Applications not working

[Enoch]

I am running os x Yosemite. I have 480 GB of available storage. Every application i use (except safari) is working. For example, if I open Photo Booth, nothing happens. I press cmd+opt+esc and it says not responding. then i have to force quit. This happens with every other program. In audacity i can open it and record things. but if i save the project, i get a beach ball and i have to force quit. If i try to make a video call in Skype, same thing. All of these also happen with the adobe suite. No program will work. For some reason, the programs only work in safe boot. I tried verifying and repairing disk permissions. That did not work. I tried uninstalling everything program on my mac (except default programs). I even went as far as reinstalling os x all together. Not even that solved the problem. My mac had to be taken back to the store. They said nothing was wrong with it. What could be the problem. I don't think it's a hardware issue. Don't think it could be a software issue either because I reinstalled the entire os. So what could be the problem? I don't to us my computer in safe boot because my Wacom tablet will not work and the computer will be slow. Please give me a solution. This mac is the only computer I have and I need it to animate. Thanks in advance!


MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10), Applications only work in safe mode

 

[honestone]

Hopefully, there is an invisible (can make it visible in Disk Utility) partition on your hard drive called "Recovery HD". You need to "boot" to that. When your Mac starts up, hold down the Option Key. The screen you'll see should show all your startup volumes, and hopefully Recovery HD should be one of those. Double click on that, and your Mac will restart up from that. When you get the eventual menu, it should show "Disk Utility" as one of the choices. Select it, and Verify and Repair Permissions, and Verify and Repair Disk, both at the "Volume" level and the "Partition" level. Once that is done, restart your Mac. Hopefully, that will clear up the issue.

Also, once you get back up and running, get the latest version of Yosemite, OS 10.10.2. You can get it from the Apple store, or from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1786. Note that is the Combo Updater, but it can only be used with OS 10.10, not 10.10.1. Not sure why Apple did that this time, as usually a Combo Updater will apply to ANY prior version of the OS. (By the way, you'll get a new version of Safari, V 8.0.3, with that update).

Whether it works or not, I strongly recommend you get an external hard disk, get the excellent "Free" backup/cloning program SuperDuper! (you can get it from here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13803/superduper), get the excellent free maintenance/cleanup program Onyx (you can get it from the second link on this page: http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html), and invest in a better (and more robust) Disk Maintenance/Repair program, like either Disk Warrior (http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/), or TechTool Pro (https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro). I use all these products (primarily TechTool Pro, although I run Disk Warrior once in a while), and they keep my Macs running smoothly, with rarely, if ever, any problems. You will need to develop (and stick to!) a disk maintenance/cleanup/backup strategy. In fact, with SuperDuper!, you will have a bootable backup of your system that you can boot from. It sure comes in handy at critical times, and I can tell you for a fact that it "saved my bacon" twice!

 

[Enoch]

Hopefully, there is an invisible (can make it visible in Disk Utility) partition on your hard drive called "Recovery HD". You need to "boot" to that. When your Mac starts up, hold down the Option Key. The screen you'll see should show all your startup volumes, and hopefully Recovery HD should be one of those. Double click on that, and your Mac will restart up from that. When you get the eventual menu, it should show "Disk Utility" as one of the choices. Select it, and Verify and Repair Permissions, and Verify and Repair Disk, both at the "Volume" level and the "Partition" level. Once that is done, restart your Mac. Hopefully, that will clear up the issue.

Also, once you get back up and running, get the latest version of Yosemite, OS 10.10.2. You can get it from the Apple store, or from here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1786. Note that is the Combo Updater, but it can only be used with OS 10.10, not 10.10.1. Not sure why Apple did that this time, as usually a Combo Updater will apply to ANY prior version of the OS. (By the way, you'll get a new version of Safari, V 8.0.3, with that update).

Whether it works or not, I strongly recommend you get an external hard disk, get the excellent "Free" backup/cloning program SuperDuper! (you can get it from here: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13803/superduper), get the excellent free maintenance/cleanup program Onyx (you can get it from the second link on this page: http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html), and invest in a better (and more robust) Disk Maintenance/Repair program, like either Disk Warrior (http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/), or TechTool Pro (https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro). I use all these products (primarily TechTool Pro, although I run Disk Warrior once in a while), and they keep my Macs running smoothly, with rarely, if ever, any problems. You will need to develop (and stick to!) a disk maintenance/cleanup/backup strategy. In fact, with SuperDuper!, you will have a bootable backup of your system that you can boot from. It sure comes in handy at critical times, and I can tell you for a fact that it "saved my bacon" twice!

I already tried verifying and repairing idk permissions. That did not work.

 

[honestone]

I already tried verifying and repairing idk permissions. That did not work.

But, that's not enough. You also need to verify and repair the internal disk, and you need to do that both at the Volume and Partition levels. Also, I suspect you repaired permissions from Disk Utility that is located in your Applications folder. That is, most likely, not "isolated" enough.

Again, you should boot "into" the Recovery HD partition, via the instructions I provided above. The best thing would be, though, to have a bootable "system" on an external drive, and what would even be better is to have a more robust Disk Repair/Maintenance program like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro.

