j.suarez388

Q: Weird font problem and menu bar icons glitch

This started yesterday out of the blue. All the icons (all but the dropbox, chrome and spotlight icons) on my menu bar dissapeared leaving a huge blank space. Every 5-10 seconds they would reappear for a split second and disappear again. This was going on constantly no matter what I did.

 

I reset the PRAM, SMC, repaired disk permissions, ran ONYX and deleted every cache I could and checked a bunch of forums looking for answers. Finally what worked was deleting the "com.apple.systemuiserver.plist" file. This finally helped with the menu bar problem, its not glitching anymore. Any thoughts on why this happened? and why it happened so randomly? I just restarted my computer yesterday and the glitch was there. BTW, I use iStat Menus, and after deleting the mentioned file, I had to delete iStat Menus and re install too .

 

But I found another weird issue, that I noticed before but didn't really pay attention, i just thought it was a random mistake. In Messages, the font is missing, also missing on Mail randomly and in some websites. Please see attached images to better understand what I'm talking about. I think this is connected to the menu bar problem, as this problem started pretty much at the same time. I get this stroke only text randomly.

 

* This is from a website. I'm using google chrome...

Screen Shot 2015-08-15 at 2.33.17 PM.png

* This is from Messages. Every message looks like this now.

 

Screen Shot 2015-08-15 at 2.34.05 PM.png

 

* and this is from Mail. Same stroked text problem.

Screen Shot 2015-08-15 at 2.35.22 PM.png`

 

Any thoughts on how to resolve this? I would REALLY like to avoid doing a fresh install of OSX. There's just too much for me to re-install as far as apps and programs go and I am working on a project for a client. This was happening even before I deleted the file I deleted and all the cache and stuff so I don't think it's linked to that.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 12:36 PM

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Q: Weird font problem and menu bar icons glitch

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  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 15, 2015 2:07 PM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Aug 15, 2015 2:07 PM in response to j.suarez388

    Good work so far!

     

    Have you installed any new fonts lately, or Adobe or MS Apps?

     

    Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.

     

    (Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive & clear caches.)

     

    See if problem occurs in Safe Mode.

     

    Open Font Book & Validate all fonts.

  • by j.suarez388,

    j.suarez388 j.suarez388 Aug 16, 2015 11:05 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 16, 2015 11:05 AM in response to BDAqua

    BDAqua,

     

    Thanks for your reply. I did try to Safe Boot when I was working on the menu bar issue and the issue was still there. But it's fixed now.

     

    Thank you for the suggestion about Validating fonts. What ended up working was opening Font Book and restoring the system fonts. I have to re-install my custom fonts but that's no problem, at least the fonts are showing up correctly in Mail and in Chrome.

     

    The font is still messed up in messages. I still have to try to safe boot for that, but I wanted to ask anyway, if the problem persists in Safe Boot, what else can I do?

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 16, 2015 11:19 AM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Aug 16, 2015 11:19 AM in response to j.suarez388

    Hmmm, if it still happens in Safe Mode & you haven't got any added fonts, then sadly I think the OS needs to be reinstalled.

     

    What Font is Messages using?

  • by j.suarez388,

    j.suarez388 j.suarez388 Aug 16, 2015 11:21 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 16, 2015 11:21 AM in response to BDAqua

    I have no idea what font is messages using. How do I find out?

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 16, 2015 12:19 PM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Aug 16, 2015 12:19 PM in response to j.suarez388

    In Messages>Preferences>Messages tab, what does it say there?

  • by j.suarez388,

    j.suarez388 j.suarez388 Aug 20, 2015 12:51 PM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2015 12:51 PM in response to j.suarez388

    Hey BDAqua,

     

    Sorry for the late reply. I couldn't find the tab you were asking for, but here's a screenshot of my preferences for Messages.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-08-20 at 3.13.42 PM.png

     

    I have to admit, I have been working and have not started the computer in Safe Boot yet. But I did reinstall my fonts and as soon as I did that the problem in the web browser appeared again. I reset my fonts to the OSX standard fonts and the problem went away, but I did notice something. When I do that, I get A LOT of asian fonts, like Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic etc. Why? This seems very odd to me.

     

    The most recent program I installed is Adobe InDesign, is it possible that it installed all those fonts?

     

    And the issue keeps getting more interesting, here's a screenshot of how one of these Asian fonts looks in Font Book vs Finder.

     

    Screen Shot 2015-08-20 at 3.18.32 PM.png

    I decided to manually delete all these Asian fonts, they really are a lot, but I was thinking, do you think i'll break something if I delete the fonts? didn't seem like it was going to disrupt anything until I saw the comparison between finder and font book.

     

    I really appreciate your help. I really can't do a fresh install of the OSX and all the applications I use right now. And the Messages issue keeps happening.

     

    Thanks!

  • by j.suarez388,

    j.suarez388 j.suarez388 Aug 20, 2015 12:59 PM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2015 12:59 PM in response to j.suarez388

    Quick update.

     

    I just found this also. In my system I have two Library folders, is this normal?

     

    The first and where I install my fonts normally is Macintosh HD > Library > Fonts

     

    The second one is under Macintosh HD > System > Library > Fonts

     

    Check out the screenshot. There's a lot more fonts in the one on the right. And what I also find weird is that both Library folders seem to have the same folders inside, so why would there be two of them?

     

    Screen Shot 2015-08-20 at 3.28.29 PM.png

     

    Maybe the problem is way more complex than just conflicting fonts or chaches.

     

    Let me know what you think

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Aug 20, 2015 1:17 PM in response to j.suarez388
    Level 10 (123,745 points)
    Aug 20, 2015 1:17 PM in response to j.suarez388

    Yes, there can be many Font folders, do not edit or add to the one in System...

     

    "System"/System/Library/Fonts/Mac OS X requires fonts in this folder for system use and displays. They should not be manually altered or removed.

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201722

     

    On adobe fonts...

     

    http://www.adobe.com/products/type/install-instructions.html