out of their folders and onto my desktop to run them
once again.
Each time I try to open any of these notebooks on my current model
MacBook Pro running fully updated Snow Leopard and Mathematica
8.0.1.0, I get a beep, and a "Why the Beep" window appears containing
The file you tried to open was not found
or could not be opened. [O=

K]

Post by AES
. . . but fortunately, as soon as I click the OK button, the notebook
opens fine, and apparently operates fine.
These notebooks have .nb extensions on their file names and show
Mathematica as their default app in Get Info. I encounter the same
problem if I duplicate any of these notebook files (Cmd-D), or do a
Save As on them once they're open, and then dbl-click on the resulting
new file. Ditto if I shut down and then restart Mathematica and then
Open the notebook from Mathematica's File menu.
Creating a new notebook in Mathematica, then Copying and Pasting all
the cells from old notebook into the new one, does seem to solve the
problem.
Any ideas as to why this happens?
[I'd be unhappy to learn that this has something to do with my current
version of Mathematica 8 having a different activation code than the
earlier version 6 or 7 that I used to create these notebooks.]

On my Mac OS 10.5.6 using Mathematica 8.0.1.0 1, if I open a file
with Mathematica not running the earlier version Mathematica 8.0 is
launched rather than Mathematica 8.0.1.0,1 even if the file had been
created and save with Mathematica 8.0.1.0 1.

Gary Wardall

Gary Wardall

[dr DanW]

Completely speculation on my part, but maybe some of your older notebooks are using an external stylesheet that is no longer on your system.

One thing I do when I am working with old, legacy notebooks is drag them into TextWrangler, delete everything outside Notebook[{...}] and all the options in Notebook. This makes sure that I am not trying to load in any cached data or old notebook options, including stylesheets. Usually, this clears up any weirdness like you are describing.

This is particularly useful when I am opening old .MA files (yes, I still have some). After the automatic conversion to .nb, the notebook displays in a really tiny font. I still don't know why, but cleaning out the cache and option information in the .nb, restarting Mathematica (again, don't know why), and re-opening the file fixes this.

Daniel