Dashboard widgets won't pop up.

I love my dashboard but recently all my widgets refuse to pop up. One day when I turned my computer on and went into the dash board, all my widgets were gone so I to the menu place to bring them up again. They pop up for a second with the cool ripple animation but then they just disappear!
I have no clue what happened.
My best guess is the Harry Potter count down I had for the new movie. :S The last time I was able to use my widgets was when there was 1 day left on that thag. Anybody else have this problem before?

OK. Let's determine whether it is specific to your "Home" account...
Unless another User account exists on your computer, create a New User Account. It only takes a few minutes.
Navigate to: System Preferences > Accounts.
To add a New User, click the "plus" button located at the lower left.
Once you've made the New User, log-in to that New User account and see if Dashboard works?
If Dashboard isn't working with any User accounts, than the problem is a little deeper. Not sure what to do at that point, but likely requires mucking around with Dashboard at the System level, which we'd like to stay away from, if possible.

Similar Messages

Downloaded Dashboard Widgets won't run, Help.

Can't figure this one out. Widgets that come with Leopard run fine. Any I download won't launch. I have 4 user accounts, all have same problem. I created a new user account and the downloaded widgets works fine.
So, not sure what happened but all users created prior to a certain point don't work, any new users now seem fine. Anyone else seen this? Any ideas on how to resolve?

Most of the widgets in Dashboard weren't working for me. So far as I am aware, this problem started when I tried to add new third-party widgets (downloaded through Apple-Downloads) after upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.
This is what got things working again -- and was much easier than an archive and install:
1. I took a screen shot (command-shift-3) with dashboard open to make a record of widget placement.
2. I disabled dashboard with DashboardSwitch (http://braintrigger.com/software/DashboardSwitch).
     (It might be that a restart would have done the same thing -- but for me this was easier.)
3. I removed all plists with the word "dashboard" or "widget" in its name from User/Library/Preferences, and left them in a folder on my desktop.
4. I enabled Dashboard with DashboardSwitch. (I believe it's the case that if you use this program to disable Dashboard, you cannot start Dashboard though the Dock until it's been enabled again with DashboardSwitch.)
     (For those who simply restarted in step 2, I'm guessing all you'd have to do at this stage is to open Dashboard normally.)
5. With the old preferences removed, Dashboard loaded with only the default widgets open. I clicked the plus symbol, removed those I didn't want to keep, and began adding back widgets, starting with ones originally supplied by Apple, and waiting after each one to be sure it was working. If something didn't work, I removed it and went on.
6. When I was done, only two widgets still wouldn't work.  It turned out both were only designed for Tiger, specifically, and not for Leopard. One I updated -- after which, it worked fine.  The other had no update for Leopard, so I had to replace it with something similar.
7. I reset preferences on the flip side of my widgets, then used the screen shot I took in step 1 as a guide for putting things back in place. (Yes, that's finicky -- but I liked them where I had them.)
8. After I had everything running the way I liked it, I trashed the folder with the old widget and dashboard preferences, which I had left on my desktop.
Everything's working fine now.  I hope this helps someone else.

Manage Widgets dashboard widget won't close

Hi
I put the manage widgets widget in dashboard up so I could delete a widget and it didn't work. None of the widgets showed up in the list and nothing loaded. I can't close it now. Nothing happens if I click on the x in the corner or if I hold option and click it. How can I close the widget?
Cameron

I'm slow this morning, sorry.
From your users account...
/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences. Scroll down to where you see your widgets .plist files. Drag those to the Trash, empty the Trash and reboot. See if that unlocks your Manage Widgets window.
Also, Repair Disk Permissions. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select FirstAid, then click: Repair Disk Permissions. Quit DU when it's finished and reboot.
If that doesn't help, select the Manage Widgets window then press Command + R.
I found that suggestion here: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/104
Carolyn

