no desktop after reboot

jbkayakjbkayak
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi I have three Imacs and an Apple server. after a blackout, one computer boots up witha empty desktop using user name tdavis. however, if she goes to another imac and logs in with tdavis, everything boots up fine. what do i need to do? I have an invioce from the last tech who cleard ATS chache to solve problem. How do I do it safely, and should that fix problem. Can i be on working I mac logg in as tdavis or shold I goto broken (no desktop) Imac and log in as admin and try to fix from there..



thaks

JB

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    jbkayakjbkayak Posts: 2member
    Just notice I have a magnifing Glass in upperright corner that makes my mouse goto color pinwheel when on top of it... SOunds like its hanging trying to load something. I want to clear ATS Cache....how to do safely
  • Reply 2 of 5
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    I've spent way too much time trying to troubleshoot that problem. The menu bar looks chopped. Clearing caches doesn't fix it. DiskWarrior doesn't fix it. fsck doesn't. 40 other things don't fix it. Reinstalling the OS does. Just keep that in mind before wasting too much time on trying to fix it.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    wooster101wooster101 Posts: 21member
    There is two solutions to this problem. I have found that it can be either font cache corruption or Spotlight-index corruption. I support 100´s of macs daily and one of these solutions always works. I have not found out exactly what it is that course this except that it seems to happen more often to people that changes font very often.



    1. Delete ATS fontcaches. Easiest done by restartaing the computer while holding down "shift". When the computer comes to the login screen just reboot.



    2. Delete Spotlight-index. If the above solution does not work try this.
    Start the computer with command + s (that is apple-key and s-key). This will start the computer in single-user-mode and from here you will be able to delete the spotlight-index. Follow the instruction below. The text to write in the conlose is in bold and blue



    /sbin/mount -uw / - then press enter (the filesystem is now in read/write mode)



    mv .Spotlight-V100/ .Spotlight-V100.old - then press enter. This will cause the Spotlight-index files to be unused the next restart because of the new name of the file. The Spotlight-index will be rebuilt automatically. I use mv (in this case it works like renaming) instead becuase rm (remove) can be very dangerous to use if you are not careful.



    reboot - then press enter. This restarts the computer and it should work as it should.

    I hope this works for you too. No reinstall is necessary
  • Reply 4 of 5
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wooster101


    2. Delete Spotlight-index. If the above solution does not work try this.
    Start the computer with command + s (that is apple-key and s-key). This will start the computer in single-user-mode and from here you will be able to delete the spotlight-index. Follow the instruction below. The text to write in the conlose is in bold and blue



    /sbin/mount -uw / - then press enter (the filesystem is now in read/write mode)



    mv .Spotlight-V100/ .Spotlight-V100.old - then press enter. This will cause the Spotlight-index files to be unused the next restart because of the new name of the file. The Spotlight-index will be rebuilt automatically. I use mv (in this case it works like renaming) instead becuase rm (remove) can be very dangerous to use if you are not careful.



    reboot - then press enter. This restarts the computer and it should work as it should.








    You don't need single-user mode to delete the Spotlight index, nor should you manually move those files.



    mdutil -i off /

    mdutil -E /

    mdutil -i on /



    will do the trick.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    wooster101wooster101 Posts: 21member
    Thats true - but I have never got around to remember that command



    But the problem in this case is that jbkayak was not able to log into his account because of the GUI hangs with only the Spotlight icon visible in the upper right corner. Therefore this is easiest done in singe user mode.



    No problem to manually move these files in single user mode either becuase the files are not in use and if not found will be rebuilt anyway.
Sign In or Register to comment.