macOS 12.7.2 Monterey - Wallpaper has gone black - hiding the dock, too!

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macOS 12.7.2 Monterey - Wallpaper has gone black - hiding the dock, too!

My MacBook Pro - 2016 (2.9 gHz dual core i5)16 gb RAM) ran Big Sur 11.7.10 just fine but I needed to upgrade to macOS 12.7.2 (to run TurboTax 2023) and when I did, I now, a few minutes after startup, have a totally black wallpaper - and this hides the dock - I can not see nor use the dock.

I removed essentially everything that is not standard “macOS” - but this still occurs - essentially rendering my MacBook Pro useless… (well OK yes, I can see and access the HD on the black wallpaper but not the dock…) I have spend days trying to fix this. Starting in SAFE mode still gives me this issue. Sometimes it clicks over to the correct Wallpaper - but 25 out of 26 times it stays or goes back to the ALL BLACK Wallpaper.

I reinstalled macOS 11.7.10 and this problem did not occur. Then I re-reinstalled macOS Monterey and neither 12.6 or the latest 12.7.2 worked - same black wallpaper problem. Yes, I’ve tried to change the wallpaper but that doesn’t work.

This MacBook Pro cannot upgrade any further (for example to Ventura or Sonoma) - and as said, I need Monterey to do my taxes this year!

AND: Soon I’ll be upgrading my desktop Mac Mini to Monterey (then Ventura then Sonoma) - but I’m kinda afraid to do that thinking I’ll get the same black wallpaper covering-up my dock.

Thanks for any thoughts here.

Steve on Monday 1 January 2024

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Jan 1, 2024 8:45 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jan 1, 2024 11:09 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Have you blown the dust out of the intakes lately?

See if you can get & run this...

What temperatures does this App report? Especially the GPU.

This App can be used to speed up the fans, all my iMacs would be dead without it.

Never ever ever drop fan speeds below the speed that the Mac itself is calling for.

MacFansControl…

https://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jan 1, 2024 1:22 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

Using EtreCheck - Apple Community

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…

Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community

Use the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jan 2, 2024 5:47 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Ok, great...

Uninstall CleanMyMac per their directions , then run etrecheck again to see what chaff it left...

On CMM…

iMac scrolling impossible with Monterey - Apple Community

mystery startup items - Apple Community

iMac running slow, several apps unrespons… - Apple Community

MBP won't wake from sleep Sierra 10.12.6.… - Apple Community

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251464557?answerId=252841819022#252841819022

Unable to make any changes to contacts on… - Apple Community

macOS Catalina iMac (Retina 5k) 3.4 Ghz q… - Apple Community

Delete these files & restart...

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.xrx.faxdb.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bjango.istatmenus.fans.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.eltima.ElmediaPlayer.daemon.plist

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.epson.pma.launcher.plist

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.epson.esua.launcher.plist

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.epson.Epson_Low_Ink_Reminder.launcher.plist

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.epson.eventmanager.agent.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.samsung.portablessdplus.mon.plist

~ tilde indicates your user library folder

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Method 1:

1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.

2 In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.

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Answer 4

Jan 1, 2024 11:26 AM in response to BDAqua

I think you may be replying to something else here-- I'm talking about a software issue -- my MBP fans and everything else hardware related is 100% fine. Again, seems you were replying to someone else's post but it somehow landed here… (And BTW I've used Mac Fan Control for a decade or more).

To reiterate: This is a software issue. About 1 in 25 tries I get the correct Wallpaper - but that's obviously not going to work when I leave on a 6 week trip with this Mac mid-January 24. And remember - this all works great if I just go back to macOS BIG SUR -- so no, not a hardware issue -- Thanks, Steve Monday 1 January 2024

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Answer 5

Jan 1, 2024 11:50 AM in response to BDAqua

Hey thanks for your reply back and you’re right I thought I’d mentioned that I could run the MacBook Pro on Big Sur but I guess I didn’t… Sorry about that my bad (do they still say that?)

Much appreciated and I’m really working on a solution here it’s a very odd one but probably do to some other software (I like all types of shareware) and the solution might be just doing a totally clean install which has its own issues… Thanks again much appreciated and if anyone else has had something similar to this please reply whether you’ve got a solution or not. Steve on 1 January’24.

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Answer 6

Jan 2, 2024 4:14 AM in response to BDAqua

Wallpaper black Dock is hidden

OK I did the etrecheck and the copied report is included in the extra text section as requested.

The part about Time Machine being more than 10 days old: I DO NOT USE TIME MACHINE. (I use SuperDuper and CCC).

NOTE: I think I really need to do a fully CLEAN INSTALL on my MacBook Pro-2016 (and likely my Mac Mini-2018 after that!) I don't think I've done a clean install since my MacSE in 1989 and there seems to be a LOT of JUNK and such on this Mac. Comments appreciated. AND: How would I do a CLEAN INSTALL of macOS 12.x Monterey? I believe I need to use a terminal command?

Thanks for any and all comments.

Steve on Tue 02 Jan 2024

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jan 1, 2024 11:41 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Oh, it wasn't clear that you cold go back to Big Sur & it worked fine.

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macOS 12.7.2 Monterey - Wallpaper has gone black - hiding the dock, too!

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