I know this issue is more than a year old, but when I use the selection tool to do a screen capture of a portion of my screen, the area I captured remains highlighted until I reboot the machine. The rest of the screen is darkened, which is really annoying. I see an old thread from last year on this, but it is still happening.
Is there a way to make this go away without a reboot?
Hello, Toddzilla1.
Sorry that you're having this problem with your Mac.
See if the problem still happens in Safe mode (hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.
CLick> How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support
Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's normal.
Does the problem persist while in Safe mode?
Exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally and re-evaluate the issue again.
If the problem is still unresolved, please return here and post a reply and we’ll see what else we can come up with for help.
@BDAqua is correct.
I recommend that you run an EtreCheck evaluation of your Mac. EtreCheck is a diagnostic app that gathers important info about your hardware and software and reports it back to you. It is very highly regarded and meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help others help you troubleshoot and resolve your Mac problems.
Please navigate to EtreCheck.com and download the free version of EtreCheck. Once you’ve run the app and created your report please post it with your reply to this message.
You must upload the full report. To see how, please click How to use Add Text when posting… EtreCheck Report.
We can use the EtreCheck report to look for the more obvious things that may be causing your problem and advise how to correct them.
I believe you'll be advised by most here to uninstall all of the Norton/Symantic software.
The problem is probably all of this:
Antivirus software: Apple and Symantec
Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.sharedsettings.MES.plist
Executable: /Library/Application Support/Symantec/Silo/MES/DomainSettings/SymSharedSettingsd
System Extensions:
[Running] SymantecEndpointSecurity - version 9.0.5 (Symantec - 2021-07-19)
Application: /Applications/Norton 360.app - version 9.0.5 (Symantec - 2021-07-19)
Launch Daemons:
[Loaded] com.symantec.SymLUHelper.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Loaded] com.symantec.UninstallerToolHelper.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Running] com.symantec.VPNService.plist (Symantec - installed 2020-10-06)
[Running] com.symantec.dsp.nortonaggregatord.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Other] com.symantec.liveupdate.daemon.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Running] com.symantec.sharedsettings.MES.plist (? 84ffa067 - installed 2021-04-19)
[Running] com.symantec.symdaemon.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Loaded] com.symantec.symqual.detail.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Loaded] com.symantec.symqual.panicreporter.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
[Loaded] com.symantec.symqual.submit.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
Launch Agents:
[Running] com.symantec.uiagent.application.MES.plist (Symantec - installed 2021-07-07)
User Login Items:
[Loaded] Norton 360 (Symantec - installed 2021-07-19)
Application
/Applications/Norton 360.app
[Running] Norton Secure VPN (Symantec - installed 2021-05-12)
Application
/Library/Application Support/Symantec/Norton Secure VPN.app
Diagnostics Information (past 7-30 days):
2021-08-27 10:13:52 SymDaemon Crash (3 times)
Executable: /Library/Application Support/Symantec/*/SymDaemon
If you keep your software updated, macOS is secure and capable of keeping itself that way. There is no need to run any anti-virus, “cleaning”, “speed-up” or “optimizing” apps. In fact, most anti-virus and cleaning apps are less than helpful on the Mac and often cause more problems and headache than they prevent because they conflict with the macOS’ built in securities. If you currently have this type of app installed, you should uninstall it according to the developer's instructions, and continue to use best practices when using your Mac.
click> macOS - Security - Appl
Please, also see these support documents:
click> Effective Defenses Against Malware (John Galt)- Apple Community
click> How to install adware (John Galt)- Apple Community
click> Avoid phishing emails, fake 'virus' alerts…and other scams - Apple Support
All of the Norton stuff is gone. The Malwarebytes scan did not find anything.
I am still experiencing the same behavior.
Rebooting the machine resolves the problem, so rebooting in safe mode should easily resolve the problem. But if I am doing work that requires a series of screen shots, this means multiple reboots in a day, which is impractical at best.
Since this issue has been around for a while, I am wondering if a fix has been identified, or at least a better way to resolve it without having to resort to rebooting the whole machine.
To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...
Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.
Does it work in the new account?
Yes, this was the purpose of the safe boot; to see if the problem recurred afterward. 🙁
Have you tried creating a new user account on the Mac to see if the problem is system wide or only happens in your user account? If the problem also happen in a newly created user account then the system is affected and not just you user. That would indicate that maybe the fix will be to reinstall macOS. To be clear, reinstalling the OS can be done nondestructively without having to erase, partition, delete or reformat anything and without affecting your installed apps and data.
I built a new account and the problem does not exist on the new account. Apparently the problem is me! Or more accurately it is associated with my account. Where can I find the process for reinstalling the OS?
I don't blame you. Few veteran users here will advise anyone to install Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, CleanMyMac or any other of similar apps. They really are more trouble than they're worth.
Only a couple lightweight utilities make the cut around here; EtreCheck and Malwarebytes come to mind.
Let us know how things go with this situation after you dig that stuff out.
Don't forget to restart your Mac.
Run another EtreCheck report to make sure all the Norton bits got deleted.
Then download and run Malwarebytes and see if it identifies anything untoward. https://www.malwarebytes.com
This pushed me over the edge on the Norton stuff. It has been more trouble than it is worth on the Mac anyway.
Here you go!
As an aside, booting up in safe mode also does not prevent this problem from occurring.
And the problem persists after rebooting again after being in safe mode....
Get out of my mind! 🤣
Screen Capture Highlight Won't Go Away
