Native Mac Apps not responding to mouse

[aa_stardust]

Hi all,

I've been having a weird issue with my native Mac apps on my desktop using OSX 10.9.5 - for the past few weeks, the apps open and are unresponsive to the mouse (apps such as Photobooth, iCal, the calculator, Mail etc).

So you open them, and then you can't click anything in those apps - not even the close window button, so they need to be force quit. Some apps, such as Calculator and Photobooth are responding to the keyboard though.

I've tried verifying and repairing the disk permissions but no change. It's driving me mad - any ideas?

Many thanks
Anastasia

 

[honestone]

Hi Anastasia,

Welcome to the forums. Hopefully, you can get the help you need.

For your issue, I would suggest you try two things. (The first one might not be applicable).

1. If you have a third party mouse, make sure you have the latest drivers for it. (If you have an Apple Mouse, then this step does not apply).

2. Reset the Parameter Ram (PRAM). Here are steps you need to go through to do that:

1. Shut down your machine. Yes, all the way down, not sleep or logging out.
2. Press the power button and then press command-option-p-r. You have to make sure you get those keys pressed before the gray screen comes up or it won’t work.
3. Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
4. Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Here is the link where I got that from. It indicates what typical issues resetting the PRAM can help with:

http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2010/12/04/how-when-why-to-reset-the-pram-smc-on-your-mac/

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Also would be good to know what year and model Mac you have, and from what OS X you upgraded to Mavericks from.

 

[honestone]

Hi,

Also would be good to know what year and model Mac you have, and from what OS X you upgraded to Mavericks from.

Good advice, oldscribe! Not sure why I forgot to mention the part about which Mac model Anastasia is using.

Thanks!

 

[aa_stardust]

Hi Honestone,

Thanks for your advice. I don't have a 3rd party mouse so that one doesn't apply, but I did try resetting the PRAM as you suggested. Unfortunately it didn't seem to do anything

I'm using a late 2013 27" iMac. And I believe it's had Mavericks the whole time.

Any other ideas?

Many thanks
A

 

[honestone]

Anastasia,

So, that means your iMac is, at most, 1 year old. Seems rather strange that you would have this problem.

To confirm, does this only happen with native Mac applications? How about any third party applications you have? Is the behavior normal? If you have no third party apps, give VLC a try. It is actually the best program to watch videos/movies. You can download here:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/5758/vlc-media-player

Another thing: I assume you upgraded to OS 10.9.5. Did you use the OS 10.9.5 Combo Updater? That is usually better. If you did not, you can download it here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1760

Finally, there is a possibility that resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) can help. Here is a link that discusses this:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/ht3964

If you notice, under "System Performance", it states "Applications may not function correctly or may stop responding after being opened".

If you follow that advice about resetting the SMC, make sure to do what it says to do first, under "Before Resetting the SMC".

Sorry I can't be more definitive. I have never had this issue, although I don't use very many native Mac apps. In fact, about the only 4 I use are Activity Monitor, Disk Utility, Terminal, and Safari. But, I don't use them very frequently.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Just to add,
(1) Disconnect any peripheral devices you have connected.
(2) Uninstall any app plug-ins or enhancements from other manufacturers.
(3)If you recently updated an app, ( there have been many prior to the release of Yosemite) then a plug-in or enhancement you installed may no longer be compatible.

Now reboot and test.

 

[aa_stardust]

Yep it's only with native mac applications, and the problem only started about 1 month ago. Prior to that everything was fine, and there were no new programs or anything installed. Would upgrading to Yosemite fix it, or would this just make things worse?

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Would upgrading to Yosemite fix it, or would this just make things worse?

Don't belive so, only issue I had was with iOS 8 pages and numbers not been compatable with Mavericks you had to upgrade to Yosemite.
Had no problem with any other Apple software.
Although is is very strange that all your Apple software is acting like this.

Have you logged in as another user, as this will tell you if it is system wide or just a corrupted user file.

 

[honestone]

Just to add that prior to the release of Yosemite, only two of the third party apps I use were specifically upgraded for Yosemite, and during the first week after Yosemite's release, two others were upgraded, again specifically for Yosemite. I am running fine on both of my machines, upgraded to Yosemite last week.

Again I'll ask: did you use the OS 10.9.5 Combo updater when you upgraded to 10.9.5? Also, have you tried resetting the SMC?

If all of that still results in issues with the native Mac apps, maybe you could completely remove all of them, and then re-install them, one by one. Then, test each one after re-installation.