Upgrade to 10.11.3 kills apps and user data

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Level 1

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Upgrade to 10.11.3 kills apps and user data

After upgrading to 10.11.3 this morning my Applications folder is emptied down. No application will run any more. For any app it just says "You can't open the application .. because it may be damaged or incomplete". I run Chrome through the About This Mac dialogue, trying to run it from the Dock won't work. My Documents, Downloads, Dropbox and Pictures folders all appear empty in the Finder.

Is there a way to revert this particular update? I am aware I can do a restore from the backup, but my most recent backup is too old.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 7:25 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 31, 2016 1:48 PM in response to mgornik

Boot into the RecoveryHD and open Disk Utility and perform a repair disk

on the OS X volume (hold down Command+R when booting). See if

this resolves your issue.

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Answer 2

Japib

Level 4

2,843 points

Jan 31, 2016 1:48 PM in response to mgornik

Hi,

If the above advice didn't work,

to fix this without loosing your files you need to reinstall OS X (it will not delete your files) : http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18872

Cheers

James

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jan 31, 2016 8:04 AM in response to mgornik

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.

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Answer 4

mgornik Author

Level 1

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Jan 31, 2016 1:51 PM in response to woodmeister50

Thanks!

After doing this I got my Documents, Downloads and other user files back. However, my Applications folder remained empty.

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Answer 5

mgornik Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 31, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Japib

I tried following the instructions on that page - however when the recovery mode downloaded Mac OS and tried installing it, it said it can't install older version over a newer version OS. I have El Capitan but it tried installing older one. My MBP came with older OS (Mountain Lion, I think). I will pursue this further. Do you know if there is a way to directly pick El Capitan and try to install it (keeping the partition intact, I need to keep my files alive). Thanks!

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Answer 6

mgornik Author

Level 1

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Jan 31, 2016 2:55 PM in response to mgornik

I am not sure what happened. First thing I did was the disk repair. It reported no issues but after that all of my user files reappeared. Before that I tried rebooting but that alone did not help. I also went to /var/folders immediately but Finder would show it empty. Then after a while (I don't think I did anything, I was trying to get a backup of some files) - some folders appeared there. Removing all but the "zz" folder got my applications working again. Not sure if this is due to update. Problem appearer immediately after the update but seeing how weird the resolution was now I'm thinking it must be something more serious (disk failing?) In any case, I'm not doing any more updates without having a backup from the same day. Thanks for all the help, guys!

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Answer 7

Feb 6, 2016 11:31 AM in response to Linc Davis

I went through a lot of Apple advisors but none of them suggested this solution. Thanks.

Just to add to it, the problem with files appearing slowly can be nullified by using a different user account. I used terminal and logged into the account and used a command line approach but that is probably not necessary. I had a second account which was not affected by the update. Just my main account was broken. Things were really slow, apps icons were all missing, folders took a long time to populate, apps couldn't start, etc. Basically a useless account.

My only problem now is that I lost all my dock settings on my broken account with all the other shenanigans we tried. I'll have to find out which preferences that is and restore it from my backup.

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