Reader Louise Wazbinski is mystified by Sherlock’s failure to work. She writes:
My Sherlock 3.6.1 is basically “dead.” It does nothing at times and I do not know how to get it working again. This is the third time it has happened since I put in my new 10.4.2 Tiger OS.
If I were feeling less-than-helpful I’d suggest that this behavior is a fairly broad hint that Sherlock’s days are numbered—largely because most of its capabilities are duplicated by Tiger’s Widgets. (Note that I’m not saying that Widgets are a better way to go than Sherlock, only that the writing is on the wall.)
A more helpful answer is to instruct you to dig through your user folder and toss the following folders and files into the Trash:
youruserfolder /Library/Caches/Sherlock/ youruserfolder /Library/Preferences/Sherlock/ youruserfolder /Library/Preferences/com.apple.Sherlock.plist
This clears Sherlock’s virtual throat and allows it to start fresh. You’ll notice that even after you chuck these files some of Sherlock’s channels won’t work—Pictures and Phone Book have been on the fritz for quite some time and Quicktime movie previews remain an on-again/off-again affair.