somoma app menus not working

Since just updating to Sonoma 14.0 from 13.4 none of my app menus work properly. When you click once on a menu title it doesn't open. Click again and it does but, although you can mouse over, nothing is selected and btw the keyboard shortcuts are greyed out. Also from that point you cannot close a menu dropdown, but navigating to another menu title drops down that menu instead. Consequently you can't quit the app from the menu but command-q does work. For Finder you have to relaunch after option-command-escape. You can only get at system preferences via the control centre dropdown (e.g. wifi preferences) and for rebooting the power button seems the only option (I have rebooted). Menus to the right of the notch, apple and not, seem to work OK. The same problem occurs in safe mode, but in an alternative account everything seems to work OK. I have tried deleting the Finder ~/Library plist file, but no effect.

In other respects everything seems to be working OK, if you use keyboard shortcuts. Opening and navigating inside windows, using Mail and browsers, printing, etc.

This seems to be a general problem with one account on the device (M1 MBP). I wonder what else to try, without reinstalling the complete machine from scratch?

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 14, 2023 3:31 AM

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12 replies

Oct 14, 2023 11:21 AM in response to Bill Spears

Get a Time Machine backup.


Using your CCC as a source might work too, but it’s been a while since I’ve tried that with a disk image, and I’m haven’t ever tried migrating from CCC. (I also don’t generally recommend clone-based backups without having a whole lot of clones, too.) I have successfully migrated from Time Machine, and from Disk Images of the previous system.


Get a second backup. Disconnect that second backup and store it safely, as that disconnection should prevent that “spare” backup from being accidentally deleted, overwritten, modified, or corrupted.


Erase. Install. Use Setup Assistant to migrate from the backup. Setup Assistant is part of the New Mac setup sequence, and the migration is basically identical to Migration Assistant app run later.


First try with this sequence is to restore your whole environment; migrate all users and all file types.


See if that clears this menu issue.


If that propagates the issue with the menus, erase and re-install again, and select a subset to transfer (migrating files and documents and apps minimally, maybe some other categories most likely) and not preferences, when setting up or when migrating the data.


Related:


macOS - Apple Support

Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support




More generally, I’d avoid installing add-on cleaner apps, add-on security apps, add-on first-few-hops VPN client apps, as those types of apps have been seen to cause issues and privacy problems in various cases, while too often providing little or no user benefit.

Oct 14, 2023 1:45 PM in response to Bill Spears

Bill Spears wrote:

OK. But for the steps "Erase. Install" - how do I do that in practice? Can I use macOS Recovery and reinstall the OS from there? If not how can I erase the disk I am using, and where do I get the OS to install from?


Tap on the following three links, and read.


macOS - Apple Support

Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup - Apple Support

Transfer to a new Mac with Migration Assistant - Apple Support


macOS particularly makes migrating content part of its design, and what you are doing here is close to what happens when you acquire a new Mac.


I don’t think re-installing macOS atop itself—what Barney-15E is referring to—will solve this case, based in your comment that this works correctly in one login, but not your main login. Hence the migration-based sequence I’ve described.

Oct 18, 2023 12:01 PM in response to Bill Spears

Now a further update:

1/ After consultation with an Apple Reseller technical expert and trying a varied assortment of ideas we first deleted all system extensions, and then all old preferences in the affected user Library and finally all preferences, all with no effect.

2/ Apart from the problem with app menus the system seems to be working fine. For other users it is fully functional, so the conclusion that it is not the system at fault but some user background app or setting we can't find. I have since compared user login and background app settings and despite making them identical the problem persists.

3/ The suggestion of Mr Hoffmann looks to be the only solution but it is a lot of work and in the end one still has to decide what apps and files to take from backup. So I have decided to follow a close alternative to that which is to adopt the working account and migrate or give access to the non-functional user's files to the functional one. It's quicker and I can meanwhile still use my system. OK I have to set up the app preferences again in the new user space.

5/ Transferring browser tabs (Chrome) was a littler troublesome but an extension helped (I have about 300 open tabs for various work lines in progress), and that seems to be now OK. MS Office transferred OK with access to the old user Document folder files extended to the new user. Other apps look possible, if sometimes tricky. Mail could be troublesome - I have a dozen user accounts and 100 mailboxes mostly archives of work over the last 25 years so I would like to keep that - exporting each mailbox will take ages but I am wondering if I can just transfer the old user>Library>Mail contents to new user>Library>Mail (it's about 70 GB and I don't have the free space for a second copy). That looks like the easiest route but maybe I am missing something? Perhaps I have to set up the dozen user accounts in the new user Mail app first, and probably put all current mails into an archive folder before the transfer to avoid clashes. Can you advise on any of that? If that were to work I would be a lot closer to finished.

Oct 18, 2023 3:09 PM in response to Bill Spears

1/ After consultation with an Apple Reseller technical expert and trying a varied assortment of ideas we first deleted all system extensions, and then

if it didn’t work in Safe Mode, that was a waste of time.

2/34/5

if you have other users, specifically an admin user, you could just delete the bad user, and then migrate from a back up.

yes, it might bring the same problem back.

Oct 19, 2023 5:26 AM in response to Barney-15E

[Safe Mode] Yes of course, but you have to try, because who knows what is causing the problem.

[Delete and Migrate] A simple migration will surely bring the problem back. Hence the attempt to move bit by bit from one account to another on the same machine. It works. I just need some expertise now about whether migrating the library Mail folder from one account to another is just a matter of moving it in the file hierarchy to the new library, without a lot of file copying and duplication.

somoma app menus not working

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