Screen Saver on 10.8.3 Fails to Activate

With you bud, my screen saver has not worked AT ALL since updating to 10.8.2.

Very frustrating.....

Thanks for starting this corvairkid, I too have come here from:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4330523

The screensaver takes longer to fail than it did under 10.8.2, but fail it does.

Log out and then in again (or reboot) fixes it, but only for a while, maybe 3, 4 or 5 days (under 10.8.2 about 20 hours).

Bit bored with this problem and wish Apple would solve it once and for all.

I'm on a Mac Pro running 10.8.3. My screen saver (any screen saver) will start for about half a second and then fails. If I go to the preferences and try testing the screen saver, it works just fine. However, if it starts on its own (or I start it with a hot corner) it flashes on for a moment and then fails.

I've also found I can get it to start working again for a while if I go to a guest account, start the screen saver there (which works fine), and then come back to my account. However, it invariably goes back to failing after a while. Not sure what might be conflicting with it, but if I get a chance to do more testing, I'll post any results I get.

-Jason

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

What happens if you delete the .plist?

You need to look in your user Library/Preferences for the .plist. Hold down the option key while using the Finder "Go To Folder" command. Enter ~/Library. Delete the .plist(s) for the application.

If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/04/show-library-directory-in-mac-os-x-lion/

You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.2. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.

I checked out the plist, and it holds the setting for whether to require a password after the screen saver starts and if so, how long to wait before requiring the password (which, by the way, is set in the Security & Privacy preferences). I normally require a password 5 seconds after my screen saver starts. So, I tried a few things:

• Deleted the plist, opened the Security & Privacy settings, noted that they were set to not requiring a password (the default, I assume), also noted that this action didn't itself re-create the plist, and then I tried the screen saver -- no help. It still didn't start correctly
• Next, I set the preference to require a password immediately. This recreated the plist, as expected, but the screen saver still didn't work.
• I then turned OFF the requirement for a password, not expecting this to make a difference, but the screen saver THEN started working! However, turning back on the requirement for a password causes the screen saver to stop working again.

Bottom line: If there is no plist, the Security & Privacy preferences seem to default to "no password required", but the screen saver still doesn't work. If there is a valid com.apple.screensaver.plist that turns off the password requirement, the screen saver works as expected. If there is a valid plist that requires a password, the screen saver doesn't work. In each case, "doesn't work" means (as I described before) it starts for only a moment and then comes back to the normal screen.

Don't know why the screen saver would act that way, but there ya go.

-Jason

Mine has just stopped working yet again after 5 days and I obviously have a different problem to the latest postings. This is the same as it was in 10.8.2 just takes longer to de-activate.

But I have found that justchanging back and forth to a different user fixes it for me, withoiut the need to log out and in.

So... an improvement on 10.8.2, just not a total fix.

Still having problems with mine - ok most of the time. Then just stops - no rhyme or reason.

any update here? i tried logging in with a different account and none of the other accounts on my machine (administrator, guest and anyone else i create) are affected, but the fixes posted here do not work.

seems to be a user-based issue and i see other folks around the Internet with the problem.

I began by turning off all my startup items (holding down shift as I logged in), which allowed my screen saver to work normally. I then started turning on the startup items one at a time and running for quite a while with each one on to see if it was causing issues. Right now, I'm running pretty well with a working screen saver. However, I have unfortunately lost my list of items, and so I have no idea where I am in the process now 😟

At one point I thought I had found a culprit, but since I marked that down on my (now missing) list, I can't even tell you what it was. Ugh...

Anyway, you might try making a list of your startup items and logging in without the startup items going. If that fixes your problem, turn on the items one at a time. I found I had to work normally with the computer for a while before the problem cropped up, but I had started narrowing in on the problem.

i tried removing login items before and it didn't work.

after my previous post, i decided it would be worth a shot to look at the difference in process lists. i do have an app that was running in the background to sync files between machines, and while it was not part of the startup items, it was still getting itself started. after killing the process, i seem to be back in business with a screensaver that will stay engaged for more than 15 seconds and i have disabled this app running in the background.

however, i've been running this sync app for a while now, even when the screensaver worked, so i'm not convinced this was the problem.

Hey guys, if you ever migrated or grandfathered your data to MTL 10.8 then I suggest you boot the recovery, repair disk, repair disk permissions and the reset the ACL's of every user. I have seen a lot of this.