Dashboard widgets won't install

When I download a widget and click 'install' nothing happens. I have tried to move the widget directly to my home/library/widgets folder, but apparently I don't have one. When I tried to create this folder, I was told "The item cannot be created because 'Library' cannot be modified" even though this is my home library. I then hit 'authenticate' and am told the operation "cannot be completed because I don't have sufficient privileges for some of the items". Maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Hi mamashi, and a warm welcome to the forums!
In the Finder, do a Get info on your Library Folder, at the bottom what are the Rights & Privileges?
There's also another one at...
/Library/Widgets
May have to try this...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go
Message was edited by: BDAqua

Brand new iMAC, Mountain Lion installed, dashboard widgets will not download. Webpage times out. Any suggestions?

Just purchased a brand new iMAC and sucessfully performed download and install of Mountain Lion (free upgrade). Discovered that dashboard widgets will not download as webpage times_out in both Safari and Firefox. Already set security to allow downloads from 'anywhere' but with no change. Downloads from anywhere else works fine, just widgets won't work, and I've been trying for several days now. Any suggestions? (firewall is off).

The Apple Support Communities are an international user to user technical support forum. As a man from Mexico, Spanish is my native tongue. I do not speak English very well, however, I do write in English with the aid of the Mac OS X spelling and grammar checks. I also live in a culture perhaps very very different from your own. When offering advice in the ASC, my comments are not meant to be anything more than helpful and certainly not to be taken as insults.
1-800-MY-APPLE
(1-800-692-7753)

Dashboard widgets can't connect to internet

Recently, my dashboard widgets can't connect to the internet. I've tried restarting, clearing the preference files for the dashboard and turning littlesnitch off. Any other ideas? All widgets affected, not just 3rd party ones.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, or by corruption of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. Test while in safe mode. Same problem? After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Why don't dashboard widgets work in 10.7?

I've been googling around, looking for an answer to this question--I've downloaded several useful widgets only to discover OSX 10.7.5 Lion won't open them. I get the error message: "You can't install *.wdgt because it is not a valid widget." After some searching, I have managed to find widgets that do work, but they never have the extension .wdgt, and when I look in my library folder, the active widgets I'm able to find have a .plist extension. Are there any good sites for finding working widgets? Are there ways to convert older widgets?
Most of the ones on the Apple Dashboard widget page say they'll work on any version after 10.4 or so, and I'm assuming, as are many, that Apple's just abandoning the Dashboard interface. The weird thing is that there are still two different ways to access a "Dashboard" or people seem to think that they're both called a "Dashboard"--the first Dashboard that I get with a three-finger sideswipe--and then the other one accessed by F4 that more resembles the iPad OS.
Basically, I don't care how I access widgets or apps or gadgets or whatever, via a Dashboard or dock, but it's pretty crazy that there's less functionality for a MacBook Pro than for your most basic smartphone.

.plist folders are not widget files. They're just preference files for those widgets. All widgets have a .wdgt extension and will reside in the Library/Widgets folder either at the root of the hard drive or in your Home directory.
As to the problem, it's possible that the widgets you're trying to use may just be too old and not have been updated for the later versions of Dashboard. If you'll post the names of the widgets you wish to use, someone may be able to check them and see if it's indeed such a problem.
Finally, there is only one Dashboard, though there may be more than one command or activity that will open it. A three-finger sideswipe, I believe, changes Spaces and does not activate Dashboard per se, though Dashboard may open in a space.
Regards.

