System Preferences CRASH

[charlio]

Hi!
I hope that everybody is very well.
We do though have a problem with the System Preferences.
i've always found it to be a particularly horrible little piece of s**ware design and have to keep removing it from the dock - it is not my choice to look at unwanted programs/things.
I would love to be able to remove itunes/notes/allthatcrap/etc from the computer but mac doesn't seem to be willing to play by my rules. It's a great little computer but the software has gone insane too far for me to tolerate.
after mac rather forcibly and very cheekily tricked me into upgrading (er, downgrading) the OS a few months ago things have got steadily worse [all around the world too huh]. figuring that it was a slippery slope without any offer of an escape route i accepted that to an extent one had to play ball, a little bit.
latest upgrade grudgingly accepted - this is typed from 11.0.1 big sur

however, the particular problem reported here is:
System Preferences simply does not work; none of it appears to be operational. have i upset someone?!! maybe just something!

Please do me let me know if you have an effective solution that is going to fix this particular problem, whilst keeping the computer running.

Kind wishes from Charlio
x

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Recent versions of macOS don't allow the deletion of applications that came with the OS. System Preferences is a integral part of the OS. You can remove it from the Dock, and still be able to access it from  > System Preferences...

Which model Mac?

As always, make sure you have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data.

This issue can be caused by a few things:
-A corrupted plist file
-Incompatible audio software or extensions - like Soundflower, Boom 3D, or audio device drivers

You can try the following to see what is causing the Sound preference pane not to load:
-Restart in Safe Mode - restart your Mac and immediately hold the Shift key down until you see the Apple logo. It may take a few minutes for the Desktop to appear. Once it does, you will see the words Safe Boot in the menu bar at the login screen. Login and see if the Sound preference pane loads.
-If you have another user on the Mac, login to it and see if it loads. If so, then it is something in your user on the Mac.

Let us know if that helps.

C

 

[MartyByrde]

Also, a newer version of Big Sur, V11.1, will be arriving shortly. But even with that, Big Sur is still not stable enough yet.

Have you been making backups to an external device?

 

[charlio]

Hi Guys,

Thank you for your replies; much appreciated.

computer in Q is a MacBookPro (mid 2015).
i tried the restart + shift. no difference other than the restart was much slower than usual, and it asked me for a user password.

not sure about changing users.
ok, I was the only person using this device but i'm not so sure about that any longer! I don't mind the Russian government too much; they're going to help us to save the world, right?
now as the SysPref isn't working how would it be possible to change users to experiment with that?

p.s. yes, I did back up a few useful files. but I do not know what is 'time machine'.

 

[charlio]

+ the computer has gone dog slow.
this is a short-term karma!

nb it might well be that I'd deleted a file by accident [any file with the name microsoft was very recently trashed]

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

You can remove System Preferences from the Dock. Also, you can disable the Recent Applications part of the Dock (near the Trash), by unchecking:  > System Preferences... > Dock > Show recent applications in Dock.

Yes, you can create a test user in  > System Preferences... > Users & Groups. You can then logout of your current user and login with the newly created user. Then, try the Sound preference pane and see if the issue persists. If it does, then it is an OS issue and not a user-based one.

C

 

[charlio]

Hi Cory,
Well thanks for getting back to me again.
it is looking like i've messed something up in the bowels of the computer that I'm not qualified to mess around with.
For the record I'm delighted to say that the volume can be adjusted via the bar at the top of the screen, and by the keyboard. anything on SysPref is currently disabled.
We might need some direct professional help for a topic resolution.
however i have recently found that by pressing squiggle+I then i might be able to play with the 'users' function via the Sharing & Permissions bit.
Glad we can both speak English!
x

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries...

Do you have a current Time Machine or other backup?

You may be able to delete a preference list file. Follow these steps:
-In Finder, hold the Option key and click Go in the menu bar and choose Library
-Open the Preferences folder
-Move any file called com.apple.systempreferences.xxxx.plist to the Trash (the xxxx is a long string of numbers/letters unique to your Mac)
-Close that folder and open the folder Saved Application State
-Move the folder called com.apple.systempreferences.savedState to the Trash
-Restart

See if that fixes it. If not, you may be able to startup in macOS Recovery and resintall Big Sur over the top of your current installation. You won't lose any data, as long as you have a backup and don't perform an erase and install. That should repair/reinstall any missing pieces of macOS that may be missing/corrupted.

C

 

[MartyByrde]

No worries...

Do you have a current Time Machine or other backup?

You may be able to delete a preference list file. Follow these steps:
-In Finder, hold the Option key and click Go in the menu bar and choose Library
-Open the Preferences folder
-Move any file called com.apple.systempreferences.xxxx.plist to the Trash (the xxxx is a long string of numbers/letters unique to your Mac)
-Close that folder and open the folder Saved Application State
-Move the folder called com.apple.systempreferences.savedState to the Trash
-Restart

See if that fixes it. If not, you may be able to startup in macOS Recovery and resintall Big Sur over the top of your current installation. You won't lose any data, as long as you have a backup and don't perform an erase and install. That should repair/reinstall any missing pieces of macOS that may be missing/corrupted.

C

Unfortunately Cory he stated above that he does not know what Time Machine is: "yes, I did back up a few useful files. but I do not know what is 'time machine'".

charlio,

Time Machine is a program that comes with the Mac OS, and it can make a backup of all your files, folders, settings, etc. to an external device. Tow other similar programs are SuperDuper! (free) and Carbon Copy Cloner (costs $39.95 US). Both of them make bootable backups/clones of your system.

When you said you "did back up a few useful files", how exactly did you do that, and where are they? Hopefully you did it to an external device (maybe the "cloud" is OK, but I am not that familiar with the "cloud". My backups are to 2 external SSDs). If you have any more important files left on your system, can you back them up?

At this point, you can first try what Cory suggested. But if that does not work, it would be best to do a clean, fresh installation of (I assume) Big Sur. You will lose everything on your internal device before that happens, but at least that should give you a stable system (although Big Sur still has some issues). Again, that assumes there is nothing left on your internal device that you need. Note also that such a clean, fresh installation will also get rid of any third party applications you use (assuming you have any). If so, and you want to use them again, you'll need to re-install them. Just make sure they are compatible with Big Sur.

Also, V11.1 of Big Sur will be arriving shortly.