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TextEdit won't display recent files

TextEdit won't display recent files! THIS USED TO WORK-- but now all I see is the words (greyed-out) "Clear Menu". Not even sure what that means.


My recent files works fine in WORD and other applications that offer this. Any comments appreciated as to how to get this feature back!


Best regards,



Steve Schulte

Friday 22 March 2013

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, Also a Mac SE running 6.0.4 - not upgrading that!

Posted on Mar 22, 2013 7:17 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 22, 2013 7:20 AM

How many "Recent Items" have you selected in System Preferences, General?

12 replies

Mar 22, 2013 7:29 AM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Open the Terminal and run the following commands (one at a time):


rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist


Then try relaunching TextEdit to see if it now saves the recent documents properly. You can also find these files and removign them by holding teh Option key down and choosing Library from the Go menu in the Finder. Then go to the Preferences folder and scroll down to locate and remove them.

Mar 22, 2013 7:52 AM in response to Topher Kessler

I have tried this - actually removed all these 6 files, restarted my Mac and re-opened TextEdit-- no change.


/com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist

/com.apple.TextEdit.LSSharedFileList.plist.lockfile

/com.apple.TextEdit.plist

/com.apple.TextEdit.plist.lockfile

/com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist

/com.apple.TextEdit.SandboxedPersistentURLs.LSSharedFileList.plist.lockfile


I just repaired permissions… reopened TextEdit, the same, no change.


Very strange. I changed my HD to SSD two weeks ago, but think this issue is after that, maybe not - but why would this persist?


Thanks for any more ideas.


Steve

Mar 27, 2013 1:15 PM in response to Stephen Schulte1

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.


Isolating an issue by using another user account


If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode


Safe Mode - About


General information.


Isolating issues in Mac OS X


Troubleshooting Permission Issues



Step by Step to Fix Your Mac


Upgrade Nightmares

Mar 28, 2013 2:45 AM in response to Eric Root

OK some progress and it does likely seem to be a third-party application interferring – but as I must have 50 third-party apps (most running for years but some new in the past month or so)-- this may take a LONG time to uncover.


What I've done so far:


  1. My Mac has 2 Hard Drives and the second has a fresh, essentially untouched Mountain Lion 10.8.3 on it. I booted from that and opened TextEdit (both the version on that HD and later the other on my main SSD) and both showed the recents files-- both worked fine.
  2. I then rebooted to my standard SSD and tested-- still the greyed-out clear menu-- not working
  3. So I now logged-in as a GUEST and the recent files showed!


OK so it does seem to be something with another app interferring or?? I DID NOT DO A SAFE BOOT. Should I do that?


Thanks for any comments.


Best regards,



Steve Schulte

Thursday 28 March 2013

Mar 28, 2013 3:03 AM in response to Eric Root

SOLVED!!!!!!


MY BAD--- I had a setting in "TinkerTool" set to not show any recent files… Very naive of me - I've been using a Mac since 1989 and TinkerTool for at least 5 years.


Normally I am very very careful using TinkerTool---- but this time I was not careful enough. I will do screenshots of each TT setting and check on TT first before posting in the future.


I want to thank everyone -- and especially Eric for really getting to the "root" cause <G> (sorry…)--- and I have learned a lot about troubleshooting that I know will come in handy in the future!


Thanks again!


Made my day,


Steve--- with a fully functioning (well, some bugs in ML still) Mac!

11:03

TextEdit won't display recent files

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