Web browser dashboard widget

help!
i'm at my wit's end!
i want to do something EXTREMELY simple, but can't figure it out
i need to make a dashboard widget that displays a web page in an iframe
i've tried and tried and tried and i can't get it to work
the web page i want to display is http://www.noleggedsnake.com/Widget/Home.html
when i make a simple widget with an iframe src'ed to this address
it doesn't work! it will work if i src to other addresses, like apple.com
but it won't work on that address, even though a browser views it fine
what's going on?
i'm so frustrated by this because it should be such a simple thing to do
i need the iframe to be a specific width and be navigatable
that is, you should use it like a browser but only throughout this site by navigating the links on the pages
can anyone please help!
the html code needed for the widget's html file would be a huge help!
thankyou in advance

help!
i'm at my wit's end!
i want to do something EXTREMELY simple, but can't figure it out
i need to make a dashboard widget that displays a web page in an iframe
i've tried and tried and tried and i can't get it to work
the web page i want to display is http://www.noleggedsnake.com/Widget/Home.html
when i make a simple widget with an iframe src'ed to this address
it doesn't work! it will work if i src to other addresses, like apple.com
but it won't work on that address, even though a browser views it fine
what's going on?
i'm so frustrated by this because it should be such a simple thing to do
i need the iframe to be a specific width and be navigatable
that is, you should use it like a browser but only throughout this site by navigating the links on the pages
can anyone please help!
the html code needed for the widget's html file would be a huge help!
thankyou in advance

Dashboard (Widget) turning ON/OFF automatically...Please Help!!

Everything was working fine yesterday...
I don't know if these two events are related, but today when I turned ON my computer and tried logging online I saw that Comcast had turned OFF my Internet Connection because of a late payment. Moments latter, after I made the payment and got my internet re-connected again this started happening...
I logged online and for a minute or so it was fine, then all of a sudden there was a weird brief moment were I did not have any control over my computer... I thought something was being installed without my consent. So I tried logging OFF but the computer was Frozen, So I Shut down the computer manually using the ON/OFF button on my Display.... I don't remember exactly all the details of what else I did, but a few minutes latter I turned my computer back ON...
My (Widget) dashboard window and the Volume Indicator started turning ON/OFF automatically. And now it's happening every few minutes and I can't control it.
If I'm on my Desktop screen the Finder Window pops open prompting me: "you can not use the name that begins with Dot." The Keyboard keys Freeze and I have to randomly hit a bunch of keys or shut the computer down to use it again. As I was typing this email it would interrupt it and add one of these numbers (.0 or 3) to were ever the cursor was currently at. The mouse seams to work OK, but sometimes it freezes too.
And, If I'm online the browser would freeze whenever the Widget application automatically started turning ON/OFF on the screen.
Here are things I tried that I thought would fix it:
1. I trashed the widget preferences from my User/Library.
2. I trashed the widgets I thought were causing the problem.
3. After the above did not work, I trashed the Dashboard Widget Application thinking it would be Deleted out of my computer. Unfortunately that did not fix the problem... I found out that the Widget dashboard Application is still somewhere in the sub layer of the system.
I don't know what is going on and need some help here...
So, can anyone Please help me out.. any Step by Step instructions would be greatly appreciated.
-Frank
Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)
Power Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi Frank, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
First thing I'd do is Run Repair Disk from your Tiger DVD or discs that shipped with your Mac.
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.) Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair.
If you repair errors run it until no errors found.
Next, I'd try to repair this with 10.4.9 PPC Combo Update.
This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before. It has worked well for many.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
Good luck, let us know.
-mj
[email protected]

After reboot firefox won't start. runs in task manager, but won't pop up. reset, safe mode and uninstall/re-install won't help. ok if no reboot.

win7 Pro. has been running firefox ok. but lately with 25 and now 26, the firefox won't start. I can see firefox is running in task manager. but it just won't pop up.
if I download it again and install it, it will run, but every time I reboot the system, it just won't run again.
try: reset, safe mode, uninstall & reinstall, new/clean profile, none of those work.

There may be a corrupted file on Firefox.<br>
Please attempt to perform a clean reinstall. <sup>[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/forum-response-clean-reinstall (More Details)]</sup> This is different than a regular uninstall.
If a clean reinstall does not fix the issue, please try starting your operating system in safe mode.<br>
To do so, please do the following:
#Ensure that your computer is shut down completely
#Press the power button
#Tap the <code>F8</code> key repeatedly before the Windows logo and startup screen is displayed
#Select Safe Mode With Networking for the advanced startup options list
Please report back with the results of both solutions.

