How to Bring Back Front Row in Mac OS X 10.6 Lion

The front row was one of the casualties in OS 10.6 Lion, and Apple decided to cut it. I'm not quite sure why they made this decision, but I believe it's because they wanted to push the Apple TV. Whatever the reason, it's gone now, and if you're frustrated by that, there is a way to get it back.

There are three ways to bring back front row in Lion. The first two methods are the easiest and will be highlighted in this article. The third method involves a lot of different things that aren't worth going into detail about. Instead, we'll focus on the two easy ways to bring back front row.

The easiest way to bring back front row is if you have another Mac running Snow Leopard. If you have another Mac with Snow Leopard installed, you can use it to access your old files and restore front row. To do this, simply connect your Lion machine to the same network as the Snow Leopard machine, go into Time Machine on the Snow Leopard machine, select your Lion machine from the list of available backups, and follow the prompts to restore your files.

Another easy way to bring back front row is if you have a Time Machine backup of your Mac with one of the backups being from when you were still running Snow Leopard. If you have a Time Machine backup that includes your old files, you can use it to restore front row on your Lion machine. To do this, simply connect your Lion machine to the same network as your original computer, go into Time Machine on your Lion machine, select the backup that includes your old files from the list of available backups, and follow the prompts to restore your files.

The third method for bringing back front row involves using a Snow Leopard installation disc. You can extract some files off the disc, but it involves downloading software and digging around in the system disc. This method isn't worth going into detail about because it's so much easier to use one of the first two methods. Instead, we'll focus on those methods.

Regardless of which method you choose, the process is essentially the same. You need to restore a couple of different files from your old machine or backup. These files are not available in Lion by default, but they can be restored using Time Machine or by extracting them off a Snow Leopard installation disc.

The first file you'll need to restore is the Front Row application itself. To do this, simply go into your Applications folder on your Mac and look for the Front Row icon. You won't find it there because it's not available in Lion by default. Instead, you'll need to use Time Machine or a Snow Leopard installation disc to restore the file.

The next file you'll need to restore is the com.apple.RemoteUI.Plist file. This file is used by front row to store its settings and preferences. To find this file, go into your Library folder and look for the Core Services folder. Inside the Core Services folder, you'll find a subfolder called RemoteUI. Inside that subfolder, you'll find the com.apple.RemoteUI.Plist file.

Once you've found the com.apple.RemoteUI.Plist file, you'll need to copy it to your Lion machine using Time Machine or by extracting it off a Snow Leopard installation disc. This will allow you to access the settings and preferences stored in the file.

Finally, you'll also need to restore the BackR.F framework and ioto axis framework files. These files are used by front row to provide video playback functionality. To find these files, go into your System Library folder and look for the Frameworks folder. Inside the Frameworks folder, you'll find the BackR.F and ioto axis frameworks.

Once you've found these files, you can copy them to your Lion machine using Time Machine or by extracting them off a Snow Leopard installation disc. This will allow you to access video playback functionality in front row.

After you've restored all of the necessary files, you should be able to access front row on your Lion machine. To do this, simply go into your Applications folder and look for the Front Row icon. You'll find it there, but it won't work because the underlying files haven't been restored yet.

To fix this issue, you'll need to restart your Mac. Once you've restarted, you should be able to access front row without any issues.

If you're using a third-party application like Understudy, which is a separate application installed in front row, you may need to update it as well. However, even with the use of this third-party application, you should still be able to access video playback functionality and other features of front row on your Lion machine.

