Dictionary App stops working

Question

Level 1

11 points

Dictionary App stops working

On my MacBook Pro 16 inch, the built-in dictionary app stops working on some of the built-in dictionaries, like Oxford Chinese Dictionary, Oxford Thesaurus of English etc. (I cannot select the dictionary options from Preferences)

How could I reinstall the dictionary app?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 16", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 27, 2019 11:28 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Grant Ireland

Level 1

34 points

Jan 3, 2020 9:06 PM in response to Siaoming

Thank you for your reply. You put me on to the right track to resolve this.

This problem appears to be isolated to new 16" MBP because they are apparently running a special (???) build of Catalina whether upgraded to 10.15.2 or not.

Here is the solution without the need for a reinstall:

Temporarily disable System Integrity Protection to be able to remove the dictionary files in the following 2 folders.

Instructions here: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Security/Conceptual/System_Integrity_Protection_Guide/ConfiguringSystemIntegrityProtection/ConfiguringSystemIntegrityProtection.html

Remove all dictionaries from the Dictionary app within preferences

Remove all files within the following 2 folders:

/System/Library/AssetsV2/PreinstalledAssetsV2/InstallWithOs/com_apple_MobileAsset_DictionaryServices_dictionaryOSX

/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_DictionaryServices_dictionaryOSX

Reenable the dictionaries you require within preferences; these will now be redownloaded from Apple.

Be sure to reenable System Integrity Protection

Viola!!

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Answer 2

Siaoming Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 3, 2020 6:53 PM in response to Grant Ireland

Yes, you are right.

I searched for .dictionary and deleted all the *.dictionary files. Now it works fine.

Actually, before this, I also tried reinstall the whole system, but no luck.

The reason I would like to reinstall is that, I also have another issue:

connecting an external monitor for days, when unlocking the screen from black screen, the laptop monitor keeps flashing and external one stops working. However, after restarting, it is all good again. I hope the reinstallation could fix this together. However, again, no luck!

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