After an update today, my system preferences application won’t open. I have run disk utility (no problems), reinstalled the OS, (still can’t open the app), and run Onyx to clean preferences, but it still won’t open. Anyone else? Or: anyone have any suggestions?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can’t load System Preferences app
- Thread starter eboychik
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
My first thought was to log into a different (Mac) user account and try opening System Preferences from there, in order to see if the issue lies within your user account. Do you have another user account on the Mac? (I don't mean a different Apple ID.) If so, try to open System Preferences app from there.
If that works, then the issue is related to your usual user account. It could be with the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist file. Most apps will recreate their preferences plist file if it's missing (or moved) when the app is started, though I haven't tried it with System Preferences.app.
Of course, if you don't already have a second user account, now you can't (easily) create one! It could be done using 'dscl' commands, but I'm not sure of the exact steps required.
If that works, then the issue is related to your usual user account. It could be with the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist file. Most apps will recreate their preferences plist file if it's missing (or moved) when the app is started, though I haven't tried it with System Preferences.app.
Of course, if you don't already have a second user account, now you can't (easily) create one! It could be done using 'dscl' commands, but I'm not sure of the exact steps required.
I'm having the same issue - iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with Monterey 12.7.4 beta, updated on 2/23. Some icons aren't appearing in the Dock and in Launchpad, and System Preferences crashes as soon as I open it. I've tried to run it in Safe Mode with no luck, and replacing the plist file doesn't work either. I really don't want to have to reinstall everything to try to fix it, and am hoping Apple fixes it in their next beta.
Last edited:
Thanks to Brian33's ideas above, I was able to find a Terminal command that can be used to create a guest account ("sysadminctl -guestAccount on" (has to be run as root)), and I was able to switch over to the guest account and open System Preferences there. That does seem to seem to indicate that the issue with System Preferences lies within my regular user account, which does narrow things down but means I probably have a ton more troubleshooting to do due to corrupt settings or a conflict somewhere. Sigh....
Thanks so much for your suggestions - I appreciate it! Thankfully, I didn't have to take those steps as I was able to fix the issue unexpectedly. I tried a number of things that didn't work, but I *think* what did it was logging into the Guest account and deleting two preference panes that were 32-bit and no longer worked (MS Mouse and MacFUSE). I then logged back into my regular account and System Preferences opened without issue! Hopefully this helps the OP and anyone else who comes across this issue.
Yep! That's the one I downloaded and installed (I used the terminal "softwareupdate" command to do so): https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/update-macos-terminal-command/
P K or Brian33 I have the same issue on Monterey 12.7.4. I was able to follow the steps above to create the Guest user account and System Preferences worked (on Guest). I then was able to run the macOS update to 12.7.5 which did NOT fix the System Preferences on my account. I tried looking for 32-bit applications but, I didn't see any (https://itsnews.widener.edu/how-to-check-for-32-bit-apps-macos/). Any other suggestions on how to find out what plist is causing the issue?
@P K thinks deleting some outdated preference panes might have fixed the issue for him.
I suggest you log into the problem user account and look in
~/Library/PreferencePanes (the ~ means your home directory), and also in the system level folder /Library/PreferencePanes. These locations are meant to contain third-party (non-Apple) preference panes.On my Monterey system, both those folders exist, but are empty. Move out any files you find to a temporary place. You might have to log out and in again, then try System Preferences again.
Not much luck. May try the restore to original OS and then upgrade back. I also have a MacBook Pro perhaps I can just do a transfer from it. May be quicker and less steps?
jskin$ cd ~/Library/PreferencePanes
-bash: cd: /Users/jskin/Library/PreferencePanes: No such file or directory
BGPoS-10
referencePanes jskin$ cd /Library/PreferencePanes
I'm about out of ideas. The plist file idea is really just a guess, but has sometimes been an issue for other applications. On my Monterey system the user-level plist file for System Preferences is located at:
You could try moving that to your desktop (just in case you need to put it back). Then trying System Preferences again. It will probably re-create the file.
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plistYou could try moving that to your desktop (just in case you need to put it back). Then trying System Preferences again. It will probably re-create the file.
A reinstall of Monterey corrected the issue. A disk erase and then a restore to be more precise.