Menu Bar Crashing

mffl04 · Oct 19, 2011

Been searching here and Apple Support. My menu bar crashes and restarts every 10 seconds. Most say to trash ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, but I dont find that anywhere. This happened once I did the last update. Anyone have this issue or any advice?
Thanks!!

mffl04 · Oct 27, 2011

Mal · Oct 27, 2011

The reason you haven't found that file isn't because it doesn't exist, but because you didn't actually look where you were told to (may not be your fault, but simply incomplete instructions from those who assumed you would understand what they were telling you to do, which I've been guilty of myself).

Easiest thing to do is open Finder, choose the Go menu, then Go to Folder...

Enter into that drop-down box "~/Library/Preferences/" (leave off the quotes).

Scroll down the list to find the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist file, and toss it in the trash, then restart the computer. See if that fixes the problem.

jW

mffl04 · Oct 27, 2011

Thanks for your response! Unfortunately it didn't work. Still crashes after typing one letter into spotlight.

Any other thoughts?

satcomer · Oct 28, 2011

Well that is an easy fix.

1. Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type in the command:

Code:

sudo mdutil -E /

Then put you Macs password and then Spotlight will reindex your Mac. Wait until Spotlight has stopped indexing before using Spotlight.

mffl04 · Oct 28, 2011

Thanks for the reply satcomer. But it also didn't work. I'll keep trying what ever you guys through out!
Thanks!

Damo01 · Oct 28, 2011

Have you created a new user account to see whether the menu bar still crashing?

samckay · Oct 28, 2011

Please help - same issue

I am having the same exact issue - I wiped my drive clean and restored from time machine using a net gear stora. this restored version 10.7.1, which was fine and dis not experience this problem. As soon as I updated to 10.7.2 the problem then started to happen again where spot light crashed as soon as you try to use it. I also notice the issue when trying to join different wireless networks.

What I have tried -

Rolling back machine to 10.7.1 - Worked. - after update to 10.7.2 (failure)
installing the apple combined update for 10.7.2 - after 10.7.2 was already installed - FAILED

My wife has a macbook 2006 white one that runs lion Core 2 duo, and 2gb ram - really only difference is she does not have the Adobe collection CS5 installed and she does not experience the issue.
WHATS really weird is that I have a Band new Mac mini running 10.7.2 WITH Adobe CS5 collection on it, and it does not experience this issue. Any other ideas??????? losing my spotlight and Wifi icon flashing and not being able to select which network I want and being able to type in the Network passphrase, makes my wifes 2006 mac more reliable then my new Macbook Pro....GRRRRRRRRRR Sniff Sniff

__________________________________________________
iFamily = 1 macBook, 1 macBook Pro, 1 macMini, 2 IpodTouch 4gen, 1 Shuffle, 1 iPod 2nd Gen, 1 Ipod 3 Gen, 1 iPod 5th gen, 1 iPad, 1 iPhone 4, and 1 APPLE IIgs (Still working)..............and a partridge in a pear tree.

mffl04 · Oct 30, 2011

I'm about at my wits end! Ive tried the new account and that doesnt work. As I said this happend after I update to 10.7.2. I also tried to install apple combined update for 10.7.2, nothing. Im typing this on my MacBook Pro which I updated at the same time as the iMac and it has no problems. As samckay said im loosing my mind without spotlight!!

JediMeister · Oct 30, 2011

I'd suggest starting in safe boot as the next step. If Finder behaves normally, it means it's not the core OS at fault. Your troubleshooting would begin by removing login items from within Users & Groups preferences, the contents of /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, and /Library/StartupItems. Also consider any menu extras you have installed or non-Apple preference panes in Sustem Preferences. If Finder/menu bar also crashes in Safe Boot, and you have reinstalled it you will need to backup and then perform a clean install starting from base Lion.

mffl04 · Oct 30, 2011

JediMeister said:
I'd suggest starting in safe boot as the next step. If Finder behaves normally, it means it's not the core OS at fault. Your troubleshooting would begin by removing login items from within Users & Groups preferences, the contents of /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, and /Library/StartupItems. Also consider any menu extras you have installed or non-Apple preference panes in Sustem Preferences. If Finder/menu bar also crashes in Safe Boot, and you have reinstalled it you will need to backup and then perform a clean install starting from base Lion.

Thanks for your reply. After the menu bar crashes the dock also crashes for me. I have to use my Magic Trackpad gestures to bring up my apps to start a program. Should I go with a clean install?

Damo01 · Oct 30, 2011

mffl04 said:
JediMeister said:

I'd suggest starting in safe boot as the next step. If Finder behaves normally, it means it's not the core OS at fault. Your troubleshooting would begin by removing login items from within Users & Groups preferences, the contents of /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, and /Library/StartupItems. Also consider any menu extras you have installed or non-Apple preference panes in Sustem Preferences. If Finder/menu bar also crashes in Safe Boot, and you have reinstalled it you will need to backup and then perform a clean install starting from base Lion.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. After the menu bar crashes the dock also crashes for me. I have to use my Magic Trackpad gestures to bring up my apps to start a program. Should I go with a clean install?

You might have to go with a clean install and do two backup copies with one of them backups, you might want to exclude the system folder and the library from the backup. There something on your system causing the menu bar to crash, which nothing in your home folder (your user account) is not cause since you tried deleting plist files. . You don't anything on the menu bar that might causing the crash?

mffl04 · Oct 30, 2011

Just pulled everything off the menubar expect WIFI, bluetooth and Time Machine did a restart and still crashing.. Was really hoping I didn't have to do a clean install... Guess I better find out how to. Maybe I should just buy a new one

mffl04 · Nov 1, 2011

Damo01 said:
You might have to go with a clean install and do two backup copies with one of them backups, you might want to exclude the system folder and the library from the backup. There something on your system causing the menu bar to crash, which nothing in your home folder (your user account) is not cause since you tried deleting plist files. . You don't anything on the menu bar that might causing the crash?

