Troubleshooting Suitcase Fusion 3

Description

This article describes several common troubleshooting steps for issues related to Suitcase Fusion 3.

Solution

Carefully follow the instructions in each step, stopping to test the issue after each step.

Verify system requirements

Suitcase Fusion was designed to run on Macintosh systems that meet the requirements listed here.

Make sure you’re running the latest version of Suitcase Fusion 3

We often release free product updates that add functionality, address compatibility issues, or provide bug fixes. You can check your version of Suitcase Fusion by going to Suitcase Fusion > About Suitcase Fusion 3.
To find out what the latest version of Suitcase Fusion is, or download a free product update, log in to your account on the Extensis website. Make sure to use the email address that your Suitcase Fusion serial number was registered to.

To register your Suitcase Fusion serial number, use our online registration form. For assistance registering your product, contact our customer service department.

Clean the Mac OS X font cache

Corrupted font cache files can cause a range of problems including garbled onscreen text, system font conflict errors and incorrect fonts being displayed or activated. Use the directions in ‘Clearing the Mac OS X font cache’ to remove the Mac OS X font cache files for your operating system version.

Clean up the Mac OS X font folders

Fonts that are stored in any of the Mac OS X font folders are typically managed by the operating system and not by Suitcase Fusion. Removing unnecessary fonts from the System Font folder can free up system resources and may resolve many font-related problems and conflicts.

For instructions on cleaning the Mac OS X font folders, follow the directions listed in the “Manually cleaning up your System Font and Application Font folders” section of our Font Management Best Practices Guide.

Turn off auto-activation

Suitcase Fusion can automatically activate fonts when applications request them. If you have several versions of the same font, an application may receive a font other than the one it was expecting. Disabling global auto-activation can prevent applications from activating fonts on the fly. To disable auto-activation, go to Suitcase Fusion > Preferences and disable the “Auto-activate fonts” option on the Activation tab of the Preferences dialog.

Suitcase Fusion includes auto-activation plug-ins for Adobe® Illustrator®, Adobe® InDesign®, and QuarkXPress®. These application plug-ins and extensions are not affected by the global-auto activation setting, and use FontSense matching technology to ensure the correct font is activated.

Test the font by placing it into an OS font folder

Suitcase Fusion can manage, preview, and activate any font file supported by Mac OS X. If you notice problems with a font in Suitcase Fusion, test the font file by copying it to an operating system font folder and see if the font is available to your applications.

Select the font in Suitcase Fusion and drag it to the desktop. This will create a folder called “Collected Fonts” and place the font into an appropriately-named subfolder
Drag the font from the subfolder into /Users/[username]/Library/Fonts and restart the computer
After the computer restarts, quit Suitcase Fusion and launch an application to see if the font is available and works correctly
If the font does not work when placed in an operating system font folder, it may be corrupt or not compatible with Mac OS X

Corrupt preferences file

The Suitcase Fusion preferences file may have been damaged. You can easily test if that is the case by going to /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/ and moving the “com.extensis.SuitcaseFusion.plist” to the Desktop, then launching Suitcase Fusion 3. If this works, a new preference file will be created and the copy on the Desktop can be removed.

Corrupt font database

The Suitcase Fusion font database may have been damaged. You can test this by going to /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/Extensis/Suitcase/ and moving the “Suitcase Font Database.suitcasevault” file to the Desktop, then launching Suitcase Fusion. If this works, a new font database and font vault will be created and the copy on the Desktop can be removed. You can then re-add your fonts and recreate your sets.

Before removing the font vault
The Suitcase Font Database.suitcasevault file contains both the Suitcase Fusion 3 font database and the font vault. Removing the vault from your computer will remove any fonts that have been copied or moved into the font vault; as a result, you may accidentally remove the only copies of some of your fonts.
To preserve the fonts from the vault:
1. Control-click on the Suitcase Font Database.suitcasevault and select “Show Package Contents” from the pop-up menu.
2. Drag the folder named “primary” out of the vault folder.
3. Once the primary folder has been removed from the vault, it can be deleted.
4. Troubleshooting document-, font- or application-specific issues
5. A font problem could be limited to a specific document, application, or font. If the specific file or application that directly relates to the problem can be identified, the problem can usually be resolved by recreating the document, reinstalling the application, or replacing the font.

Try another document

Create a new document in the same application using the same font or fonts. If the font works correctly in the new document, the problem is most likely related to the original document. The original document can usually be repaired by using the application’s Save As command to create a new copy of the document based on the original, or by copying the contents from the original document by hand into a new document and saving the resulting document.

Try another application

Try using the font in another application, like TextEdit. If the font works correctly in another application, the original application may have a preference or setting that may be affecting the font in question. A preference file may also be corrupt or damaged; you may be able to resolve the issue by deleting a preferences file. In rare cases, the application itself may have been damaged; removing and reinstalling the application can resolve the issue. Check the documentation for the application, or contact the developer for technical support.

Try another font

If the document doesn’t display the correct font but the font is available to the application, the wrong version of a font could be active. Verify that you have the correct version of the font available and active in Suitcase Fusion. If the correct font is active, you may need to replace the missing font in the document with the font listed in the application’s font menu. Some applications have the ability to replace a font in a document with another font; consult your application’s documentation. Keep in mind that the text flow and layout of the document can be affected by using a different version of the original font.

Contact Extensis Technical Support

As a registered Suitcase Fusion user, you are entitled to free technical support. If you are still running into problems, or need assistance with this document, contact our technical support department. To help us respond to your support case, include any steps that you completed from this document when contacting support.