Many fonts with serious errors, including system fonts

If it is a corrupt font cache for your Mac you can try removing all font cache files including system and logged in user account.

Close all running applications.

From the terminal.app copy and paste:

sudo atsutil databases -remove

(Please note your psswd will not echo on screen)

After entering the command, quite Terminal and restart your Mac

Then from the Applications/Font Book.app>File>Restore Standard fonts

You can reinstall the OS, which will overwrite all system files, fonts, and anything else installed by the OS. Make sure to have a complete, restorable backup on hand first in case something goes wrong.

Or, you can download the full High Sierra installer and use Pacifist to reinstall only the fonts supplied with the OS.

See this article Remove or disable fonts on your Mac in Font Book - Apple Support

Note: You can’t remove or disable system fonts.

Read this article also Font Book for Mac: Validate fonts in Font Book

Restore fonts that came with your Mac using Font Book - Apple Support

All red X errors … I’m pretty baffled.

After a full reinstall from Apple's own High Sierra installer, there shouldn't be anything wrong with any font installed by the OS. But, there's this part:

and the system is hanging like death.

That sounds to me like the hard drive is just about ready to take a dirt nap. It would certainly explain how fonts you just reinstalled could already be damaged. I would make backups of your important data now! A full Time Machine backup for sure if that's how you normally keep your backups.

Download and apply the macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Combo Update. It will include a complete set of system fonts.

ryantdunn wrote:

I sunk $80 in and upgraded the ram to 8GB. Ping Fang validates no problem and the machine obv is running much more smoothly in general. Thanks!

Good computing ryantdunn .

The fonts themselves aside, your 2010 Mini is seriously underpowered for High Sierra. 2 GB of RAM is barely enough to run it at all. If you want to keep using that Mac, max it out to 8 GB. That alone will make a huge performance difference.

That EtreCheck took so long to run goes back to the hard drive possibly failing. But, with so little RAM, it may just be the Mac couldn't run the app very fast. The original drive is also going to be a slow 5400 rpm unit.

Assuming this was a reinstall of High Sierra that came directly from Apple, then the fonts can't be damaged. Also, if these are yellow caution symbols from Font Book, ignore them. Seriously. Absolutely nothing it marks with a caution symbol needs to be paid the least bit of attention.

RAM could be the reason. While CPUs occasionally show up with previously unknown bugs that cause a common issue, it's very rare.

I've never read, or heard of anyone else having this type of problem with OS installed fonts. Especially not on an erased partition with a clean install. If it's not a damaged installer, then hardware can be the only next reason. And that can be hard to track down.

1. CPU

2. System RAM

3. System board

4. Cable or other connection to the drive

5. The drive platters (hard drive) or RAM (SSD)

6. An issue with the logic board of the drive

7. Bad actuator arm of a hard drive

8. One or more bad read/write heads of a hard drive.

Not fun to narrow down to the source.

ryantdunn wrote:

I’ve found that I have serious problems with font validation in 40% of my fonts. Many of these are system fonts I cannot simply remove or disable. How can I best replace or repair these fonts.

Running 10.13.5 on Mac mini (mid 2010)

Any progress on this issue?