Cannot open new apps

MyMac8MyPC wrote:

Is there a way to reinstall the OS without losing all the other files and apps on the drive?

Totally. Reinstalling macOS doesn't affect anything with your User Accounts, your apps, or their files:

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.

Yes, I have run Disk Utility many, many times. It says there are errors but does not fix them.

What concerns me about the reinstall is that it says that it will install a new copy of the OS. Which implies a fresh copy. Just wanted to be sure it didn’t delete any files.

You haven't said what apps were problematic or how many are involved. Off hand it would seem that the new apps that you downloaded are either older 32 bit apps or are in some way incompatible. I would first advise you to contact the app provider to get help since that is their responsibility. Also, their web site will often have information about compatibilities and/or potential problems. You have given us nothing to work with to help you.

An inability to start your Mac in Safe Mode will hinder troubleshooting. Try this Terminal command:

sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

Superuser privileges are required so type your Admin password at the prompt. It will not be echoed, not even with •••• characters. Just type the password and press Return.

Your Mac will start in Safe Mode every time until undoing that NVRAM alteration. To undo it,

sudo nvram boot-args=""

Ronasara all apps are of course 64 bit and they all worked fine before updating to Catalina. Some of them include the newest version of Camtasia, TechTool Pro 12, the newest version of Office, etc. It’s not the apps, it’s whatever opens the apps or something with the directory being corrupted. One program told me that my partition map might be bad, but at this time I have no way to rebuild the directory since it’s the new Apple filling system and DiskWarrior 5 is not able at this time to rebuild newer directories.

Thank you John for that suggestion. I will try it and report back.

Sometimes, things go haywire because of corruption in the cache, etc. Have you done a safe mode restart? (Hold down the shift key at restart.) This fixes a lot of things. Keep in mind that a safe mode start may take up to 10 minutes while it fixes things. Give that a try and see what happens.

Don't use any version of "TechTool". Whatever usefulness it may have had expired well over a decade ago. It is now much more likely to exacerbate existing problems or create new ones of its own. Uninstall it and don't look back.

Exact same advice applies to Disk "Warrior". Don't use it. The fundamental principles on which it had been based are now woefully outdated. Use Time Machine.

Yes. It will not affect any of your files or apps unless you first traded the hard drive. Occasionally, that is necessary, but you would first back up your files, etc. to an external source. I believe the easiest way to reinstall the OS is to restart the computer while holding down the command and R keys. Then follow the prompts. It will take about an hour to download and another 45 minutes or so to install. Then follow the prompts to set it up.

Have you first tried to run Disk Utility? That might fix this. Sometimes it has to be run several times to get a full fix. When that is done, it will tell you that the disk is ok. Would give this a try first and see what happens. Good luck.

UPDATE:

As of yet I can't seem to find a way to get into Recovery Mode to reinstall the OS. Using the standard 'Command + R' does nothing, and it just bypasses it and boots normally. Is there a way to use terminal that will force the OS into Recovery Mode?

I have however found some information which leads me to believe that the hard drives directory might not be bad after all (still want to reinstall the OS though). According to this one website it says "Some third-party applications do not open or crash on launch. This is an issue Apple introduced in 10.15.4". This is exactly what's happening, the apps either don't open at all or they crash. This also explains why being in safe mode didn't do anything. Still trying to find a way to fix this.

I was able to get into Recovery Mode but I had to use Option + R. It would not allow me to reinstall High Sierra, instead it reverted back to Lion. When I chose Lion it said it wasn't compatible and wouldn't go any further.

I have a zip file of High Sierra. Can I somehow use that to somehow reinstall?

Wow. So sorry you're having such a difficult time. There are people here who are much smarter about such things than me, but here is another suggestion. Do you have an external drive? If you can install an OS on it, then you can use it to to restart from. Then you should be able to reformat your hard drive (assuming that you have backed up your files) and it will then accept a clean new OS.

If the same drive is being used as your back up, then maybe you could erase it, format it into two partitions, one for the new OS and the other for time machine back ups, if that is what you use (I do not). I use my back up as a duplicate of the HD by copying over all modified files, so t's up to date to the minute all the time.

Hang on. You will get there at some point/

Safe mode didn’t seem to help.

Is there a way to reinstall the OS without losing all the other files and apps on the drive?