can't open system preferences macbook pro

Deleting the System Preference or other .plist file

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar.

Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).

When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.

Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

16/12/13 14:22:24,303 xpcd[202]: System Preferences[417]: ignoring direct request to load bundle, process is missing entitlement.

16/12/13 14:22:24,303 xpcd[202]: System Preferences[417]: registration request failed: (0x12, 0xa) missing entitlement for SPI use

16/12/13 14:22:24,303 System Preferences[417]: Domain extension failed: 10: missing entitlement for SPI use

16/12/13 14:22:24,304 System Preferences[417]: +[NSXPCSharedListener subserviceConnectionForReply:withListenerName:] Connection invalid

16/12/13 14:22:24,304 System Preferences[417]: __88+[NSXPCSharedListener connectionForListenerWithMessage:fromConnection:withListenerName:]_block_invoke unexpected event <error: 0x7fff771a0b50> { count = 1, contents =

"XPCErrorDescription" => <string: 0x7fff771a0e60> { length = 18, contents = "Connection invalid" }

}

16/12/13 14:22:24,305 System Preferences[417]: *** Assertion failure in -[NSRemoteView serviceViewSubservice], /SourceCache/ViewBridge/ViewBridge-46/NSRemoteView.m:2652

16/12/13 14:22:24,305 System Preferences[417]: com.apple.preference.printfax failed to load.

unable to obtain view subservice

I had this problem too (on a MacBook Air running 10.9.5): every attempt to open System Preferences failed.

The solution proposed by ds store worked and solved my problem.

Thanks very much, ds.

This worked great. Thanks, ds.