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Monterey OS 12.4-Dock unresponsive, Multiple desktop use creates lockup, Other anomalies

Dock is or becomes unresponsive. If Magnification is on, the magnified icons tend to track the position of the cursor in the upper menu bar: IE: If one clicks on a menu dropdown on the left, the dock icons directly below rise up and stay risen until the cursor is moved somewhere else in the upper menu.  The dock cursors remain in the raised state when the cursor is moved to elsewhere on the screen. Does not happen when Magnification is turned off. 


Dock Icons Unresponsive: Clicking on a Dock icon to activate an app gets no expected response: IE: App activates.  I have to either right click to get the pop up menu up, then click on "Open," (which doesn't always happen) or go the Applications folder and click on the app to get it to open.  


Multiple Desktop Use Creates Lockup: Attempting to use “Control+Up Arrow” to bring in the row of multiple desktop icons above the menu bar puts only about 1/8th of the bottom of the icons visible above the menu bar, and also causes a lengthy lockup of the screen activity.  IE:  Clock keeps ticking, the mouse pointer can move, but clicking on anything does nothing.  There are Seven different desktops and backgrounds, none of which cause/caused problems on earlier OS versions, including 10.13 10.14 and 10.15.


After a minute to 90 seconds the partial row of icons disappears, and it becomes possible to use Control+Left or Right arrow key to move between desktops, but clicking on anything produces no results.


After several more minutes of waiting, it appears to clear itself, and I could resume typing this (In Notes, so I didn’t lose the content if I had to restart.) 


Background:

Just installed Mac OS 12.4 (21F79) Monterey on Mac Mini (Late 2014)  with 1.4GHz Dual core Intel i5, 4GB RAM, and new Samsung SSD 870 EVO 1TB freshly set up with GPT (GUID Partition Table) and 999.86 GB Apple_APFS partition.


Things seemed to work fine after install and during some post-install app updates and other activities. 


After several hours away from the Mini, I began noticing weird behavior, and have been investigating since. 


Any ideas as to cause?  Resolution? 


Thanks much in advance. Happy to provide more info and answer questions.


Cheers from California.

Posted on Jun 5, 2022 6:28 PM

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Posted on Jun 5, 2022 10:19 PM

Sooo... I rebooted in Safe mode. That seemed to have no problems. I was able to set up a Test account. Restarting in regular mode, and Logging into it... also no problems. Restarting and logging into my main account... Doesn't have the earlier problems, and seems to have no issues so far.


Thanks for reading.


Ted

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 5, 2022 10:19 PM in response to Ted Langdell

Sooo... I rebooted in Safe mode. That seemed to have no problems. I was able to set up a Test account. Restarting in regular mode, and Logging into it... also no problems. Restarting and logging into my main account... Doesn't have the earlier problems, and seems to have no issues so far.


Thanks for reading.


Ted

Jun 5, 2022 6:37 PM in response to Ted Langdell

6:33 PM: Went to set up a new account to test whether the issue followed accounts. Also to re-boot in Safe Mode to see whether the issue existed there. Discovered that I could not get the padlock on the "Users and Groups" pane to unlock. Clicking on the pane did select it... but no alterations possible.


Will boot in Safe Mode and see what happens.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support


Jun 6, 2022 8:08 PM in response to Ted Langdell

I SPOKE TOO SOON! Still having issues very much like initially described. Working fine late in the evening, then again this morning.


Have removed ALL apps that were loading during startup to see if one of them was responsible. No major change.


Using the “Control+Up Arrow” to bring in the multi-desktop switcher above the menu bar brings it down only 1/8 or less of the way.


Dock still unresponsive. Still tracks mouse movement and clicks in the upper menu bar.


Ideas? Suggestions?


Monterey OS 12.4-Dock unresponsive, Multiple desktop use creates lockup, Other anomalies

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