HT206770: About the OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 Update

Learn about About the OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 Update
yoyoman75
Level 1 (8 points)
Mac OS X

Q: 10.11.6 just bricked my mac mini - what to do?

All my apps are missing and inaccessible. Icons are missing in the dock and apps can't be opened at all. Plus I can't run Carbon Copy Cloner because my old mini won't boot from a USB 3.0 device.

 

What a fantastic 'update'. I thought this would be just a minor update and now my computer is completely bricked.

 

I have googled this and found absolutely no solution.

 

WTH?

Posted on Jul 19, 2016 5:43 PM

by dianeoforegon,Apple recommended
dianeoforegon dianeoforegon
Level 5 (5,298 points)
A:

Boot from the Recovery Drive and select to Reinstall OS X.

 

How to reinstall OS X - Apple Support

 

This does not erase your drive. It reinstalls the system software and apps over your current install.

Posted on Jul 19, 2016 6:50 PM

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yoyoman75

Q: 10.11.6 just bricked my mac mini - what to do?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by dianeoforegon,Apple recommended

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jul 19, 2016 6:50 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Jul 19, 2016 6:50 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Boot from the Recovery Drive and select to Reinstall OS X.

     

    How to reinstall OS X - Apple Support

     

    This does not erase your drive. It reinstalls the system software and apps over your current install.

  • by yoyoman75,

    yoyoman75 yoyoman75 Jul 19, 2016 6:01 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 6:01 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    Yeah, but won't that kill ALL of my applications? Like CS4 which can't be reinstalled...

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 19, 2016 6:07 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 7 (31,925 points)
    iPad
    Jul 19, 2016 6:07 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Why can't it be reinstalled? According to this app, CS4 works in El Capitan:

     

    http://roaringapps.com/app/adobe-cs4

  • by yoyoman75,

    yoyoman75 yoyoman75 Jul 19, 2016 6:13 PM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 6:13 PM in response to babowa

    CS4 runs fine, but there is no disk to reinstall from. It's not an Apple thing, it's Adobe forcing people to use their new monthly fees vs their old once-and-done software.

     

    Trust me, there are a lot of people running CS3 and CS4 that have no way to reinstall the old software because of the way Adobe handles their licensing.

     

    Well anyway, my computer is bricked, so I'm going to try reintalling, and if I lose my software it is irrelevant since my software is already dead anyway. This is really not fun.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 19, 2016 6:14 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 9 (50,302 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 19, 2016 6:14 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Why can you not reinstall CS4, is there a problem you are not mentioning?

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jul 19, 2016 6:27 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Jul 19, 2016 6:27 PM in response to yoyoman75

    It should not kill your non-Apple applications. It's always advised that you have backup first.

     

    You can try the combo updater first to see if that will fix your problem, but it might take the full installer to get everything back to working order.

     

    OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update

    https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1885

     

    MORE INFO ON WHY RUNNING COMBO FIXES ISSUES

     

    Apple updates available from the Software Update application are incremental updates. Delta updates are also incremental updates and are available from Apple Downloads (software updates are generally smaller than delta updates). The Combo updates contain all incremental updates and will update files that could have become corrupted.

     

     

    Combo updaters will install on the same version as they're applying--no need to roll back or do a clean install.

     

     

    "Delta" updaters can only take you from one version to the next. For example: 10.10.5 to 10.10.6. If somehow the 10.10.5 is missing something it should have, and that something isn't changed between 10.10.5 and 10.10.6 it will still be stale after the delta update.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Jul 19, 2016 6:28 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 7 (31,925 points)
    iPad
    Jul 19, 2016 6:28 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Well, how did you install it if you don't have a disk?

  • by yoyoman75,

    yoyoman75 yoyoman75 Jul 19, 2016 6:52 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 6:52 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    Thanks Diane... I'm reinstalling the OS now, and I'll update this thread in about an hour...

  • by yoyoman75,

    yoyoman75 yoyoman75 Jul 19, 2016 7:50 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 7:50 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Well, I am unhappy to report that reinstalling the OS did absolutely nothing.

     

    It is still 100% the same - apps are all fouled up and missing.

     

    No idea what to do. This update just destroyed my primary work computer... I will post a solution if I ever find one.

  • by yoyoman75,

    yoyoman75 yoyoman75 Jul 19, 2016 9:00 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 19, 2016 9:00 PM in response to yoyoman75

    Actually it now appears that the reinstall did work.Yay!

     

    After rebooting, everything appeared the same, and behaved the same, but 5 minutes after rebooting I clicked on a dead app in the dock, and suddenly th icon reappeared and the app launched. This worked for all of the apps in the dock.

     

    I still had to reinstall the old Java for the old Photoshop suite, but that was very little trouble,

     

    So it appears that the OS has been restored, and the apps along with it.

     

    To reiterate the solution that worked for me: Reboot the computer with command-R, which allows you to reinstall the OS itself without affecting existing files or apps. After reboot, the problem appeared to still exist, but after waiting a few minutes, clicking on the bad apps in the dock actually caused their icons to reappear and thll opened.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jul 20, 2016 10:15 AM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 5 (5,298 points)
    Jul 20, 2016 10:15 AM in response to yoyoman75

    Glad this solved your problem. BTW, the icons in the Dock are aliases. They are not the original apps.

     

    In the future, be sure you have a clone and Time Machine backup prior to doing an upgrade. Time Machine is not bootable but a clone is. If you get bricked in a future update you can simply boot from your clone to work on your problem or clone back over the bad update.

     

    Create a Clone backup:

     

    A clone is an exact bootable copy of your internal drive. Unlike standard copying of all files to another drive, the clone software copies hidden files along with other in-use files that are not available  when you copy over files to another drive.

     

    Software used to Clone:

     

    SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/

    CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

  • by CarrieAnnaBanana,

    CarrieAnnaBanana CarrieAnnaBanana Sep 7, 2016 6:54 PM in response to yoyoman75
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 7, 2016 6:54 PM in response to yoyoman75

    EVERYONE TRY THIS FIRST, SUPER EASY & FAST SOLUTION!!

     

    This solution seems to have worked perfectly for me - MUCH easier and less time-consuming (1 minute or so?) than any other solution offered.

     

    1) Open a Finder Window, Click Shift-Command-g

    2) Type in /private/var/folders

    3) You'll see a couple folders in there -  drag them to the trash (need to enter admin password).

     

    Do not delete the folder "folders"! And don't touch anything else in /private/var/

     

    4) RESTART

     

    I am not sure if mine was 10.11.6 or a combo update (it seemed to update without asking after a startup) but I had same issue as the initial poster Brian - all my apps reported damage and would not open, changed to generic icons and computer very slow. I did exactly as stated above. All back to normal now.