toddhamilton

Q: El Capitan: You can't open the application 'app name' because it may be damaged or incomplete

Ran into this multiple times. After initially upgrading to El Capitan 10.11.2, after logging into my main (admin) account, I could not open any applications, and received the following error:

 

"You can't open the application 'app name' because it may be damaged or incomplete."

 

I could not open "Activity Monitor", "System Preferences", "Finder", or anything (either system provided, App Store, or other). The icons would revert to the default application icon. Other users had no problem with the same apps.

 

After freaking out, I found a solution: go to another admin account, delete the old user account, and re-add it. This fixes the problem for that user; it apparently rebuilds the user identity information for that user, while leaving their home folder (and preferences, documents, keychain, etc) alone. iCloud information has to be re-entered, but it's trivial. After the user delete and re-add, I was able to run those applications.

 

When I upgraded to 10.11.3, the same thing happened, but to 3 accounts. I was able to fix this via the Guest account - i.e. I was still able to authenticate as an admin, but I couldn't login and run anything.

 

El Capitan removed permissions repair; I believe it can be done at the recovery console, but I shouldn't have to do that.

 

Any idea why this keeps happening?

 

Searching for the above error message usually is specific to App Store applications or other applications, not to things like "Activity Monitor" and "System Preferences".

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jan 26, 2016 1:51 PM

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Q: El Capitan: You can't open the application 'app name' because it may be damaged or incomplete

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jan 26, 2016 2:10 PM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jan 26, 2016 2:10 PM in response to toddhamilton

    Do you have this problem now?

  • by toddhamilton,

    toddhamilton toddhamilton Jan 26, 2016 3:36 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 3:36 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Not right now, but I just had to fix my son's account. Is there something you think I should look at? There are other accounts that haven't been used, and might be in this state (but I'd have to have the account owners' log in).

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jan 26, 2016 4:01 PM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jan 26, 2016 4:01 PM in response to toddhamilton

    Please launch the Console application in any one of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View ▹ Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

    Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take an action that isn't working the way you expect. Select any lines that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

    When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

    If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

  • by toddhamilton,

    toddhamilton toddhamilton Jan 26, 2016 4:23 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 4:23 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I had another user log into the machine. It appears that lsd is crashing. The console indicated many of the following errors:

     

    1/26/16 7:04:49.709 PM ReportCrash[27507]: Saved crash report for lsd[27564] version 728.6 to /Users/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/lsd_2016-01-26-190449_machine.cr ash

     

    Based on what I read, lsd is used for application launching, which seems consistent with the behavior of being unable to launch any applications. I looked at other user accounts that had previously experienced similar problems, and they had the same crash files; the timestamps were consistent with the time the issue was happening. I looked at one account I know has not been used since the upgrade, and it does not have any crash reports.

     

    The following sequence of events is repeated several times in the log when this situation was occurring:

     

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.lsd[27568]) Service exited due to signal: Segmentation fault: 11

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM Finder[27517]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM CoreServicesUIAgent[27563]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM Finder[27517]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM CoreServicesUIAgent[27563]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM Dock[27514]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.374 PM Dock[27514]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.375 PM diagnosticd[151]: error evaluating process info - pid: 27568, puniqueid: 27568

    1/26/16 7:05:00.375 PM Spotlight[27550]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.375 PM accountsd[27468]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.modifydb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.378 PM quicklookd[27485]: LaunchServices: disconnect event received for service com.apple.lsd.mapdb

    1/26/16 7:05:00.469 PM ReportCrash[27507]: Saved crash report for lsd[27568] version 728.6 to /Users/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/lsd_2016-01-26-190500_machine.cr ash

     

    Looking at the crash file, I am getting a seg fault:

     

    Process:               lsd [26237]

    Path:                  /usr/libexec/lsd

    Identifier:            lsd

    Version:               728.6

    Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)

    Parent Process:        ??? [1]

    Responsible:           lsd [26237]

    User ID:               503

     

    Date/Time:             2016-01-26 16:19:45.018 -0500

    OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11.3 (15D21)

    Report Version:        11

    Anonymous UUID:        77677FDF-90EF-8EF1-BCF1-719D4C71BE07

     

     

    Time Awake Since Boot: 530000 seconds

     

    System Integrity Protection: enabled

     

    Crashed Thread:        3  Dispatch queue: com.apple.lsd.database

     

    Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

    Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000001096e19b8

    Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

  • by toddhamilton,

    toddhamilton toddhamilton Jan 26, 2016 4:37 PM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 4:37 PM in response to toddhamilton

    A similar post:

    El Capitan update 10.11.1 freezes at login

    But the solution doesn't necessarily apply because not all the accounts had been associated with iCloud.

  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jan 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Jan 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to toddhamilton

    This procedure will delete certain temporary and cache files. The files are automatically generated and don't contain any of your data. Occasionally they can become corrupt and cause problems such as yours.

    Please back up all data.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    /var/folders

    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

              Services Open

    from the contextual menu.* A folder with the odd name "folders" should open.

    Inside "folders" are several subfolders, each with a two-character name. Drag all the subfolders except the one named "zz" to the Trash. Don't delete the subfolder named "zz". You'll be prompted for your administrator login credentials.

    Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

    *If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination  command-C. In the Finder, select

              Go Go to Folder...

    from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

  • by toddhamilton,

    toddhamilton toddhamilton Jan 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Linc Davis

    So, there's a number of two-letter directories in there; the contents of which are all owned by a single user.

     

    For instance, there's three directories that have contents owned by me: one has some very old files, one has files that were created between the 10.11.2->10.11.3 updates, and the third has files after the most recent update.

     

    I'm seeing something similar with other users (multiple directories). The one user that has yet to log in to experience the problem has one directory associated with them.

