Why does system preferences take so long to start?

Scroy7 wrote:

Awesome!! That worked!! Thank you Linc Davis!!!

Can you please elaborate? What worked? Did it fix the slowness? I have an iMac running El Capitan. When I log it to my account for the first time, if I open System Preferences, it takes FOR.EVER. Once it opens, if I close it, and reopen, it comes right up. Seems to bounce in the doc forever. Everything else seems ok. Thanks.

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one. Post in the El Capitan community.

Try running this program in your normal account, then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy Report” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

4/3/17 21:59:27.683 VLC[745]: Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client

4/3/17 21:59:27.833 VLC[745]: Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client

4/3/17 21:59:27.853 VLC[745]: Can't find app with identifier com.spotify.client

4/3/17 21:59:44.425 Console[746]: Failed to connect (_consoleX) outlet from (NSApplication) to (ConsoleX): missing setter or instance variable

4/3/17 21:59:53.000 kernel[0]: ignored is_io_service_close(0x100000441,IOHIDParamUserClient)

4/3/17 21:59:59.366 com.apple.photomoments[488]: GEO: Missing server version info, need to fetch before the analyzer can continue

4/3/17 21:59:59.604 com.apple.photomoments[488]: GEO: Fetched rev geo server version config file with version: 11

Linc,

Steps that you listed only works for the first time after clearing the logs in console, second time it slow again. I am using MacBook Pro 2016, Sierra OS 10.12.16. This is getting super frustrating

Yes it is. If you installed any number of "cleaning" apps or any such utility fitting that description, get rid of it.

That's terrible. Once System Preferences launches, check Date & Time. Are they set correctly?

Once System Preferences is finally open, can you select every other Preference, and do they load quickly?

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 by pressing the key combination 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.

Awesome!! That worked!! Thank you Linc Davis!!!

?

It's just a report

I'm having the same issue. Running OSX 10.11.3. What's frustrating is I recently wiped my entire hard drive and reinstaled everything. The only "extras" I have in my control panel are Backblaze and Logitech control panel for my trackball. No "cleaning" or maintenance software.

Ideas?

Thanks this fixed my slow starting system preferences pane.

I just went to genius bar yesterday due to performance issues, one o fwhich was slow system pref open. they will do a free clean restore for you. it helped somewhat. can't say the system is lightning fast. it now takes about 10 seconds for sys prefs to open on my mac mini 2015 el cap.

22/06/16 10:04:04.395 PM System Preferences[2006]: Unable to simultaneously satisfy constraints:

(

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b3620 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1afca0'-'.width == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1ad0d0'-'.width>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2cf0 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1abfe0'-'.trailing == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1ad0d0'-'.trailing>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b29c0 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1ad0d0'-'.leading == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1abfe0'-'.leading>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b3150 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1aeec0'-'.trailing == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1afca0'-'.trailing>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b3580 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1afca0'-'.leading == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1aeec0'-'.leading>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2d90 NSImageView:0x7fdb2c1b2440.centerX == NSBox:0x7fdb2c1ab7c0'Active Screen Corners'.centerX>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2de0 H:[NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1abfe0'-']-(29)-[NSImageView:0x7fdb2c1b2440](LTR)>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2a60 H:[NSImageView:0x7fdb2c1b2440]-(29)-[NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1aeec0'-'](LTR)>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2d40 NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1abfe0'-'.left == NSBox:0x7fdb2c1ab7c0'Active Screen Corners'.left + 34>",

"<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b31a0 NSBox:0x7fdb2c1ab7c0'Active Screen Corners'.right == NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1aeec0'-'.right + 35>"

)

Will attempt to recover by breaking constraint

<NSLayoutConstraint:0x7fdb2c1b2de0 H:[NSPopUpButton:0x7fdb2c1abfe0'-']-(29)-[NSImageView:0x7fdb2c1b2440](LTR)>

Set the NSUserDefault NSConstraintBasedLayoutVisualizeMutuallyExclusiveConstraints to YES to have -[NSWindow visualizeConstraints:] automatically called when this happens. And/or, break on objc_exception_throw to catch this in the debugger.