Does Safe Mode change all preferences to default?

Question

Level 1

6 points

Does Safe Mode change all preferences to default?

Hi,

I had to start up my MacBook in Safe Mode today.

After I restarted it successfully in normal mode I found all my Mail preferences had reverted to default. So I had to set them up all over again.

Does Safe Mode revert all application preferences to default please? The Help articles don't mention this, but it is important.

As Safe Mode does seem to help fix problems (I think mine were caused by lack of storage memory) I would like to run it on my iMac, too, as it created more storage memory.

But I don't want to do that if all my preferences on my applications are going to revert to default. It would take ages to set them all up again.

Thanks,

Sarah

MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), White MacBook Laptop

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 6:46 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 6, 2015 6:56 PM in response to Sazza

See Safe Mode. It is a troubleshooting mode, not intended for long term use. Read the article to learn what it does.

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Answer 2

Sazza Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 6, 2015 7:05 PM in response to Kappy

As I said, I did read about Safe Mode, but it did not say anything about changing my Mail Preferences back to default. Or any other Preferences.

Also, I did say that I discovered the change after I had rebooted in Normal Mode. I did not stay in Safe Mode.

Does anyone know if Safe Mode automatically reverts all application Preferences back to default please?

Thanks

Sarah

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 6, 2015 7:21 PM in response to Sazza

It does not change preferences. There are some things that safe mode disables. If the article does not say something is affected, then it isn't. If you experienced any unrelated issues, they are due to some other problem otherwise they are related to being used in safe mode. But application preferences are not changed or switched back to default. Maybe you could be specific about what you believe was changed when you booted into safe mode. Otherwise, we're just discussing phantoms and hypotheticals.

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Answer 4

Sazza Author

Level 1

6 points

Mar 6, 2015 7:30 PM in response to Kappy

Hi,

Thanks for replying. Yes, I was very specific.

I will run through it again:

I had to boot up my MacBook in Safe Mode after I had a grey screen after logging in.

The MacBook opened fine in Safe Mode.

I then restarted the machine as normal, exiting Safe Mode.

But when I opened my Apple Mail all the Preferences had reverted to the default Preferences instead of my customised Preferences.

Prior to this I had Mail set to Classic Mode with Conversation View off and with additional columns, etc. All of those settings had gone and Apple Mail had gone back to its default settings.

Thanks

Sarah

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