El Capitan: You can't open the application 'app name' because it may be damaged or incomplete

Do you have this problem now?

Please launch the Console application in any one 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.

If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

This procedure will delete certain temporary and cache files. The files are automatically generated and don't contain any of your data. Occasionally they can become corrupt and cause problems such as yours.

Please back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/var/folders

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Open

from the contextual menu.* A folder with the odd name "folders" should open.

Inside "folders" are several subfolders, each with a two-character name. Drag all the subfolders except the one named "zz" to the Trash. Don't delete the subfolder named "zz". You'll be prompted for your administrator login credentials.

Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Thank you, my friend!! You saved me sunday! This worked for me. problem was starting a terminal but after 20 Minutes Spotlight opened a terminal for me.

Greetings

Walter

Thanks Linc, this helped me as well. After the 10.11.6 Security Update 2016-001, my primary user account was stuck at login in a lsd - CrashReporter endless loop. I tried a number of things, but going to /var/folders and deleting everything except the zz folder solved it for me.

LL

Oh dear. I had this problem too when I did the last OSX software update today. It removed all my files, applictions and utilities.

I followed your advice re deleting myself as a user, logging in as a guest, and then reinstating myself and the result is that all my files, photos, settings etc are gone even though I ticked the box to keep them. It is as though I have started from scratch.

Great Great Linc Davis the solution is perfect, you saved my Sunday evening.

Yesterday I installed the latest update (10.11.6) has since then I have had this problem.

Congratulations

Todd

I followed what you did and deleted myself as a user but then came the problem, I am having difficulty reinstating my user account.

I have followed the instructions Apple give for restoring a deleted account (mine from a folder not a disk image), as follows

Restore the home folder from a disk image

1. In the Finder, open the Deleted Users folder by choosing Go > Go to Folder, entering /Users/Deleted Users, then clicking Go.
2. Open the disk image file for the deleted user’s home folder. The disk image filename begins with the user’s account name and ends with .dmg.The contents of the home folder appear in a new window.
3. Hold down the Option key while dragging the small icon in the title bar of the new window to the Users folder. Click Authenticate, then enter an administrator name and password to proceed. The deleted user’s home folder is copied to the Users folder.
4. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Users & Groups.
5. Click the lock icon to unlock it, then enter an administrator name and password.
6. Click the Add button below the list of users.
7. Click the New Account pop-up menu, then choose a type of user.
8. Enter a full name for the user.An account name is generated automatically.
9. If necessary, edit the account name so it matches the name of the deleted user’s home folder.
10. Enter a password for the user in the Password and Verify fields, then enter a hint to help the user remember the password.
11. Click Create User.
12. Click Use Existing Folder.

Restore the home folder from a saved folder

1. In the Finder, open the Users folder by choosing Go > Go to Folder, entering /Users, then clicking Go. The deleted user’s home folder is in the /Users folder, and its name is the same as the user’s account name, followed by (Deleted).
2. Rename the deleted user’s home folder by removing (Deleted), so that the folder name exactly matches the account name of the deleted user. You may be asked to enter your administrator name and password before you can rename the folder.
3. Follow steps 3 through 12 of “Restore the home folder from a disk image,” above.

But have two problems. The first is that I cannot understand what step 3 involves as my deleted users folder is already in the users folder. But more problematic is that step 12 never appears. What happens is that a duplicate users account is created with the same name as my deleted users account and, of course, when I log in using this new duplicate account it contains no files, documents, photos or films.

All these "missing" items I can see are there under the original users folder. I tried copying them over to the new duplicate account but that takes me way past my storage limit as it involves about 150gb and I would rather not clutter up my storage with a duplicate set of files.

What am I doing wrong?

If you kept the user folder where it was, you will not have a disk image, so step 3 is unnecessary.

The old user's home folder should already be there inside /Users - let's say the old user had a short name 'octavia': then the home folder should remain where it always was, /Users/octavia

For step 12 to work you have to give the user you are creating the exact same short name matching the old user (and therefore matching the name in the old user's home folder) - so call it 'octavia' (or whatever it was in the first place).

Luis

Thanks. I did that, using the exact same name, having removed "Deleted" as item 2 of the Apple instructions say. But no "Use existing folder" option appears and I end up with two user accounts with identical names though one is my original account and the there is a new one and no way to add my original account back into "Users and Groups" using Systems Preferences.

There can't be two files or folders with the exact same name in the same folder. Maybe you left a space in the folder name?