Overall, bringing back front row in Lion is relatively easy if you have another Mac running Snow Leopard or a Time Machine backup. The process involves restoring a couple of different files from your old machine or backup, which can be done using Time Machine or by extracting them off a Snow Leopard installation disc.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everyone today I'm going to show you how you can use front row in Mac OS 10 line now the front row was one of the casualties in OS 10 line and apple decided to cut it I'm not quite sure why I'm thinking it's cuz they wanted to push the Apple TV uh but whatever the reason it's gone now and if you're frustrated by that there's a way you can get it back there's three ways to get it back the first two are the easiest and that's what I'm going to highlight today the third one involves a lot of different things that are just very I don't know not worth it in my opinion so we're not going to go into that uh but the two easy ways are if you have another Mac running snow leopard yet or if you have a time machine backup of your Mac and one of the backups is from when you were still running snow leard and the third way that I'm not going to talk about today is if you have a snow leopard installation disc you can extract some files off there but it involves downloading some software and digging around in the system disc which I don't know is it seems like a lot of work for me and the other two ways are so much easier that I wouldn't even pay to do it the third way so the two ways I'm going to show you today work identical to each other the methods that you use uh the only difference is how you go about doing them uh so for the time machine backups you're going to go into time machine to do it and if you're running on snow leer just it's going to go into the finder so I already have the files restored and you can see if I go into my applications folder front row is right there so what you need to do is you need to restore a couple different files around your hard drive and the files are not there in line but they are there in snow leopard I'm going to show you the files that you're going to need to restore from either a time machine backup of snow leopard or a snow leopard installation on a different Mac so the first file is just if you go into your applications folder on your hard drive and you go over to Front Row uh you're going to need to restore this from your snow leopard backup or installation that's pretty simple uh the next one you're going to have to go to your hard drive Macintosh HD and go into your system folder and then from there the library folder from there the core Services folder let me just find it here and in the core Services folder there will be another application called front row and it's right here oh no right there so you're going to have to restore this file as well now if you're in time machine you can just hit the restore button you'll have to type your administrator password uh but if you're on Snow Leopard you'll probably want to put in a USB flash drive just copy these files to the flash drive and put them in the respective folders when you get back on your lion machine so the next file is if you go back into your library folder you're going to have to go into the a launch agents folder and in that folder you're going to have to find com. apple. remote ui. pist so I'm going to code on here so here is com. apple. remote. pist and it's just a property list file and the next file you're going to have to get is if you're going to syst system library and then private Frameworks there are the last two files in here and they're actually entire folders that you're going to want to restore so the first one is back R.F framework that's right here and the last one is ioto axis. framework and let me just find that right there so those two folders as well now after you have all these files and you put them back in their respective locations if you open if you try to open front row it's not going to work you're just going to have to restart your Mac and then from there I can either use my Apple remote or I can just click on front row and a front row will launch for me here and you can see it works just as it normally would this understudy thing is a separate third party application I installed in the front row but you can see it's all working here I can go into movies and I can look at the iTunes top movies it all works and it's all just like it should be so that's how you get fr front row working on your lion installation and as always if you have any how that you'd like to see me do especially with Lion recently coming out make sure to send me an email I hope you found this video useful and thank you for watchinghey everyone today I'm going to show you how you can use front row in Mac OS 10 line now the front row was one of the casualties in OS 10 line and apple decided to cut it I'm not quite sure why I'm thinking it's cuz they wanted to push the Apple TV uh but whatever the reason it's gone now and if you're frustrated by that there's a way you can get it back there's three ways to get it back the first two are the easiest and that's what I'm going to highlight today the third one involves a lot of different things that are just very I don't know not worth it in my opinion so we're not going to go into that uh but the two easy ways are if you have another Mac running snow leopard yet or if you have a time machine backup of your Mac and one of the backups is from when you were still running snow leard and the third way that I'm not going to talk about today is if you have a snow leopard installation disc you can extract some files off there but it involves downloading some software and digging around in the system disc which I don't know is it seems like a lot of work for me and the other two ways are so much easier that I wouldn't even pay to do it the third way so the two ways I'm going to show you today work identical to each other the methods that you use uh the only difference is how you go about doing them uh so for the time machine backups you're going to go into time machine to do it and if you're running on snow leer just it's going to go into the finder so I already have the files restored and you can see if I go into my applications folder front row is right there so what you need to do is you need to restore a couple different files around your hard drive and the files are not there in line but they are there in snow leopard I'm going to show you the files that you're going to need to restore from either a time machine backup of snow leopard or a snow leopard installation on a different Mac so the first file is just if you go into your applications folder on your hard drive and you go over to Front Row uh you're going to need to restore this from your snow leopard backup or installation that's pretty simple uh the next one you're going to have to go to your hard drive Macintosh HD and go into your system folder and then from there the library folder from there the core Services folder let me just find it here and in the core Services folder there will be another application called front row and it's right here oh no right there so you're going to have to restore this file as well now if you're in time machine you can just hit the restore button you'll have to type your administrator password uh but if you're on Snow Leopard you'll probably want to put in a USB flash drive just copy these files to the flash drive and put them in the respective folders when you get back on your lion machine so the next file is if you go back into your library folder you're going to have to go into the a launch agents folder and in that folder you're going to have to find com. apple. remote ui. pist so I'm going to code on here so here is com. apple. remote. pist and it's just a property list file and the next file you're going to have to get is if you're going to syst system library and then private Frameworks there are the last two files in here and they're actually entire folders that you're going to want to restore so the first one is back R.F framework that's right here and the last one is ioto axis. framework and let me just find that right there so those two folders as well now after you have all these files and you put them back in their respective locations if you open if you try to open front row it's not going to work you're just going to have to restart your Mac and then from there I can either use my Apple remote or I can just click on front row and a front row will launch for me here and you can see it works just as it normally would this understudy thing is a separate third party application I installed in the front row but you can see it's all working here I can go into movies and I can look at the iTunes top movies it all works and it's all just like it should be so that's how you get fr front row working on your lion installation and as always if you have any how that you'd like to see me do especially with Lion recently coming out make sure to send me an email I hope you found this video useful and thank you for watching\n"