Apple Help Issues

Apple Help is an incredibly frustrating and time wasting help system. The main reason is its absolute lack of assistance when something doesn't work. No console messages, no message in the help viewer. You're just constantly faced with the same identical error page that the "Content isn't available at this time".

First things first

1. Make sure your help is included in the code signed release version of your application.
2. Make sure that copy of the application is in the root of the "Applications" folder.¹
3. Make sure you have no copies in the Trash/Bin folder, empty it if needs be.

1. In AW4, you can right click the wrapped application and get AW to move it to the Applications folder and open it for you.

Reset the Apple Help Cache

In the terminal, enter in the following command and press "Enter" or "Return" to execute it.

hiutil -P

Verify the helpindex anchors

In the Terminal, enter in the following command and press "space", then drag your helpindex in to the terminal window, let go and press "Enter" or "Return" to execute it.

hiutil -I corespotlight -Af 

Restart your Mac

Yup, I spent almost a whole day fighting Apple Help to get away from the frustrating "Content not available message", when all I needed to do was to restart the machine.