I'll answer your last question first: yes I have tried signing out of iCloud and then signing back in (but it
had no effect on the problem.)
Thank you for your reply but it doesn't really answer my concern.
Actually it was your suggestion that I do a described, which did get rid of a scam involving iCloud popup asking for my Apple ID and password BUT as I say here, then too part of the correction process was, emptying certain User/Home caches, including the folder iCloud at ~/Library/ApplicationsSupport/folder. That happened in Nov 2017 and since Nov 2017 iPhotos stopped saving images in the MacBook Air Photos 1.0.1 that I am using.
Might this action be related to my current issue, since currently when I go to the Apple
System Preference 14.0, and click on the iCloud icon it shows 'iCloud loading....' but doesn't load (and when I move the curser anywhere within the SysPref panel there is beach balling happening and I have to force quit
SysPref to close the panel . -- My question (above) is: Since I put the ~/Library/ApplicationsSupport/folder (iCloud folder) into the trash in Nov 2017 could this be the source and reason for the the message 'iCloud loading...' on SysPref?
My understanding is that a .plist file is a preference file for an application that holds the preference settings for it-- and that if you put it in the trash then you have to 'relaunch the app and reset user preference for that app as if using for the first time.' In 2017 Nov, I put the iCloud .plist folder into the trash -- might this be why when
I click the iCloud icon in Apple Sys Pref it indicates 'iCloud loading...' without resulting in opening the panel of preference for iCloud? (This is what I would like to know.)
And , anyway, if my understading is correct: how does one relaunch the app and greet user preferences once the .plist folder for iCloud in deleted from Trash?
I notice that in your current advice you mention putting the the Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist folder onto the desktop to test if it is related to the issue --- would doing this result in having to go through all of the Apple system preferences default settings to customize them to one's needs, as one did on first setting up the computer?
In your answer here you say:
"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."
How does one return the .plist to here it came from? Does the newer one automatically go somewhere
when this is done?
Thank you for your time and consideration.
