Application preferences randomly reset after recent Catalina update

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Application preferences randomly reset after recent Catalina update

Hi, I have a late 2013 27in iMac 14,2. When I installed the latest Catalina update (it doesn't support Big Sur), some of my preferences were reset. Things like my wallpaper, display settings, and login items remained the same, but the dock, Finder, system theme, etc. all reset to default. Even some applications like Preview and Disk Utility also lost their settings. A system restart seemed to fix it, but it soon returned to its default settings.

I tried resetting permissions for the home folder, but that didn't fix it. Running First-Aid on the Data partition resulted in this error:

Running First Aid on “Macintosh HD - Data” (disk1s5)

Verifying the startup volume will cause this computer to stop responding.

Verifying file system.
Volume could not be unmounted.
Using live mode.
Performing fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk1s5
Checking the container superblock.
Checking the EFI jumpstart record.
Checking the space manager.
Checking the space manager free queue trees.
Checking the object map.
Checking volume.
Checking the APFS volume superblock.
The volume Macintosh HD - Data was formatted by diskmanagementd (1412.81.1) and last modified by apfs_kext (1412.141.2).
Checking the object map.
error: omap entry (oid 0x3541b9): invalid ok_xid (0x800065af38)
Object map is invalid.
The volume /dev/rdisk1s5 could not be verified completely.
File system check exit code is 8.
Restoring the original state found as mounted.
File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Operation successful.

I restored Finder and System Preferences plist files from a TM backup, but the applications seemed to disregard them until a system restart. The only thing I can do to recreate the issue on command is restarting the application with:

killall Finder

or

killall Dock

These are the only two applications I tried it on. They reset their settings until a full system restart, not even killing the process will restore their settings. I was planning on doing an SSD upgrade anyways, so if this is a hard drive problem it's not too big of a deal. Does anyone know what's going on?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on May 8, 2021 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

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steve626

Level 6

10,067 points

May 8, 2021 9:14 PM in response to rizviAH

Here's what I suggest: install a new SSD and have a clean (vanilla) Catalina installed. I go to a nearby Apple Authorized Service Provider for this -- when I startup the computer with the new disk, it's like the first boot up of a new computer and the computer goes through first boot setup to create users or run Migration Assistant. Use your Time Machine backup to migrate over ONLY users accounts and user files, but NO applications, NO settings, nothing else. Then reboot and use software update to bring Catalina up to date. Reboot and then test to verify that the application preferences behave properly.

Since your machine at this point has only Apple software, there should be no problems. If there are problems, then you will have to follow a different more tedious process, but hopefully things will be working fine at this point.

Now reinstall from scratch (latest installers) your third party software, one or two at a time, retest for proper behaviors with preferences in between installs. When you re done, you should have a "normal" system.

If you want to expedite things a bit, you can simply migrate over EVERYTHING from your backup instead of just user files. That increases the chances that you will migrate over whatever caused the problem.

I have followed this cautious migration and reinstall this process myself and it does not take long and you will end up with a "clean" computer with your new SSD.

P.S. Make sure you have at least two good backups.

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Answer 2

steve626

Level 6

10,067 points

May 8, 2021 2:54 PM in response to rizviAH

That is a serious error (exit code 8, object map invalid) and it might or might not be related to the problems you are having.

Did you run Disk Utility/First Aid from Recovery Mode, booting with COMMAND-R held down? If not, try that and see if it can repair the problem. Make two good backups first before doing anything.

Is your drive nearly full? If so, the MacOS may have problems maintaining things without enough headroom, typically 10-15% needs to be free at a minimum.

If Disk Utility cannot repair it, you would need to erase and reformat that drive. It might fix the preference issues, cannot say for sure since the failed Disk Utility indicates disk file system corruption and it's always hard to say what that will cause, but it is usually not good. It sounds like you were going to replace the drive with a new SSD anyway.

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Answer 3

rizviAH Author

Level 1

4 points

May 8, 2021 8:34 PM in response to steve626

Thanks for the quick response! Running First Aid in recovery mode resulted in the same error and exit code.

There is almost 500GB remaining on the disk, so that can't be the problem. It looks like reformatting the drive is the last option :(. One last question though: if I do install an SSD and restore from a TM backup, will the preferences issues be fixed? I'm hoping that its just a hardware problem, but I really have no idea. Thanks again!

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Application preferences randomly reset after recent Catalina update

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