Everytime I start my MacBook, I get two error message. Both says "The file can't be found". This has been happening ever since I updated to big sur. I have to click on "OK" to make them go away.
It has nothing to do with plugging in my phone.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2
Open Users and Groups in System Preferences.
Click the lock at the bottom of the window and enter your password to unlock the preference pane.
Look under the Login Items tab and consider if one or more of them are obsolete or might have been removed from its original location by the Big Sur updater as being incompatible with Big Sur. If you updated from High Sierra, one of them might be 32 bit and incompatible.
Open Users and Groups in System Preferences.
Click the lock at the bottom of the window and enter your password to unlock the preference pane.
Look under the Login Items tab and consider if one or more of them are obsolete or might have been removed from its original location by the Big Sur updater as being incompatible with Big Sur. If you updated from High Sierra, one of them might be 32 bit and incompatible.
It sounds like some older software was installed long ago that is no longer running under Big Sur and residual pieces are unable to find files that are needed.
The Users and Groups System Preferences panel is the first (and preferred) place to go to fix this. You tried that and the errors are still occurring. This article https://www.macworld.com/article/2047747/take-control-of-startup-and-login-items.html explains how to go to certain folders on your Mac to look for the culprit(s) and remove it (or them). Follow the instructions carefully.
Those error messages might be mostly harmless (although I would figure out where they are coming from and fix it) but something no longer working is telling you it can't find a startup file. That said, you should also check that the version of CrashPlan you have is compatible with Big Sur. If not, you may need to reinstall it. That's your backup and you should make sure that it's working properly.
That sounds like a bug. Big Sur is fairly new and may have such bugs.
Meanwhile:
That article suggested looking here for outdated items
/Users/your-username/Library/LaunchAgents
Did you look in that area also? Note that you should not modify the System folders as noted in the article.
Finally, two other things you can try, if you have the patience!
(1) Restart computer and log in as another user. You can create a new user fairly easily (in that Users and Groups System Preferences). If you still get the error message, it's system wide, not user specific.
(2) Boot into Safe Mode, by holding SHIFT when booting up. This may take 10-20 minutes. Did you get the error when booting into Safe Mode? Safe Mode disables extra extensions that you installed. It also clears some caches, which might be holding on to some older things no longer desired and also checks the file system. I think Safe Mode is a long shot for fixing this but it might. Then reboot normally and see if the messages go away.
Sorry, I just did find Login Items. And that could be my problem. There is a list of 7 programs. 4 of them have a little yellow triangle with a ! sign inside. When I hover my mouse over the !, I get the message: "This item couldn't be found". But there are FOUR of those errors, not two. And one item that could not be found is my on-line backup "CrashPlan menu bar", and I see CrashPlan in the menu bar...
But anyway, I'll click the "hide" box on the four !, and see what happens.
thanks again
This free app may well point it out...
EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.
Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…
Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...
<script src="https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA"></script>
The important part of the above is...
https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA
Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...
Clicking "hide" will not resolve it, you need to first select the problem item then click the little minus sign at the bottom of the box to actually remove it. Then restart and see if the error message is gone. However you should first make a note of what is there and then check with the vendor to see if you need to reinstall a new version for Big Sur. The ones that show "not found" can simply be removed, they aren't loading anyway since they can't be found. But you may want to reinstall them if you want them to be working on your Mac.
Thank you for your response. I unlocked the lock, and clicked on the bar, But I don't see a "Login items" tab. But I do see a bar with a home icon and the words "Login Options". If I click it, the bar turns blue, but there is no list of programs that start up when I start the computer. Instead there are 4 check boxes, two of which are checked -- show fast user switching, and show buttons. I don't actually see a "Login Items" tab, only a "Login Options" bar.
Yes, I did that. I clicked the item, and hit the minus sign -- all four of the things that couldn't be found. They went away. I rebooted the computer -- twice, and it did not work. I still got the TWO error messages that an item couldn't be found. Darn, so close, yet so far. thanks for your help though.
Thanks again for your help. I read the article, and then went to my library/startupitems, and found a folder with a 2013 date called "bresinkx86Monitoring". I removed it. I found nothing in my systems/library/startupitems. But having removed one item from the library/startupitems folder, I rebooted my mac. And guess what? I still got the two "The file can't be found." error messages. Nothing has changed. Oh well, I don't reboot the computer often, and it's no big deal to click OK twice. I can live with it.
But the real frustrating thing is.... Each error message has a ? icon in the upper right corner. When one clicks on the ?, one gets a blank window -- a window completely white and blank. NO information at all. This is clearly a BUG that Apple should eventually fix. If nothing else, the ? help button should work.
Thanks Steve for trying.
The file can't be found.