How do I go about making the back ups?

Damo01 · Nov 1, 2011

Well...You can use Time Machine to backup the entire OS X system. You'll be needing an external drive or a time capsule to back it to. Instead of using Time Machine there other alternatives you can use like Carbon Copy Cloner for free or Super Duper www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

With the External Drive you could partition the drive into two partitions , and have two different backup copies on the two partitions, with one of them excluding the System folder and the library folder that is on root directory of your HD.

Use Migration Assistant to transfer your backup onto the clean osx.

mffl04 · Nov 2, 2011

Damo01 said:
Well...You can use Time Machine to backup the entire OS X system. You'll be needing an external drive or a time capsule to back it to. Instead of using Time Machine there other alternatives you can use like Carbon Copy Cloner for free or Super Duper www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

With the External Drive you could partition the drive into two partitions , and have two different backup copies on the two partitions, with one of them excluding the System folder and the library folder that is on root directory of your HD.

Use Migration Assistant to transfer your backup onto the clean osx.

Setting up the back up with Carbon Copy, should I just back up the application folder? Thats really all I am worried about backing up. All my files are on a external harddrive.

r0k · Nov 2, 2011

mffl04 said:
Setting up the back up with Carbon Copy, should I just back up the application folder? Thats really all I am worried about backing up. All my files are on a external harddrive.

A main feature of CCC is that it makes bootable clones. I would clone your drive with CCC. All of your drive. Then boot, holding option. Then pick the copy you just made to boot from. See if your problems went away. CCC does not do block copy of the drive you booted from so whatever is causing this might not get backed up. Oh. I almost forgot. You need to partition the drive you are backing up to as a guid partition scheme HFS+ volume before you use CCC to make a clone to it. The new drive just has to be bigger than the stuff you are trying to keep, not as big as the physical volume you are cloning (unless you try block copy).

If you think you need a copy of the Applications folder, by all means do it but you don't need CCC for that task. BTW, simply making a copy of the Applications folder does not bring over all the stuff that might be sitting in /Library/Application Support or ~/Library/Application Support. Your apps might not run properly if you try to bring them back by simply copying them. For example, Mozilla Thunderbird has a huge mail database sitting in ~/Library/Application Support and bringing back the app by merely copying it might put you in a situation where you are setting up all your email accounts from scratch or possibly you might wind up in a situation where it won't even launch. I had a situation where mail.app wouldn't launch after a restore from Time Machine and I had to go looking in Application Support to delete all its files before I could get the thing to even launch. YMMV.

mffl04 · Nov 2, 2011

r0k said:
A main feature of CCC is that it makes bootable clones. I would clone your drive with CCC. All of your drive. Then boot, holding option. Then pick the copy you just made to boot from. See if your problems went away. CCC does not do block copy of the drive you booted from so whatever is causing this might not get backed up. Oh. I almost forgot. You need to partition the drive you are backing up to as a guid partition scheme HFS+ volume before you use CCC to make a clone to it. The new drive just has to be bigger than the stuff you are trying to keep, not as big as the physical volume you are cloning (unless you try block copy).

If you think you need a copy of the Applications folder, by all means do it but you don't need CCC for that task. BTW, simply making a copy of the Applications folder does not bring over all the stuff that might be sitting in /Library/Application Support or ~/Library/Application Support. Your apps might not run properly if you try to bring them back by simply copying them. For example, Mozilla Thunderbird has a huge mail database sitting in ~/Library/Application Support and bringing back the app by merely copying it might put you in a situation where you are setting up all your email accounts from scratch or possibly you might wind up in a situation where it won't even launch. I had a situation where mail.app wouldn't launch after a restore from Time Machine and I had to go looking in Application Support to delete all its files before I could get the thing to even launch. YMMV.

So should I not make a bootable drive of the lion download like I have read? If I were to do a restore and then download my programs again would the key's still work on them? As I said before, The only thing I'm worried about is the programs that I have purchased, ALL my data is on a external hard drive.

I used to think I was decent on Mac's but im beginning to think I'm not!

r0k · Nov 2, 2011

mffl04 said:
So should I not make a bootable drive of the lion download like I have read? If I were to do a restore and then download my programs again would the key's still work on them? As I said before, The only thing I'm worried about is the programs that I have purchased, ALL my data is on a external hard drive.

I used to think I was decent on Mac's but im beginning to think I'm not!

I'm confused. What are you trying to accomplish here? Are you trying to fix the menubar crashing with the least amount of effort? For this, doing an "archive and install" by booting to Lion's recovery partition might work. As a next step, doing a CCC clone of your boot drive might work as you can boot from the new drive to test that it works before going any further.

If you really want to just do a wipe and install, then of course you should make yourself a bootable 8 GB usb stick from the contents of InstallESD.dmg and proceed from there. Before doing so, I would make an inventory of what apps are installed and figure out which apps are easily backed up via a mere copy and which would require "reinstallation" to come back fully working.

mffl04 · Nov 2, 2011

I appreciate every ones help on this. I ended up erasing everything on the hard drive and re installing Lion. Fixed the issue, runs a little quicker now as well.
Thanks Again! :apple:

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