     

    I've taken the surgical approach and rm -rf only those directories with the older files, which I presume are associated with the older accounts (since I ended up deleting and re-adding the accounts to fix this, which I assume generates a new UUID or something for the user, that these files are associated with).

     

    This appears to have worked! Thank you.

     

    I figured there was some "broken" caching associated with the user. Since none of these /var/folders were associated with the Guest account, if this ever happens again, I can log in to Guest, and clean these out as needed.

     

    P.S. I found this reference to /var/folders: http://www.magnusviri.com/OS_X_Admin/what-is-var-folders.html

  • by Walter van der Heiden,

    Walter van der Heiden Walter van der Heiden Feb 7, 2016 7:43 AM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 7, 2016 7:43 AM in response to toddhamilton

    Thank you, my friend!! You saved me sunday! This worked for me. problem was starting a terminal but after 20 Minutes Spotlight opened a terminal for me.

     

    Greetings

     

    Walter

  • by Long Lane,

    Long Lane Long Lane Sep 2, 2016 7:58 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (74 points)
    Sep 2, 2016 7:58 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks Linc, this helped me as well. After the 10.11.6 Security Update 2016-001, my primary user account was stuck at login in a lsd - CrashReporter endless loop. I tried a number of things, but going to /var/folders and deleting everything except the zz folder solved it for me.

     

    LL

  • by octavia2004,

    octavia2004 octavia2004 Sep 4, 2016 9:59 AM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Windows Software
    Sep 4, 2016 9:59 AM in response to toddhamilton

    Oh dear. I had this problem too when I did the last OSX software update today. It removed all my files, applictions and utilities.

    I followed your advice re deleting myself as a user, logging in as a guest, and then reinstating myself and the result is that all my files, photos, settings etc are gone even though I ticked the box to keep them. It is as though I have started from scratch.

  • by maxi75vr,

    maxi75vr maxi75vr Sep 4, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 4, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Great Great  Linc Davis the solution is perfect, you saved my Sunday evening.

    Yesterday I installed the latest update (10.11.6) has since then I have had this problem.

    Congratulations

  • by octavia2004,

    octavia2004 octavia2004 Sep 5, 2016 7:36 AM in response to toddhamilton
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Windows Software
    Sep 5, 2016 7:36 AM in response to toddhamilton

    Todd

    I followed what you did and deleted myself as a user but then came the problem, I am having difficulty reinstating my user account.

    I have followed the instructions Apple give for restoring a deleted account (mine from a folder not a disk image), as follows

    Restore the home folder from a disk image

    1. In the Finder, open the Deleted Users folder by choosing Go > Go to Folder, entering /Users/Deleted Users, then clicking Go.
    2. Open the disk image file for the deleted user’s home folder. The disk image filename begins with the user’s account name and ends with .dmg.The contents of the home folder appear in a new window.
    3. Hold down the Option key while dragging the small icon in the title bar of the new window to the Users folder. Click Authenticate, then enter an administrator name and password to proceed. The deleted user’s home folder is copied to the Users folder.
    4. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
    5. Click the lock icon to unlock it, then enter an administrator name and password.
    6. Click the Add button below the list of users.
    7. Click the New Account pop-up menu, then choose a type of user.
    8. Enter a full name for the user.An account name is generated automatically.
    9. If necessary, edit the account name so it matches the name of the deleted user’s home folder.
    10. Enter a password for the user in the Password and Verify fields, then enter a hint to help the user remember the password.
    11. Click Create User.
    12. Click Use Existing Folder.

    Restore the home folder from a saved folder

    1. In the Finder, open the Users folder by choosing Go > Go to Folder, entering /Users, then clicking Go. The deleted user’s home folder is in the /Users folder, and its name is the same as the user’s account name, followed by (Deleted).
    2. Rename the deleted user’s home folder by removing (Deleted), so that the folder name exactly matches the account name of the deleted user. You may be asked to enter your administrator name and password before you can rename the folder.
    3. Follow steps 3 through 12 of “Restore the home folder from a disk image,” above.

    But have two problems. The first is that I cannot understand what step 3 involves as my deleted users folder is already in the users folder. But more problematic is that step 12 never appears. What happens is that a duplicate users account is created with the same name as my deleted users account and, of course, when I log in using this new duplicate account it contains no files, documents, photos or films.

    All these "missing" items I can see are there under the original users folder. I tried copying them over to the new duplicate account but that takes me way past my storage limit as it involves about 150gb and I would rather not clutter up my storage with a duplicate set of files.

    What am I doing wrong?

  • by Luis Sequeira1,

    Luis Sequeira1 Luis Sequeira1 Sep 5, 2016 7:44 AM in response to octavia2004
    Level 6 (11,819 points)
    Sep 5, 2016 7:44 AM in response to octavia2004

    If you kept the user folder where it was, you will not have a disk image, so step 3 is unnecessary.

    The old user's home folder should already be there inside /Users - let's say the old user had a short name 'octavia': then the home folder should remain where it always was, /Users/octavia

     

    For step 12 to work you have to give the user you are creating the exact same short name matching the old user (and therefore matching the name in the old user's home folder) - so call it 'octavia' (or whatever it was in the first place).

  • by octavia2004,

    octavia2004 octavia2004 Sep 5, 2016 8:10 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1
    Level 1 (18 points)
    Windows Software
    Sep 5, 2016 8:10 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

    Luis

    Thanks. I did that, using the exact same name, having removed "Deleted" as item 2 of the Apple instructions say. But no "Use existing folder" option appears and I end up with two user accounts with identical names though one is my original account and the there is a new one and no way to add my original account back into "Users and Groups" using Systems Preferences.

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