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Finder bar disappeared and all menus & links greyed out and unclickable after Monterey upgrade

Upgraded to Monterey in the last few months but can’t remember when which was working fine for a while then out of the blue the finder bar disappeared or won’t appear on hover over, all links (for lack of the correct term) in any finder windows like Downloads, ICloud, Desktop etc are greyed out and unclickable. Also shortcuts like Apple+Q don’t work for Safari etc. The dock does work however for very limited functionality. It’s like I’m half locked out of the computer but nothing was changed to do so.


I read something about fast switching settings being an issue but I can’t get to it under system preferences as again it won’t activate when I click on it. Any one else had this as I couldn’t find anything by searching. Help please!

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Jan 15, 2022 10:39 AM

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18 replies

Jan 16, 2022 4:22 AM in response to Nicoboyo

I’ve just tried a fresh install of Monterey and initially all seemed ok, until I restarted and then on reboot the same issue occurred. I also noticed I keep getting an error on reboot saying the computer didn’t shut down properly which also has something to do with it.


I also can’t access any files on HD as it says they can’t be found. Could be a hardware issue such a HD has died?


Currently, it’s utterly unusable.

Jan 16, 2022 8:16 AM in response to Nicoboyo

Nicoboyo wrote:

Yes the shortcuts, couldn’t think of the word, but they appear totally disabled as they’re all unclickable and a colour close to the background. If it’s a standard apple colour thing then that’s very daft.

You don't click a shortcut. You click the menu command. If you do click the shortcut, it doesn't matter as that is all part of the clickable portion of the menu item. If the menu command is disabled, then you can't click anywhere. If the menu command is enabled, you can click anywhere on the line. The shortcut color has nothing whatsoever to do with the command being enabled or not. If the command is available, the whole line will highlight in your selected highlight color.

If you can't tell the difference between the active and disabled commands in the menu, then you can try adjusting the black level (brightness) and contrast of your monitor in order to make them more obvious.

You can also try the contrast options in the Accessibility system preferences.

Jan 16, 2022 8:27 AM in response to Barney-15E

Does is really matter what they’re called?!? At the end of the day I know how to use the computer as I have used macs for years and I’m now saying nothing works. I can’t access any menu’s, I can just open system preferences but again I can’t access anything via the side menu bars etc.


Do you have any actual suggestions as to what the issue could be?

Jan 16, 2022 9:33 AM in response to Barney-15E

I’m conscious I’m not explaining myself very well so I have just tried reinstalling Monterey again as I’m running out of ideas and it worked ok again for first boot straight after install, so I took a photo which shows main Apple menu bar / Finder as present and everything working as required with Favouties, ICloud, Locations all working accessible and also showing white, hence active. The second photo I took straight after a restart which shows no Apple bar / Finder visible and Favourites, ICloud, Locations menu items all ‘greyed out’ as they’re not active/clickable etc. I also took some videos but hopefully the photos help explain enough (even though I can’t rotate them as I’m posting from my iPad).


It’s certainly not something I have seen in 20 yrs or so of using Macs..


Jan 16, 2022 9:45 AM in response to Nicoboyo

In the Dock & Menu Bar System Preferences, you can set a preference to automatically show and hide the menu bar; however, where your cursor is placed should have revealed the menu bar.

The Sidebar in the second picture is how it would look if the window was not active. Clicking on the window should activate it and the sidebar contents should change to white.

Jan 16, 2022 2:27 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Sorry but I don’t think any of you are grasping how nothing is working!! I CAN NOT click anything, I CAN NOT use any short cuts like apple Q or short cuts to take screen shots! This is so frustrating as it only allows me to log in and see a home screen but aside from opening system preferences as it was still in my ‘recents’ in my dock, the computer will do nothing. I can open Safari from the dock but I can’t type anything!


This is my 5th Mac in over 20 odd years so I know how they work as a designer, just not how to fix them otherwise I would jump on the genius band wagon. So please spare me the snide commentary on my poor terminology and ways I deemed best to put my issue across to be better understood and resolved..


I downloaded said software and uploaded the report. I notice you didn’t comment on that?

Finder bar disappeared and all menus & links greyed out and unclickable after Monterey upgrade

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