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Flash SWT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 14, 2009
459
23
Houston, TX
Hey guys, I could use some help. My mother is on Lion however I'm still on Snow Leopard so I've never seen anything like this before.

She has done something to Address Book that is making is behave weirdly. When the program is open no windows show up. If we right-click the Dock icon and pick "Show All Windows" it fades the desktop (no icons are seen) and the main Address Book window appears. If we put the mouse over the window it gets a blue border. However if we click on the window it switches back to the desktop and Address Book disappears again.

Any thoughts?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,134
15,597
California
Hey guys, I could use some help. My mother is on Lion however I'm still on Snow Leopard so I've never seen anything like this before.

She has done something to Address Book that is making is behave weirdly. When the program is open no windows show up. If we right-click the Dock icon and pick "Show All Windows" it fades the desktop (no icons are seen) and the main Address Book window appears. If we put the mouse over the window it gets a blue border. However if we click on the window it switches back to the desktop and Address Book disappears again.

Any thoughts?

The first part of what you describe is normal, but when you click on it it should take away that dark blue background and go back to the main window with Address Book now running as the front application.

During the first part you mention, can you see contacts in there like the app is working normally?

What happens if you do command-q to quit Address Book then launch it from Spotlight?
 

Flash SWT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 14, 2009
459
23
Houston, TX
Thanks for taking the time to respond.

By the first part I assume you mean when we click "Show All Windows." (Having the application open with no windows at all visible doesn't seem normal.)

When we click on the Address Book window (with blue border) it switches back to "normal" desktop and the Address Book menu bar shows the program does have focus, but the main window is missing.

Yes when we can see the main window (with normal desktop background faded but no desktop icons visible) it does have all her addresses in it.

No different launching from Spotlight. Deleting all the Address Book preferences doesn't fix things.

Here is a video showing the problem in case I'm not describing things well enough:
<link removed>
 
Last edited:

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,134
15,597
California
Here is a video showing the problem in case I'm not describing things well enough:

Hmmm... never have seen that before. :confused:

Try holding the shift key when rebooting to do a safe mode boot. That disables any startup items to eliminate that as a problem.

Can you think of any apps added recently that might have caused this?

Try making a new (second) user account just to test if it happens in that account also. That will show if it is systemwide or just an issue with that account.
 

Flash SWT

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 14, 2009
459
23
Houston, TX
Thanks again for taking the time to respond. It turns out she had somehow moved the Address Book window down behind the Dock. So it was technically on the screen, just not where we could see it. We moved the dock to the side and were able to grab the window and pull it back up!
 
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