System Preferences freezing after El Capitan upgrade

[Cory Cooper]

Probably just a corrupted preference somewhere. We can try and reset all the network stuff by deleting all the files in the following folder (but not the folder itself) and restarting:

Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > System Configuration

You will have to enter an admin password, then restart the Mac. After the restart, you may have to change a few settings in System Preferences... > Network, Energy Saver, Startup Disk, etc.

Since you have a Time Machine backup, it should be safe to try this.

C

 

[honestone]

That sounds like a plan, and a somewhat simple fix.

 

[wendy]

OK. Does that include the subfolders in this folder as well? (CaptiveNetworkSupport and CaptiveNetworkSupport~previous).

BTW I am incredibly grateful for all your help and the time you've taken to talk me through this problem this afternoon. It's a considerable relief to have access restored to the rest of System Preferences, even if the Network panel is still to be sorted. Thanks! You're a star!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Yes, both of those folders and all of the plist files.

Not a problem at all...that's why we are here.

C

 

[wendy]

It won't let me delete com.apple.Boot.plist

 

[Cory Cooper]

That's OK, delete the rest and then restart. You don't need to empty the trash until later.

C

 

[wendy]

Ah ya boss!! Sorted! Sweet. I have my Network panel restored! (Previously it was blank.) And no more freezing. THANK YOU!!

So will all those deleted plist files rewrite themselves now?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Excellent!

Yes, they will be recreated as settings are changed and they are needed. Make sure you unchecked 32-bit mode in the System Preferences Get Info box.

Keep an eye on things and let us know if you have additional issues.

C

 

[wendy]

Yes. 32-bit mode is already unchecked. I will surely keep an eye on things but so far I've been pretty happy with this upgrade. Thanks again for all your help.

honestone ... I waited this long because I wasn't happy with the reviews from any of the intervening upgrades and I upgraded straight to 10.11.3. I would do a clean install if I had the time and the internet connection, but on this occasion it wasn't possible. Some of us have to take our chances while we can. I live off-grid up in the mountains of Central Portugal with wireless broadband that really isn't up to handling OS upgrades without corruption, so these things have to wait until I find myself somewhere with a more robust connection.

 

[honestone]

Yes. 32-bit mode is already unchecked. I will surely keep an eye on things but so far I've been pretty happy with this upgrade. Thanks again for all your help.

honestone ... I waited this long because I wasn't happy with the reviews from any of the intervening upgrades and I upgraded straight to 10.11.3. I would do a clean install if I had the time and the internet connection, but on this occasion it wasn't possible. Some of us have to take our chances while we can. I live off-grid up in the mountains of Central Portugal with wireless broadband that really isn't up to handling OS upgrades without corruption, so these things have to wait until I find myself somewhere with a more robust connection.

Glad to hear you got your issue resolved.

So, you went from Mountain Lion (the last version, OS 10.9.5?), all the way to OS 10.11.3. That is quite an upgrade path. I understand about waiting to do a clean installation, although it seems like the fix which Cory provided did the trick. (Also, sorry where I missed about OS 10.11.3 earlier).

Al;so, it's wonderful that you are making backups, with both Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner. (I use SuperDuper! for my backups, and except for not backing up the Recovery HD partition (CCC does), I am very happy with it). Thus, I suspect you then know that you can boot from the CCC clone. Excellent!

 

[wendy]

Mountain Lion was 10.8.5. Yes. All the way. I researched people doing similar first and saw no reason not to. I read of some even upgrading from Snow Leopard. The upgrade was very straightforward, very quick, and apart from this one small hitch, without any problems at all. Perhaps it works better without all the accumulated dross of the intervening upgrades?

Yes, this was why I went for CCC over SuperDuper which I used to use many moons ago. I've always kept good backups, but often had problems with disc failures. When my last MBP keeled over (a victim of the faulty nVidia chip) I lost my backups as well thanks to 2 external hard drive failures. What are the chances, eh? All at once! I'm never buying LaCie drives again, that's for sure.

 

[honestone]

Oops, 10.8.5! Got my numbering and OS versions mixed up!

I actually do not need the Recovery HD partition, as I have TechTool Pro, which is one of the disk maintenance/repair programs out there. I can, though, easily recreate the Recovery HD partition, and that is what I do whenever I restore from a SuperDuper! backup.

As for external drives (even when I had internal Hard Drives; now I have SSDs), ones manufactured by Seagate typically behave the best with Macs. But, I have seen positive comments about LaCie drives (also seen some (but not many) negative ones about Seagate mechanisms). The ones by Western Digital are the worst, in terms of "playing nice" with Macs. For my SSDs, they are both manufactured by Samsung, and such SSDs always have positive reviews.