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Wakko Warner Author

Level 2

462 points

OS 10.11.4 broke all of my applications...

I just updated my Macbook Pro and my Mac Pro to OS 10.11.4. On my laptop, everything seems to be fine. On my Mac Pro, none of my applications

will open. I get an error that says "You can't open the application "Disk Utility" because it may be damaged or incomplete." I get the same message on all the applications I try to open. I am beyond p i s s e d. There is absolutely NO excuse for this kind of thing to be happening in this day and age. If anyone know WHY this d a m n update did this and what I can do to correct it, your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 24 GB, Radeon 4870, Blu-ray

Posted on Mar 21, 2016 7:37 PM

Top-ranking reply

DonP

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Mar 21, 2016 8:30 PM

Similar problem here. I updated to 10.11.4 and Safari is completely hosed, uses 99% of cpu, so I closed it and went to Chrome. Something is badly wrong with this update.

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117 replies

Wakko Warner Author

Level 2

462 points

Mar 30, 2016 7:13 PM in response to Wakko Warner

Just an update. I decided to try an archive and install. The problem is STILL there using that method. So, now I have to restore from a backup AGAIN. I cannot begin to tell you how much this *****.

Mar 30, 2016 7:35 PM in response to Wakko Warner

Sorry to hear that WW.

Consider further testing by building a new duplicate OS X partition installing one of your custom apps at a time on your primary hard drive as I suggested earlier. That will prevent any downtime other than what's required to build the duplicate image. You can delete this partition at any point if it fails or the original partition and image if it solves your problem.

Wakko Warner Author

Level 2

462 points

Mar 30, 2016 7:52 PM in response to aliogul

Just want to say thanks. I had missed your post originally, and tried to do an archive and install. I just followed your directions and the problem seems to be gone now. All of my applications reappeared in the Applications folder and all of my files seem to be intact so far. I will be checking it out over the next few days (with the software that I use all the time). Hopefully it will keep on working. Thanks again.

Shuka

Level 1

81 points

Apr 1, 2016 10:42 AM in response to chriskan0305

Dear Chris:

I am sorry to report that my iMac's main Admin account stopped starting (beachball rotating endlessly immediately after entering the password). I used your method to start from another Admin account and erase the /private/var/folders of the main Admin account and now the main Admin account is working again. I think this means that the culprit damaging the cache files is yet to be found.

I am writing to ask if you might have an idea what could be the cause of the problem,

Thank you again,

Shuka

Apr 1, 2016 6:10 PM in response to Shuka

Dear Shuka,

I am not sure what happened to your iMac. Because today's software is so complicated, there could be multiple causes that give you the same symptom. If you know a bit of unix, you can locate something in the system log files.

rgds,

Chris

Shuka

Level 1

81 points

Apr 2, 2016 3:06 AM in response to chriskan0305

Hello Chris:

I know just enough to get by but I am sure I will not know what to look for in the log files. Is there any specific log files I should look into and if so what should I look for?

Thanks anyway,

Shuka

Wakko Warner Author

Level 2

462 points

Apr 2, 2016 9:03 AM in response to Wakko Warner

A new issue has now appeared (not anything critical, but annoying). Every time I boot my computer now, when it gets to the desktop there is an information window open (with info about my user account), along with another folder. What on earth would cause this and how do I make it stop??

MyFizzy

Level 1

4 points

Apr 15, 2016 10:01 PM in response to Wakko Warner

PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT THE FOLLOWING

The following 2 methods worked perfectly for me. However I can’t guarantee the same results for everyone.

Method 1: Super easy / quick (5 minutes). Potentially dangerous.

Method 2: Completely safe . Takes much longer. (few hours)

Method 1:

This method can potentially render your 'admin' account useless. Therefore, I HIGHLY recommend you do a full backup of your Mac on an external Hard Drive before you attempt this.

1- Boot in Safe Mode

2- Go to: /private/var/folders

3- Delete everything you see in here. All files and folders….EVERYTHING!

4- Empty Trash

5- Reboot

6- Problem is fixed. Enjoy your Mac 🙂

Method 2: (requires an empty external hard drive )

1- Connect an empty USB hard drive to your Mac

2- Boot Mac in ‘recovery Mode”

3- Do a fresh install of OS X on the external USB hard drive. Be very careful NOT to install on your Mac (internal) hard drive.

4- Use ‘Migration Assistant’ to transfer your apps / data/ etc from your Mac to the external drive

5- Use ’Carbon Cloner’ or ‘SuperDuper’ to clone the external hard drive, onto your Mac.

6- Problem is fixed. Enjoy your Mac 🙂

————————————————————

MacBook Air 13” (mid 2011)

Transcend 480GB SSD JetDrive Upgrade

4GB RAM

Apr 17, 2016 4:18 PM in response to MyFizzy

Thank you for this... the same thing happened to me when I installed an SSD in my Macbook Pro... almost everything was in "Locked" status when I was done... even preferences and Applications.. and could't even unlock or force delete. I did something like Method 2 above and all was well. I also tried method 1 but system only booted 3/4 way through and froze... anyways Good Tips! 🙂

PPM

Level 1

4 points

Aug 27, 2016 6:47 PM in response to Wakko Warner

I would like to say a big THANKS !, your instructions seems to fixed my problem

Best

Dec 17, 2016 7:45 PM in response to chriskan0305

This solution worked for me. however I simplified it by just booting into single user mode, mounting the root file system read/write, then navigating to the folder and d letting the users folder per instructions, then "reboot" and back to sanity.

JJ-MAC87

Level 1

4 points

Apr 30, 2017 9:25 PM in response to aliogul

You are the man. Solved it. Thanks

OS 10.11.4 broke all of my applications...