System Preferences "Must Quit and Reopen" No "Open in 32-bit" Option to Uncheck

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Level 1

0 points

System Preferences "Must Quit and Reopen" No "Open in 32-bit" Option to Uncheck

Everything worked fine when I had 10.7. But I still updated to 10.8 when it came out. I spent quite a while trying to figure out why I couldn't use many of the preferences in the system preferences. I kept getting the message: "To use the ____ preferences pane, System Preferences must quit and reopen." Quitting and reopenning sends me on an infinite loop.

I've scowered the support communities and found no help. The communities kept saying I should go to the System Preferences file in Applications, go to Get Info, and uncheck a box that says "Open in 32-bit Mode." Unfortunately, I have never had that box. Today I updated to 10.8.4, hoping that this would finally get fixed. It was not.

Is there any solution I'm missing?

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 5, 2013 8:33 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 5, 2013 10:00 AM in response to squarlos

"Open in 32-bit mode" is right under Labels in the Get Info window.

Which PrefPane are you needing to open? You should see if they have a 64-bit update.

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Jun 5, 2013 10:04 AM in response to squarlos

Opening in 32-bit mode is not necessary. It sounds like your system is damaged. ID guess it has some older preference panes installed, from a previous system. You probably need to reinstall the system.

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Answer 3

Jun 5, 2013 10:06 AM in response to thomas_r.

It is necessary if a third-party prefpane hasn't been updated to run in 64-bit mode. There are some still out there.

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Answer 4

60wpm

Level 2

146 points

Oct 21, 2013 12:02 PM in response to Jeremy Bohn

Just got same problem.

#1. There is no Box, under Label or anywher to uncheck or check.

#2. The device I want to use does not have an update driver. What I really need if for the Box to check or uncheck which should be there according to Apple Help.

#3. I tried this, resetting the whole computer's kernal extension by using a Terminal command (although I don't like doing that). It didn't work. sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

So I reset it to: sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

But emphasize, again, I don't like doing SUDO commands in Terminal.

So...Anything else to try?

Thanks for any info that might help.

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Answer 5

60wpm

Level 2

146 points

Oct 21, 2013 1:30 PM in response to squarlos

LATER, after first post (above) I Used Lion Recovery. Resolved.

Don't know if it will work on OS 10.8, but it worked for Lion: The Box to check for 32- bit opening was now there and checking it made the preferences for my device open.

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