Activity Monitor Inoperative

Question

Level 1

34 points

Activity Monitor Inoperative

I have an iMac Retina 4K, 21.5 inch, Late 2015, 3.1 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 8 GB of memory, 1 TB SATA Disk, running macOS Catalina Ver.10.15.2.

When I upgraded to Catalina I lost most of the functionality of my Activity Monitor. When I open the Activity Monitor I can see the description of the processes, but no associated numbers for CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, or Network. Can see graphs and number at bottom for totals. I think I have proper checks for columns in view selected.

Does anyone know what my problem could be?

Posted on Dec 15, 2019 3:02 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

60,284 points

Dec 16, 2019 8:46 PM in response to gartlandh

You can delete the Activity Monitor .plist preference file in "~/Library/Preferences". Make sure Activity Monitor is not running when you delete the preference file. When you relaunch Activity Monitor it should recreate the preference file with default settings. Option click on the "Go" menu in the Finder and select "Library". Then navigate to the "Preferences" folder in the Finder window which opens.

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Answer 2

gartlandh Author

Level 1

34 points

Dec 20, 2019 9:13 PM in response to kabaker

kabaker, thank you for your help. Problem solved. Once I knew the complete filename (com.apple.activitymonitor.plist) and that I had to unhide the files so I could see it, I could delete it and solve the problem. Activity monitor is back to normal. Thank you much!

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Answer 3

kabaker

Level 1

33 points

Dec 20, 2019 6:15 PM in response to kabaker

Also, you may have to use Cmd/Shift period (.) to show hidden files, or hold option/GO/Library/preferences.

Still, it does not remember adjusted column widths when the plist file is updated.

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Answer 4

gartlandh Author

Level 1

34 points

Dec 19, 2019 8:15 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks for your reply. I could not locate Activity Monitor.plst. Must be looking in wrong location. Can you be more specific re location.

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Answer 5

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,688 points

Dec 19, 2019 8:18 AM in response to gartlandh

That is because it is a .plist and not .plst !! Use FindAnyFile if you still have problems to locate the file.

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Answer 6

kabaker

Level 1

33 points

Dec 20, 2019 3:30 PM in response to rkaufmann87

The file is com.apple.ActvityMonitor.plist, and I also deleted the file com.apple.ActvityMonitor.plist.lockfile. If the system wants that file too, it can create it, I figure. That solved it.

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Activity Monitor Inoperative

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