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10.6.8 and User Switching Display Issues

Hi,

Installed latest update 10.6.8 but now when switching from one user account to another (have 2 admin users setup) , instead of the graphic desktop rotate between user desktops, it instantly shows the desktop you selected (with all apps/windows open), screen fades in blue and then fades back to the desktop that it showed you. I haven't changed a thing apart the install.

Anyone else encountering this and how do I fix it..I do like the speed, but the blue flash is irritating to say the least. Only issue I have.

Any thoughts? Help!

Cheers.... 🙂

Running iMac 2009 i5, upgraded from 10.6.7

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jun 24, 2011 9:48 AM

37 replies

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 26, 2011 11:30 PM in response to AnaMusic

Thanks for the info, appreciated

AnaMusic

Level 9

57,562 points

Jun 26, 2011 11:32 PM in response to Angelray

You're Welcome, 🙂

Chachi

Level 4

2,525 points

Jun 27, 2011 5:38 AM in response to Angelray

Spoke with a fellow long time Mac user and he claims he does not see this new behavior in his install of 10.6.8. He said, "I still have the cube transition when switching back and forth between logged-in users." I can create as many new user accounts as I want, log back and forth between them, and only see the cube effect when a user is not already logged in. Thing is, I see the cube effect PLUS this fancy new blue screen fading junk! Why would some people see this "new effect" while others still have the old cube effect... IF indeed this new behavior is to be expected?! This new "effect" also IS NOT faster for me! At times... I log in, screen fades blue, then I sit there staring at a blue screen until my TimeMachine backup disk wakes up. As MAP_23 said, "what I have understood is that a bluescreen is indicative of something wrong". That's been my experience with any blue screen in the past as well!!

Chachi

Level 4

2,525 points

Jun 27, 2011 6:02 AM in response to Király

I tried deleting this file on my system, actually 2 different Prefence files...

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX X.plist

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX XXXXXXXX.plist

Logged out and back in and still had the same problem. Then I found and deleted the following file from the top level Library...

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

After restarting the computer, what do ya know, back to the old cube effect with NO fading blue screen junk!! The cube effect happens whether a user is logged in or not, JUST like it always has!! Not sure which file, or all, did the trick in my case.

Can't believe Apple lied to Angelray when he called for support!!

Thanx a million Király!!!

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2011 9:00 AM in response to Király

Excellent, thanks you are right on the nose with that file. I also followed Chachi with the main library one as well, beautiful..it now fully works.

Thanks 🙂

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2011 9:08 AM in response to Chachi

I only needed to remove (moved them just in case)

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX XXXXXXXX.plist

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

Restarted the machine.....problem gone away. Don't know what these particular do, by hey it works as it should be. No sure if one or both removed resolves the issues..both removed just in case.

I still can't believe that Apple stuck by the 'expected behaviour' , hope it was a one off hiccup in their support.

Appreciate everyones assistance and confirming that it wasn't just me, especially Király (star player) and yourself with solutions 🙂

Chachi

Level 4

2,525 points

Jun 27, 2011 9:41 AM in response to Angelray

SO glad you posted this topic to begin with, thought I was the only one and was getting more than a little bummed! 😀 Glad we've got our cube transissions back in order the way they should be! That blue screen fade "effect" (BUG!) was annoying to say the least!

I did a bit more experimenting and found that having any one of those preference files would cause me problems! Are you going to contact your Apple support friend and let him know just how wrong he was?! I sure would! Either way, definitely report this problem to Apple as a bug and point them to this thread for the solution.

We definitely owe Király our grattitude for sure!! Don't know when, or if, I would've ever figured this one out without the help.

All the best Angelray!

Cbody

Level 1

5 points

Jun 27, 2011 10:14 AM in response to Chachi

Thanks to you an Kiraly. You are champions...

Cheers!

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2011 10:15 AM in response to Chachi

We weren't alone and I agree, we owe a lot to Király 🙂 . Lot happier that we have the cube effect back.

I have raise a bug report with Apple and pointed to this thread for all details and solution.

All the best to you Chachi, rest easy 😎

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2011 10:16 AM in response to Cbody

Fully agree 🙂

Király

Level 6

10,025 points

Jun 27, 2011 3:50 PM in response to Angelray

Glad to help.

IME, bad preference and cache files tend to cause most account-related problems. Moving blocks of pref and cache files in and out and logging out/in is how I narrow down which one was causing the issue. It worked again for me this time.

Jun 27, 2011 4:22 PM in response to Angelray

😟

Im having this issue but when I searched for ANY windowserver files I found none. I also tried manually looking in the locations listed above but (as expected) nothing in there. I tried a restart just in case but that didn't help.

Any other ideas?

Angelray Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 27, 2011 11:04 PM in response to Bennybeanbag

Can only suggest for you to check all user accounts which I did for the following files:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXX X.plist

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX XXXXXXXX.plist

Only the latter one was located in only one account.

The other file was located from the root : /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

Can anyone else suggest anything?

Jun 28, 2011 12:09 AM in response to Angelray

Thanks for the reply. I did check all accounts (mine and my wife's which are standard user accounts and then the Admin account) and still don't have these files showing up.

Does anyone have any other suggestions as clearly there is something else causing the same outcome as the windowserver.plist files?

Jun 28, 2011 3:07 AM in response to Angelray

So it turns out I couldn't see for looking! I didn't have any of these files in ~/Library/Preferences/but they were there in ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ and in the root /Library/Preferences so two out three.

I had to get rid of both to solve the issue but I'm wondering if just getting rid of the root file would do it.

Thanks to all for their help.

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10.6.8 and User Switching Display Issues