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System Preferences / Desktop/Screensaver Crash

akmorgan

akmorgan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi-

I'm currently running Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro (Unibody). I am having an issue with System Preferences crashing when I try to change the desktop background.

I have tried deleting the following .plist files:

com.apple.desktop.plist
com.apple.systempreferences.plist
com.apple.screensaver.<random number>.plist

I created another admin account and it works fine.

I haven't noticed any other issues with my computer other than this.

Any insight would be much appreciated! 😕
 
Well, if it works on another account, use that one.

Or, you could pound your head against the desk trying to find the corruption in the other one.

Read about accounts in Mac Help. That will assist you in migrating from one account to another. If you still have questions, then come back here.
 
You've deleted what files? The plist files listed above? If so, then you open the application associated with the plist file. This creates a new one in the Preferences Folder which is set to default values. If your old plist files were corrupt, this could fix the problem. If not, no harm done. You just reset your preferences, if you'd changed them. I always recommend just dragging the plist files to the Desktop and deleting them only when you're satisfied with the result. If you're not, you can then put the old ones back. You'd do that if convinced they weren't causing your problem.
 
Had the same problem: changing the desktop background leads to hang and crash of the Desktop Pref pane.

TL;DR Solution: Go to User>Library>Preferences and find com.apple.desktop.plist. Delete this, and all should be fine again.

How I found it: after looking around with no real help, I decided to go through User>Library>Preferences. Moved them all to an empty folder, invoked Desktop Pref Pane: works perfectly, but stripped of any folders I'd added. This is expected, as I've removed any .pref files.

Then I returned any .pref file older than ten days (which is when I estimate the prob started) to the Preferences folder: invoke Desktop pane, all still good.

Gradually replace the .pref files which are unlikely to affect Dtop pref pane: Preview, iCal yadda yadda. Took no more than 3 minutes.

Eventually left with com.apple.desktop.plist; removal of this was enough to get it working again. I also replaced finder and system preferences .plist files, but replacing these did nothing when I was originally trying to fix the problem.

So: com.apple.desktop.plist it is!
 
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