HT201482: If you see a 'could not load' message when opening a System Preferences pane

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jackor

Q: could not load system preferences pane

I have El Capitan 10.11.2 and when I try to open the General Preferences pane there is a notification that it cannot load the General Preferences pane.  Any solutions??

MacBook (13-inch Aluminum Late 2008), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jan 13, 2016 3:16 PM

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Q: could not load system preferences pane

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  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Jan 14, 2016 11:42 AM in response to jackor
    Level 9 (72,512 points)
    iTunes
    Jan 14, 2016 11:42 AM in response to jackor

    Might be a corrupt .plist.

     

    Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

     

    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.