preference panes have disappeared

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Level 1

126 points

preference panes have disappeared

I have a weird problem with system preferences. Most of the preferences appear in the system preferences window and appear to work. This is not true for the displays preference. The icon appears in the system preferences window but when the icon is clicked, a dialog appears that says "Could not load Displays preference pane." when I go into ➞ user/library/preference panes, there is nothing in the folder. But there are four items (that appear in the bottom line of the system preferences window) in system/library/preference panes. How could the preference panes in the used library disappear? Why do some items continue to work, while others, e.g., displays. How do I find the preference panes that should be in the folder labeled 'preference panes'?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Aug 7, 2015 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,781 points

Aug 7, 2015 9:14 PM in response to James Wilson7

Could not load Displays preference pane

Restart the computer in safe mode. Certain caches maintained by the system will be rebuilt.

Safe mode is much slower to start up than normal. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

When the login screen appears, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and test. There's no need to log in while in safe mode.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t start in safe mode. In that case, ask for instructions.

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Answer 2

James Wilson7 Author

Level 1

126 points

Aug 8, 2015 5:23 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

This didn't help but it may have led to a better question. I safe booted and also checked several other Macs; the files for the individual preference panes do not appear in Library on these machines and their display preferences work. So that doesn't seem to be the problem. When I go to 'about this mac' on my machine the display preference pane is shown along with all the other preference panes. I'm tempted to conclude that my display preference pane is corrupted. I tried without success to find a way to copy and transfer the display preference pane from one of the other Macs. Is there a way to do this? Or do I have to reload the entire system?

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,781 points

Aug 8, 2015 7:24 AM in response to James Wilson7

It's not really clear what the scope of your problem is. Not having preference panes in the user library is normal. They don't belong there. Being unable to load the Displays preference pane, however, is not normal. Did you reproduce that problem in safe mode? If so, please log in as a different user, such as Guest (not in safe mode) and test.

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Answer 4

James Wilson7 Author

Level 1

126 points

Aug 8, 2015 7:43 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

I've tried it with another user and with the guest user, in safe mode and regular mode, all with the same results -- the display preferences will not load.

Where are the preference panes located? It seems odd that there is a folder labeled preference panes with nothing inside.

I appreciate your time on this.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,781 points

Aug 8, 2015 8:44 AM in response to James Wilson7

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 ▹ All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then take an action that isn't working the way you expect. Select any lines 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.

When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

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Answer 6

James Wilson7 Author

Level 1

126 points

Aug 9, 2015 5:06 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

Followed your instructions to the T. I reproduced the problem several times -- display preference panel not loading -- but nothing appeared in the console window. I did find the following that occurred just before (I think) I opened the console: I was not able to replicate these messages.

8/9/15 7:36:35.747 PM WindowServer[160]: CGXDisplayDidWakeNotification [18575399454538]: posting kCGSDisplayDidWake

and

Aug 9 19:36:35 Jamess-MacBook-Pro-2.local WindowServer[160]: CGXDisplayDidWakeNotification [18575399454538]: posting kCGSDisplayDidWake

I'm not sure if it is relevant but is the closest that I could find.

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Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,781 points

Aug 10, 2015 6:00 PM in response to James Wilson7

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.

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.

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