macOS Mojave - System Preference, Security & Privacy, Accessibility - Not Working/Empty

I would at this point just re install Mojave. And this time don't install any anti-virus apps or anything that cleans, optimises or promises you the world, Macs don't need such things and they sometimes create more problems than they claim to resolve. There are no viruses for Macs, and the OS tends to look after itself pretty well, if you want to keep on top of adware/ malware install Malwarebytes, there is a free version.

This is how you change permissions so you can delete the TCC.db

1. First, we will temporarily turn off System Integrity Protection so that we have access to delete the database. You may want to print these instructions or write them down so that you have access to them while rebooting your Mac.
2. Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart….
3. Hold down the Command and R keys so that your Mac will reboot in Recovery Mode.
4. From the Utilities menu, choose Terminal.
5. Type csrutil disable and press Return.
6. Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart.
7. Drag the file:

   /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db

   to the trash.

8. You can then repeat Steps 2–6, typing csrutil enable instead, in order to turn SIP back on.

Hope this helps.

The settings for Accessibility are stored in

/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db

I would first try to exclude this file from any real-time scanning,

if that doesn't work, uninstall Symantec entirely.
If that doesn't resolve the issue, reinstall it...

I've also heard of a case where disabling System Integrity Protection resolved this problem,

however that should not be done on a production computer...

FWIW ... I have the same issue. I attempted a fresh reinstall (wiped hard disk, reinstalled Mojave from scratch) and the issue remained. No antivirus software present to blame and no other applications are installed yet.

To verify, I reinstalled High Sierra. The issue doesn't happen in High Sierra.

Finally, I installed Mojave again (with a blank disk again) and the issue returns. This is a Mojave issue.

Have you restarted your Mac, if so does the same behaviour exist.

Using apps to clean, optimise, verify and repair your Mac are not necessary, Onyx is fairly benign but CleanMyMac has the reputation of one of the worst offenders often removing important system files and causing numerous problems. It is highly recommended to uninstall this, refer to the developers instructions to uninstall this app fully.

The Mac looks after itself pretty well so throwing apps at it to alleviate any perceived problem can often escalate the issue.

Another thing you could try is to boot up in Safe Mode and see if you can add apps to your Security & Privacy preferences. Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

Have you tried restarting your Mac in Safe Mode and trying to add the apps. Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

Or it may be a problem with your user account, open System Preferences> Users & Guests and create a new user account, make sure it has admin privileges, now login to that account and see if you can add apps to the System Preferences> Security & Privacy> Privacy> Accessibility panel.

Maybe it depends on what apps do you add? You can add them one by one and reboot each time to find out which item can affect this.

Also try to enable back System Integrity Protection if you didn't so before.

Just ideas, not sure if it will help.

My list works fine now:

It may be that your System Preferences preferences file has become corrupted.

Close all running apps, click on Go in the Finder menubar select Go To Folder type in:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist press Go.

A new Finder window will open with the file highlighted, move this file to your Desktop.

Restart your Mac, a new System Preferences plist will be created. Once your Mac has booted up open System Preferences> Security & Privacy> Privacy> Accessibility, unlock the padlock and see if you can now add items to the list. If this works you can delete the file you moved earlier.

Read the replies below. None is helpful. It shouldn't be this hard just to change the wallpaper. What happened to the systems preference window in Mojave? Just gone and no satisfactory explanations. Another case of an "upgrade" making life harder and more annoying.

I had the same problem as OP, and re-installing Mojave did not help. Before re-install...the problem spiraled (maybe this original problem, maybe a separate problem with the OS) where every time I restarted, things got a bit worse.

Long story short this fixed it for me! I was able to add Dropbox and Spectacle back to the list.

Also before Mojave re-install -

At one point below my login screen, I had a line that said "AHP_REQ_TO_ENABLE".

After a few restarts: bluetooth became permanently disabled, only one display worked at a time, and I could type but could not see what I was typing in Outlook or Word. None of these things was easy to google at first so I list them for another in the future. In retrospect, many of these seem to do with preference panel preferences being corrupted somehow.

Removing TCC.db also worked for me, thanks!

Some details:

After the deletion the problem persisted until I restarted the computer.

I have ESET Endpoint antivirus and previously granted it with some "control computer" permissions, maybe it's related, maybe not.

I have just deleted mac cleaner and antivirus system

and moved com.apple.systempreferences.plist to the desktop

located in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

and everything going smooth