jiggy01

Q: All menu drop downs are blank and can't open any folders or desktop items?

Im running OS X Yosemite on 27" iMac.

 

It also looks like the font on desktop icons has changed.

 

DOes anyone know why and / or how to fix this?

 

Any help greatly appreciated. Thank you

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Apr 26, 2016 2:51 AM

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Q: All menu drop downs are blank and can't open any folders or desktop items?

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  • by K Shaffer,Helpful

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Apr 26, 2016 6:15 AM in response to jiggy01
    Level 6 (14,424 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 26, 2016 6:15 AM in response to jiggy01

    Did you try Safe boot mode and login once prompted?

    You may be able to test the system once started this way;

    also see if any second user accounts have the same issue.

     

    • Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

     

    You may find the above can help; if not other things to try include:

     

    You may be able to start in OS X Recovery and use Disk Utility there

    to repair drive (not just permissions) if the regular permissions repair

    doesn't work or appear to help, after restart from Safe mode. You can

    repair disk permissions while in Safe mode, then restart.

     

    OS X Tips using the Recovery HD: (see home link - next - for more)

    http://pondini.org/OSX/RecoveryHD.html

     

    • Apple OS X and Time Machine Tips:

    http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

     

    If you have a suitable backup, you could try to see if the problem is

    hardware or software; sometimes a failing hard drive can make a

    problem with software stored on there; corruption, etc. You can

    restore from an earlier captured time (time capule) backup, but to

    get more evidence first may be helpful. By Troubleshooting?

     

    I'd look into some of the system logs to see if any evidence of issue

    exists from Console utility. This may be sketchy, since it's so cryptic.

     

    A reset of the 'system management controller' may help, in that one of

    the things it is said to be able to do, is help if applications don't work

    correctly; the Finder (menus, etc) is like an application, owned by OS X.

     

    • Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support

     

    Been quite some time since I'd seen any empty menus in the drop down;

    years ago one could 'rebuild desktop' in ancient MacOS to help fix issues.

     

    The newer OS X may show odd effects if there is some corruption or bad

    data; sometimes a failing drive may yield odd effects. You may choose to

    try a Diagnostic test; though the results are not conclusive or proof.

     

    • Using Apple Diagnostics - Apple Support

     

    Sorry to say that I've no exact thing to try & do, and at near 2:00 AM local

    time, I'm not likely to muster much whit or wisdom either. Need to be up

    in a few hours; so sleep would be indicated

     

    Good luck & happy computing!

     

    edited 2x

  • by jiggy01,

    jiggy01 jiggy01 Apr 26, 2016 6:25 AM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 26, 2016 6:25 AM in response to K Shaffer

    TThanks so much for your reply K Shaffer. I tried safe mode and discovered same issues with both accounts and guest after googling for ideas. Then a mate told me about recovery mode and trying repair utilities. That didn't work either. Was then advised to restore comp from time machine backup. He also said should only take few hours... after doing this I've found its going to take just over 37 hours. Realized after I should have tried reinstalling OS X first which would've been heaps quicker obviously.

     

    Not great as I run my design business on this computer and have clients waiting for work + losing 2 days that I'll have to try and make up. Praying the restore fixes it, will only lose a couple jobs I think that we're done after the backup. Definately one of the weirder Mac issues I've seen in my 18+ years of working with them.

     

    Thanks again for your help, v much appreciated.