After Update to OSX Mavericks 10.9.2 Apps are malfunctioning

charlesyeg,

you can try this, to see if it helps: boot your MacBook Pro into Recovery mode by holding down a Command key and the R key as it starts up. Once the Mac OS X Utilities menu appears, select Disk Utility. On the left-hand side of the Disk Utility window, select your internal disk’s boot partition (typically called “Macintosh HD”). On the right-hand side, press the Verify Disk button if it’s not greyed out; if it is greyed out, or if it reports that errors were found, press the Repair Disk button. Once the verification/repair is completed, exit Disk Utility and select Restart from the Apple menu to restart in normal mode. Do those apps open now?

You probably ran a defective third-party "utility" such as "CleanMyMac" or "MacCleanse" that purports to "clean up" "junk" files. What it really does is to corrupt the operating system and many applications.

The first thing you need to do is remove that software according to the developer's instructions. Never install it, or anything like it, again. Then see below.

It's well worth owning Cocktail <wwwmacosxcocktail.com> and making sure you are using the latest version to repair permissions etc. Run the latest version of Cocktail, restart and voila! Worked perfectly for me and my problem was <Preview.app won't open -1712> after an update to Mavericks. Running Cocktail + restart after every update has been a lifesaver.

If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data, then reinstall the OS.* You don't need to erase the startup volume, and you won't need the backup unless something goes wrong. If the system was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you may need the Apple ID and password you used.

If you use FileVault 2, then before running the Installer you must launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the FileVault boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) It will be nested below another icon with the same name. Click the Unlock button in the toolbar and enter your login password when prompted. Then quit Disk Utility to be returned to the main screen.

There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

If you installed the Java runtime distributed by Apple and still need it, you'll have to reinstall it. The same goes for Xcode. Never install crapware such as "CleanMyMac" or "Cocktail."

*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.9 ("Mavericks"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.

The only other way would be to restore from the last backup you made before "CleanMyMac" wrecked the system.