Multiple icon missing (macbook pro retina)

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Multiple icon missing (macbook pro retina)

Hi there, I am seriously stuck with sorting out my macbook.

About a week ago, I turned on my macbook and some top right icons were missing (battery, spotlight, volume, wifi, bluetooth and backup). Its weird, the icons are missing but if you click where they should be, you can still use them. So its as if only the pictures have gone.

This problem is also affecting other applications like safari. All the icon pictures have disappeared but I am still able to use them.

If you could please help me that would be great, I'm hopeless when it comes to technical issues!!

Many thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 26, 2013 9:55 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 26, 2013 10:03 PM in response to ambermae.1

Could be corrupt preference list - com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

You can locate this file by

Finder>Go>Go to Folder

copy and paste:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

delete this file or move it to the desktop if you want to return it. Can be deleted later off the desktop.

Reboot or in terminal, copy and paste:

killall SystemUIServer

return, this will rebuild the plist you deleted.

Third party stat apps (menulets in upper right) might need to be replaced the way you like.

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Answer 2

ambermae.1 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 10:08 PM in response to leroydouglas

Thank you for your help. I've done everything, including copying what you said into terminal.

They are still not there, how do I replace them??

Thanks again, sorry! I'm hopeless!

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Answer 3

Jan 26, 2013 10:17 PM in response to ambermae.1

Something might have changed in ML.

Rebuild LaunchServices Database

Mountain Lion

YOu can run this line of code copy and paste

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

Return, It takes nearly a 60-80 secs to complete be patient it will put you back out at the prompt,

then enter

killall SystemUIServer

It is possible in Mountain Lion a SafeBoot may rebuild the Launch Service Database if the above is not effective.

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Answer 4

ambermae.1 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 10:22 PM in response to leroydouglas

Hi there, I entered this in terminal and it came up with 'no such file or directory'.

Did I enter this in the correct place??

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Answer 5

Jan 26, 2013 10:25 PM in response to ambermae.1

There is always a problem with this editor inserting breaks where they are not suppose to be, syntax is important. Let me post it again:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

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Answer 6

ambermae.1 Author

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Jan 26, 2013 10:28 PM in response to leroydouglas

Hi, I just performed safeboot and it worked instantly.

Thank you so so much!!! You have made my mac look normal again! 😝

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Answer 7

Jan 26, 2013 10:29 PM in response to ambermae.1

Great news. Thanks for the feedback.

Good computing !

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Answer 8

vrusp

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Jan 23, 2014 10:16 AM in response to ambermae.1

A similar thing happened to me. I solved it by right clickng on the desktop, selecting 'Sort By', then selecting 'Date Added'. The icons repainted. I suspect it doesn't matter what sort criteria you use.

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Answer 9

rwong48

Level 1

14 points

Apr 14, 2015 10:42 AM in response to ambermae.1

I had this issue suddenly (my OS randomly reported "too many open files" in stderr while idling, so I rebooted.. then I lost my icons forever)

All the cache wipes, LaunchServices/plist deletes, and reboots in the world didn't help. This was isolated to a single existing user profile, and creating a new profile was not worth the effort. I just went blind on icons for a while. (No Wi-Fi signal strength was one of the hardest to deal with)

But when I installed the OS X 10.10.3 update, they came back! Fortunately, the updater restored things that shouldn't have gone missing in the first place.

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