Remember, you are trying to get to the cause of all this, and the best way is 1) to do it from an external source, and 2) to use more robust tools.

 

[Enoch]

But, that's not enough. You also need to verify and repair the internal disk, and you need to do that both at the Volume and Partition levels. Also, I suspect you repaired permissions from Disk Utility that is located in your Applications folder. That is, most likely, not "isolated" enough.

Again, you should boot "into" the Recovery HD partition, via the instructions I provided above. The best thing would be, though, to have a bootable "system" on an external drive, and what would even be better is to have a more robust Disk Repair/Maintenance program like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro.

Remember, you are trying to get to the cause of all this, and the best way is 1) to do it from an external source, and 2) to use more robust tools.

I held the option key while my computer started up. I only have one startup volume. I don't have recovery HD.

 

[Enoch]

I am running os x Yosemite. I have 480 GB of available storage. Every application i use (except safari and text edit) is not

working. For example, if I open Photo Booth, nothing happens. I press cmd+opt+esc and it says not responding. then i have to force quit. This happens with every other program. In audacity i can open it and record things. but if i save the project, i get a beach ball and i have to force quit. If i try to make a video call in Skype, same thing. All of these also happen with the adobesuite. No program will work. For some reason, the programs only work in safe boot. I tried verifying and repairing disk permissions. That did not work. I tried uninstalling everything program on my mac (except default programs). I even went as far as reinstalling os x all together. Not even that solved the problem. My mac had to be taken back to the store. They said nothing was wrong with it. What could be the problem. I don't think it's a hardware issue. Don't think it could be a software issue either because I reinstalled the entire os. So what could be the problem? I don't to us my computer in safe boot because my Wacom tablet will not work and the computer will be slow. Please give me a solution. This mac is the only computer I have and I need it to animate. Here are links to 2 videos so you can see the problem for yourself.

Video 1:

Video 2:

(please watch in order)

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

Hi Enoch, you already have a thread covering this issue:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/applications-not-working.220321/

I have merged the 2 threads.

 

[Enoch]

Hi Enoch, you already have a thread covering this issue:

https://www.mac-help.com/threads/applications-not-working.220321/

I have merged the 2 threads.

Yes I know but I have waited to long for a reply and I grew impatient.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

You didn't mention if you tried honestone's advice as seen in post # 4?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

To boot into the recovery partition in Yosemite, instead of holding the Option key, try holding the Command and R keys. Yosemite no longer shows the Recovery Partition in the Startup Manager disk list using the Option boot method.

Once there, navigate to Disk Utility and repair the disk and repair the disk permissions, then restart and see if the issue persists.

C

 

[honestone]

Hello and welcome.

To boot into the recovery partition in Yosemite, instead of holding the Option key, try holding the Command and R keys. Yosemite no longer shows the Recovery Partition in the Startup Manager disk list using the Option boot method.

Once there, navigate to Disk Utility and repair the disk and repair the disk permissions, then restart and see if the issue persists.

C

Interestingly, it will appear depending on how one re-creates it. As most people know, I use SuperDuper! to make a bootable backup for both of my machines. Also, I have recommended a third party product called Recovery Partition Creator for re-creating the Recovery HD partition on one's HD/SSD. (I believe there is another, "Apple" way of re-creating that partition, but for the life of me, I cannot find it!).

The main disadvantage of SuperDuper! is that it does not backup/clone the Recovery HD partition (another backup/cloning program, Carbon Copy Cloner, does). But, using Recovery Partition Creator overcomes that. Additionally, from what I have read, sometimes with an OS "clean" installation, the Recovery HD partition does not get created (not sure if Apple has fixed this issue with Yosemite). By the way, one can determine if it's there by starting up Disk Utility, then from its Debug Menu, just "enable" the "Show Every Partition" option.

In any event, there have been two occasions where I had a software issue with my primary (boot) partition on my Mac Mini (I have a 256 gig SSD). Trying to research why it happened proved to be fruitless, so I went ahead and booted the Mac Mini from the SuperDuper! backup, used Disk Utility there to Erase and Format my SSD, and then did a restore from that backup to the SSD. I then successfully re-booted my Mac Mini from its "refreshed" boot partition. I then used Recovery Partition Creator to re-create the Recovery HD partition on the SSD. Now, when I press the Option Key on my Mac Mini at boot up, the Recovery HD partition does show up. (I also had to boot Tech Tool Pro to re-create its (hidden) eDrive partition, which is a very handy, easy, and fast way of performing Disk Maintenance/Repairs as if Tech Tool Pro was on an external device).

From what I also understand, the latest version of Recovery Partition Creator, 3.8, supposedly works with OS 10.9.5 and below. However, if one upgraded from OS 10.9.5 to OS 10.10, then it will work with Yosemite, and successfully re-create the Recovery HD partition. I know this for a fact, as I have done it twice on my Mac Mini.

In contrast, on my Mac Book Air, which I have not (yet) needed to re-create the Recovery HD partition (also upgraded that machine from OS 10.9.5 to OS 10.10), the Recovery HD indeed does not show up when holding down the Option key only. As Cory so correctly stated, one needs to boot to the Recovery HD partition by Pressing the Command and R keys at start up. By the way, the Command + R method always works (as long as the Recovery HD partition is there).