Can't change "Show scroll bar" setting.

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Level 1

8 points

Can't change "Show scroll bar" setting.

I always kept the "Show scroll bar" set to "Always" in "General" settings in System Preferences for a long time. I decided I want to change that to "Automatically based on mouse or trackpad". Every time I tried to change it and then go back to system preferences it is always set back to "Always".

I looked in the "Generalpreferences.plist" file and it shows it set to "Automatic" as you can see in the screenshot below. But my scrollbars always show in Safari and Finder window. Anybody know a terminal command or some way to fix this. Btw I'm on an iMac with OS X Yosemite 10.10.4, a wired keyboard and a wired Kensington trackball. Any help is greatly appreciated.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10), 8GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M 512

Posted on Jul 31, 2015 9:14 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Aug 1, 2015 2:38 PM in response to Wheelie4

Do a backup.

Quit the application.

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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Answer 2

Wheelie4 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 2, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Eric Root

Thank you for the tip but unfortunately that didn't help. It still behaved the same way after trying that. One thing I need to clarify. The last part of my post when I mentioned I looked in a preference file called "Generalpreferences.com" and showed a screenshot showing the setting changed, it was actually a hidden preference file called ".Globalpreferences.com" within the same folder "~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist".

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Aug 2, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Wheelie4

Try repeating what I posted, but instead of the .plist System Preferences, use those two.

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Answer 4

Wheelie4 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 2, 2015 2:12 PM in response to Eric Root

Which two? The "Generalpreferences.com" file was a mistaken name I typed. There was only one which was the hidden file ".GlobalPreferences.plist". This is a hidden file and the reason I feared removing it from the "Preference" folder. So you're saying I should drag it to the desktop and reboot and see if that helps? By the way. There are a lot of old files by that name as you can see below. But the topmost file is the one I took tthe screenshot from in my original post showing the scrollbar setting set as "Automatic". I did not eating anything that GlobalPreferences file.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Aug 3, 2015 2:44 PM in response to Wheelie4

You can try it after backing up.

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Answer 6

Wheelie4 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 4, 2015 6:40 AM in response to Eric Root

Okay I tried that. I moved the hidden".GlobalPreferences.plist" file plus all the other files with the same name shown in the screenshot above to a folder on my desktop and restarted. It still made no difference. I still cannot change the "Show scroll bars" option. The only thing that seemed to change when I tried this was the option to "Use dark menu and dock" option. I had it set to dark and after rebooting it was back to white.

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