Joe Fitzgerald

Q: System and Finder Preferences not saving

I'm very frustrated with OS X Lion.

First I hate the app windows in my face when I first start up my computer. There is a reason I quit them and shut off my computer. I don't want to see them every time I turn on my computer.

 

It's easy to shut off? Just go into system prefrences and uncheck "Restore Windows when quitting and re-opening apps". Easy except for one minor detail. My system preferences don't save. I uncheck it and restart guess what? It's checked again.

 

Preferences saving is not limited to the System prefereneces though. The finder and all my app preferences are not able to be saved either.

 

This is very frustrating.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 28, 2011 7:49 AM

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Q: System and Finder Preferences not saving

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  • by cesário,

    cesário cesário Sep 7, 2011 3:17 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 7, 2011 3:17 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    This solved my problem. Thanks!

  • by TheActualCustomer,

    TheActualCustomer TheActualCustomer Sep 15, 2011 3:16 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 15, 2011 3:16 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    This is a joke.  My system is ruined.  I've spent days trying to get to a working system again.  Re-install os - no way!!!  That's why I bought a mac, but LION IS A MESS APPLE!!!

     

    I'll have to wait for the patch to be released to sort out all the BUGS and in the meantime implement all the workarounds that the net is full of because of people trying to deal with this os.

     

    Actually I might try that download...  I'll get back to you on it....

  • by TheActualCustomer,

    TheActualCustomer TheActualCustomer Sep 16, 2011 2:22 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2011 2:22 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    Batchmod fixed the problem - thanks Joe.  Looks like we need to be unix admins with mac os nowadays.

    I'm also considering reinstalling with snow leopard and having a clean system, but this might be difficult with iphoto, itunes etc..

  • by stracuzzi,

    stracuzzi stracuzzi Oct 13, 2011 7:29 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2011 7:29 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    bigrich18, thanks. Trashing Finder preferences worked for me. In addition to com.apple.sidebarlists.plist, I also trashed com.apple.finder.plist. Rebooted and now it remembers the default folder I'd chosen as well as the other finder preference settings.

     

    Here's a slightly more detailed step-by-step process I found:

    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/finder.html

  • by Monica Lamperd,

    Monica Lamperd Monica Lamperd Oct 29, 2011 11:54 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2011 11:54 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    Hi all,

     

    Just posting my solution to the problem - our biggest concern was that all our applications kept opening on start-up and they seemed to be stuck from the day that we upgraded to Lion (the iTunes user agreement would keep appearing, iPhoto would keep telling us to upgrade, Firefox was showing the "Well this is embarrassing" page, etc)

     

    The problem was that the system preferences weren't saving so we couldn't keep the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps" unchecked. Tried all the solutions here, nothing worked, including trashing the com.apple.systempreferences.plist. However, it WAS working on a different account on the computer, so we were almost resigned to moving everything across to a new account and starting again.

     

    Finally I decided just to trash the com.apple.iPhoto.plist & restarted the computer to see if that would fix it for iPhoto specfically and for some reason that completely fixed the problem. No more issues with System Prefs not saving and all applications are staying closed on start up. Currently having celebratory drinks as it has been a major problem for us ever since upgrading!

     

    Hope this solution can be used for anyone who is still having problems with this. My guess would be, try trashing the plist file for any application that is continuing to open on startup.

     

    - Monica & Aaron

  • by bigBrotha,

    bigBrotha bigBrotha Nov 5, 2011 4:37 PM in response to bigrich18
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2011 4:37 PM in response to bigrich18

    Hi bigrich18,

     

    this seems to work for me too. In my case iMail and Safari and keychain did not save there values.

     

    I stop the programs, deleted the com.apple.xxx.plist and .lockfile then logged out and in again (important as it did not work, only deleting the files)

     

    Now email, safari and keychain work again.

     

    I hope I don't have to do that with all programms!!!

     

    Regards

                  Alex

  • by Mark23,

    Mark23 Mark23 Nov 13, 2011 7:40 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 3 (975 points)
    Nov 13, 2011 7:40 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    No need to do a clean install or other complicated stuff. This worked for me:

     

     

    1. Open up Terminal (/Programs/Utilities/Terminal.app)

     

    2. Enter "chmod -RN ~/Library/Preferences" (without the quotation marks)

     

    3. Hit return.

     

     

    Repairing permissions doesn't seem to work for home folders...

     

    HTH

  • by paudi,

    paudi paudi Nov 26, 2011 1:42 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 26, 2011 1:42 AM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    Thanks, finally Batchmod solves the problem om my Mac!

  • by sparky146,

    sparky146 sparky146 Feb 6, 2012 7:17 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 6, 2012 7:17 AM in response to Mark23

    I did what Mark23 suggested and the problem solved!

     

    Thanks Mark23!

     

    This is the absolute solution!

     

    RECOMMENDED!!

  • by stracuzzi,

    stracuzzi stracuzzi Feb 8, 2012 9:11 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2012 9:11 AM in response to Mark23

    thanks Mark23!

  • by danielabr,

    danielabr danielabr Mar 12, 2012 11:36 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2012 11:36 AM in response to Mark23

    I was going crazy with this problem! Mark23 solution worked. Thanks

  • by riffraf,

    riffraf riffraf Mar 16, 2012 12:08 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Mar 16, 2012 12:08 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    Thanks Joe! This solved my preferences issues today after hours of failed attempts!  Rob

  • by npe25oct,

    npe25oct npe25oct Mar 29, 2012 8:36 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 29, 2012 8:36 AM in response to Mark23

    Thanks so much Mark23, no more frustrations and worries about my iMac

  • by markperth,

    markperth markperth Apr 4, 2012 5:26 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2012 5:26 PM in response to Joe Fitzgerald

    BatChmod didn't work for me ... system preferences still don't save :-(

  • by cliftontommy,

    cliftontommy cliftontommy May 9, 2012 6:03 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2012 6:03 AM in response to Mark23

    This was it, thank you Mark23.  It is a well needed solution. 

     

    FYI,

     

    I am a photographer and my workflow on my MBP was stopped because none of my files could be deleted or renamed.  So I used BATCHmod App (http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/6440/batchmod) and changed the ownership for my user to R W X and for Staff to R W X, then checked the following at the bottom, Change Owenership and Privilidges, Unlock, Clear ACLs, and Apply to enclosed folders and files.  This resolved my issue with changing file names etc.

     

    But then on reboot my system preferences were not changing.  so I followed Mark23's instructions and did this...

    1. Open up Terminal (/Programs/Utilities/Terminal.app)

     

    2. Enter "chmod -RN ~/Library/Preferences" (without the quotation marks)

     

    3. Hit return.

     

    Thanks Mark

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