Q: I want to launch applications at Startup. When I click on Login Items, System Preferences FREEZES every time. Running ... more
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Feb 9, 2015 2:37 PMby Eric Root,Do a backup.
Quit the application System Preferences.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Restart the computer, open the application and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the application is the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.
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Feb 9, 2015 2:48 PMby MichelPM,HelpfulYou really DO NOT WANT TO DO THAT!
Startup/Login items can slow down your Mac's startup times considerably.
If you insist of using the startup/login items, you should not have more than six or less items launch at startup.
Also, be advised that any apps that launch at startup and run in the background when you are not using them will still eat up OS X CPU and RAM resources.
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Feb 9, 2015 5:02 PMby Ward Pkwy,Thank you MichelPM. But I launch ONE application, MAIL, every time I start my computer. Do you recommend not making it a startup/login item? But the real question still stands - what happened to the function I've been using for a decade? I can't make my computer do that anymore. Did they do away with it? Why does my computer FREEZE when I click on Login Items in System Preferences?
Once again, thank you very much for your input.
Frank
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Feb 9, 2015 6:00 PMby Tim Semic,HelpfulHello Ward Pkwy,
Try restarting your Mac while holding the shift key down. That will boot the Mac into safe mode. Doing so runs an automatic disk check/repair utility. If you get lucky that just may fix the issue. Reboot again normally and test to see if that corrected the issue.
You can check the status of your file system by running the Apple "Disk Utility" application located in your Utilities folder. While in Disk Utility select your hard drive from the list on the left column. You want to select the icon that has the name you gave it, rather than the one with the additional manufacturers information. Once selected then click the Verify button. That will check your file system for inconsistencies. If errors are found, they show up in red, they will need to be repaired. More on that if it occurs.
If that ran without errors then you can run a "repair permissions" from Disk Utility and see if that corrects the issue. If you run that then reboot the computer before you test it.
Please let us know the results,
Tim
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Feb 9, 2015 9:43 PMby Linc Davis,There is, of course, no reason why you should not add as many login items as you need.
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 and start typing the name.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES â–¹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View â–¹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take the action that isn't working the way you expect. 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 by pressing command-V.
The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
Some private information, such as your name or email address, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
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Feb 10, 2015 5:56 AMby Ward Pkwy,Thanks Linc for the detailed instructions, I think I've followed your directions. ( You almost lost me on "take the action" but I think I understand.) Here's the commands I copied after trying to launch Login Items and getting a Freeze, thanks for your assistance:
2/10/15 8:51:49.645 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent) The _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit key is not available on this platform.
2/10/15 8:51:52.935 AM com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[401]: Failed to connect (_controller) outlet from (NSView) to (ODCServersViewController): missing setter or instance variable
2/10/15 8:51:52.946 AM com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[401]: Failed to connect (__serversSheetServersView) outlet from (ODCSummaryViewController) to (ODCServersView): missing setter or instance variable
2/10/15 8:52:18.000 AM kernel[0]: process Finder[199] thread 46832 caught burning CPU! It used more than 50% CPU (Actual recent usage: 56%) over 180 seconds. thread lifetime cpu usage 90.071056 seconds, (7.552016 user, 82.519040 system) ledger info: balance: 90005910283 credit: 90005910283 debit: 0 limit: 90000000000 (50%) period: 180000000000 time since last refill (ns): 159495395846
2/10/15 8:52:19.715 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.ReportCrash[406]) Endpoint has been activated through legacy launch(3) APIs. Please switch to XPC or bootstrap_check_in(): com.apple.ReportCrash
2/10/15 8:52:19.757 AM ReportCrash[406]: Invoking spindump for pid=199 thread=46832 percent_cpu=56 duration=161 because of excessive cpu utilization
2/10/15 8:52:21.740 AM spindump[330]: Saved cpu_resource.diag report for Finder version 10.10.2 (10.10.2) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Finder_2015-02-10-085221_(name erased by Ward Pkwy) Computer.cpu_resource.diag
2/10/15 8:53:08.959 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[401]) Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9
2/10/15 8:53:09.152 AM System Preferences[395]: <NSRemoteView: 0x7fca4b3301a0> invalid on entry (
0 ViewBridge 0x000000010417f116 -[NSWindowCentricRemoteView snapshot] + 379
1 System Preferences 0x0000000104103c14 System Preferences + 35860
2 System Preferences 0x000000010410f21c System Preferences + 82460
3 CoreFoundation 0x0000000106861cdc __CFNOTIFICATIONCENTER_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_AN_OBSERVER__ + 12
4 CoreFoundation 0x0000000106753244 _CFXNotificationPost + 3140
5 Foundation 0x0000000104c54c31 -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 66
6 PreferencePanes 0x0000000104668068 __35-[NSProxyPreferencePane connection]_block_invoke_2 + 169
7 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000107e5c323 _dispatch_call_block_and_release + 12
8 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000107e57c13 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
9 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000107e63cbf _dispatch_main_queue_callback_4CF + 861
10 CoreFoundation 0x00000001067f8c79 __CFRUNLOOP_IS_SERVICING_THE_MAIN_DISPATCH_QUEUE__ + 9
11 CoreFoundation 0x00000001067b530f __CFRunLoopRun + 2159
12 CoreFoundation 0x00000001067b4858 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 296
13 HIToolbox 0x0000000107652aef RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 235
14 HIToolbox 0x000000010765286a ReceiveNextEventCommon + 431
15 HIToolbox 0x00000001076526ab _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 71
16 AppKit 0x000000010542bf81 _DPSNextEvent + 964
17 AppKit 0x000000010542b730 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 194
18 AppKit 0x000000010541f593 -[NSApplication run] + 594
19 AppKit 0x000000010540aa14 NSApplicationMain + 1832
20 libdyld.dylib 0x0000000107ea85c9 start + 1
21 ??? 0x0000000000000001 0x0 + 1
)
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Feb 10, 2015 6:25 AMby Ward Pkwy,Thanks Tim, I did as you instructed to no avail. I did get a message when I launched System Preferences that said something like "A permission has been repaired in Users & Groups" the place I was headed. So I was encouraged. But everything acted the same and I could not get into Login Items. Just got the spinning ball. But thanks!
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Feb 10, 2015 6:29 AMby Ward Pkwy,Hello tbirdvet, This is where it all began. After loading OS Yosemite 10.10.2 I went down to the dock and right clicked on the app. THERE IS NO RIGHT CLICK - nothing happened - just a DOCK FREEZE. ( it just happened again when I tried it) This is when I began to dig into System Preferences and Login Items where I had never been before. I'm sure they are related. (and understood by someone smarter than I.) Thanks anyway.
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Feb 10, 2015 7:58 AMby Linc Davis,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 startup 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 Recovery 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. All other data will be preserved.
*The linked support article refers to OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite"), but the procedure is the same for OS X 10.7 ("Lion") and later.
