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Messages Menu Commands Greyed Out

My System is OSX 10.9.2 - Mesages 8.0 (4662) Nearly all Menu Commands are greyed out, including Preferences>General>Buddy List>Account Status, and Buddies>Show in Buddy List, plus Buddies>Invyt to Video Chat>Share my Screen etc, etc. I have updated my Apple Account, signed out, and signed back in, initially entered my iCloud Account, which is the same details as my Apple Account, and nuked the Library>Preferences>com.apple.iChat.plist, all to no avail, so where am I going wrong. I really need to utilise the Screen Share facilities with a friend in Australia, a new switcher to Mac, and this is becoming extremely frustrating.


Many thanks


Neil C

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 27, 2014 1:36 PM

Reply
64 replies

Jan 9, 2015 12:54 PM in response to andrejmora

Hi,


Other than other Font apps I am not sure what might trip a Font up for one User.

However it is something we keep seeing with no explanation of how it happens.



User uploaded file

8:54 pm Friday; January 9, 2015


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Apr 1, 2015 12:08 PM in response to pdzik

Hi,


Font Book App > File Menu > Restore Standard Fonts.


If this does not work use Time Machine if you use this for a Backup.


If that does not work it will be an Reinstall.


For Time Machine navigate to Hard Drive Name/Library/Fonts then use the Time Machine icon and then go back in time to when you did have the font.


At 15.4 Mb it is hardly the biggest Font file and you can always disable them.



User uploaded file

8:08 pm Wednesday; April 1, 2015


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Apr 2, 2015 11:50 AM in response to pdzik

Hi,


Two things.


The first line I posted after the greeting is how the Font Book app is supposed to replace them.

It is fair to say this only used to replace the System Fonts (Those in Hard Drive Name/System/Library/Fonts) that are required by the System or apple apps to start up.


Other regular Apple Fonts and those you might install for everyone's use are in Hard Drive Name/Library/Fonts

You may end up with some sub folders in here such as Microsoft if your Install Office.

These are not supposed to be needed to be used by the System or Apps but AppleGothic seems to have become an exception in Yosemite and Mavericks.


The second things is does your Backup allow you to navigate the copy of the Hard Drive so you can retrieve stuff ?

User uploaded file


In this Pic I have the Path Bar Showing (Finder > View Menu > Show Path Bar).

I can navigate the Backup drive (original I know) then the Backups.backupdb then select a dated folder and the eventual Location I need (it would be one more step in the Pic).


I would be able to Duplicate the File (font) (Finder > File Menu) which I could then move to the proper place (and remove the extra "copy" that gets added to the name).


On that web site you did find....

User uploaded file



User uploaded file

7:50 pm Thursday; April 2, 2015


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Apr 11, 2015 12:40 PM in response to rliebo

Thank you Rob! Was losing my mind sorting through different options to bring back menu items in iMessage until I found your solution. Just activated Apple Gothic.ttf in Font Book and all is well. Bizarre that this should only affect some of the menu items and not all, but somewhere there's a logical explanation to all this.

Apr 23, 2015 4:12 AM in response to 2hzglry

Hi

I checked I had this font and it was already in my ordinary Fonts folder. But then I went to the other 'Library' by using the Finder. 'Go' while holding down the Alt key, which makes the 'Library' appear in the list. I went into this folder, where I found this other Fonts folder and pasted a copy of AppleGothic there (it was missing).

This worked!

So thanks very much for pointing me in the right direction.

I have found in the past obscure problems are often caused by font issues. Probably because I use InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Suitcase Fusion, which can confuse the system.

Anyway, great to have Messages back.

Cheers!

Apr 23, 2015 1:16 PM in response to sokelly

HI,


With the Hard Drive icon open you should see the Applications folder, Library, System and Users at least.


The System contains it's own Library and that has it's own Font Folder.

This should be all the Fonts needed by the System (Technically it should be in here).


The actual Library folder you see has it's Fonts folder.

This is where Installed Fonts that you allow every Mac User on your Computer to have access to.

This is where the AppleGothic Font currently is found.


The Users/Your Account/Library (also written as ~/Library) has it's Font Folder.

This is where you install Fonts that you only want that User to Access.

In the case of Office and AppleWorks Installs and similar apps you sometimes get asked if you want to Install things for Everyone (all Users) or for the User (the one doing the Install).


You should not need to move the Font to ~/Library/Fonts

User uploaded file

9:16 pm Thursday; April 23, 2015


 iMac 2.5Ghz i5 2011 (Mavericks 10.9)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad

Messages Menu Commands Greyed Out

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