How to open and read an external file in Dashboard widget?

I am new to Dashboard widgets and also Javascript. I have written a widget that needs to open and read a file on the local file system. I have searched a lot and have not found any documentation or reference on the internet as to how to do this.
I know it can be done since there is a checkbox in the widget attributes that says "Allow External File Access".
can anyone help me out here?
Thanks

You need to define the AllowFileAccessOutsideOfWidget key to Yes.
You also need to define the AllowFullAccess key.
You may also need to define the AllowSystem key (to Yes of course).
Mihalis.
PS. If you cannot find any other documentation please check http://widgetbook.blogspot.com.

Dashboard Widget causes error and I can't get dashboard to stay open - how do I find the file to delete?

I put "levelwidget" on the dashboard - it is supposed to make a macbook into a Level. Sounded interesting...now I regret!
The widget is corrupted and now when I try to open the dashboard it immediately closes and gives me an error message "you can't open the application motion because power pc applications are no longer supported"
How do I delete this widget so I can open the dashboard.
I've tried to look up the file, but can't seem to find dashboard widget files.
Thoughts?
Grant

Sorry didn't realise you were an Apple Newbie!
No problem, when you're in the Finder, check along the menus at the top of the screen.
You should see Finder (in Bold) File, Edit, View, Go, Window and Help. Click the Go menu and with the mouse go to the second to last item which is 'Go to Folder…' then you be presented with a dialogue box ready to type some text into.
Now you can type the text ~/Library/Widgets into the box. The Tilde character is next to the left Shift key (Press and hold the Shift key and then press the ~ key.
It will be easier if whilst you're reading this message, you highlight the text ~/Library/Widgets and go to the Edit menu, select Copy, then go to the Finder and when you've the Go to Folder… dialogue window open, go Edit Paste and it will fill the box for you. Then just click the Go button and it should show your Widgets. Again if not the one just repeat the Go to Folder… bit and this time just remove the ~ at the beginning of the line
Mike

How to capture an HTML snippet like dashboard widget?

How do you copy a website html to paste into an iWeb 09 html snippet? Is there a copy command in the Safari browser like when you clip a snippet to make a Dashboard widget? That would be too easy. Do I need some other software for copying the html?

Photog Dog wrote:
How do you copy a website html to paste into an iWeb 09 html snippet?
Drag your pointer over the embed code so that it is all highlighted in blue. Then do ⌘C to copy it and then paste it into iWeb's HTML Snippet window by doing ⌘V.
Is there a copy command in the Safari browser like when you clip a snippet to make a Dashboard widget?
No — Only the general ⌘C and ⌘V editing commands mentioned above.
Do I need some other software for copying the html?
No.

Could a Dashboard widget be the cause of my Panics?

Hello everyone,
For the past few months, I've gotten a kernel panic on the average of about once a week. I started looking a the kernel logs and I discovered that 18 out of the 19 kernel panics my powerbook experienced this year had something eerily in common: the current thread for all of them was DashboardClient.
Now what's frustrating is that all loaded widgets are labeled as "DashboardClient" in the activity monitor so I don't know how I'm suppose to figure out which one, save for process of elimination.
But could a dashboard widget be the source of my kernel panics?
Also, my drive's directory structure is spotless. No errors, defraged, disk warrior, etc. and I'm current with my updates.
If anyone could help me I'd really appreciate it!
Here's a panic dump from the latest panic:
Wed Apr 28 15:32:17 2010
Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access DAR=0x0000000000000008 PC=0x00000000000AD208
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x30195780)
PC=0x000AD208; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x00000008; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x0007C270; R1=0x302A7A70; XCP=0x0000000C (0x300 - Data access)
Backtrace:
0x0007C270 0x0007CC54 0x0006E040 0x0006EB68 0x0003AB18 0x0029B170
0x0029B29C 0x0029BA74 0x0029BB94 0x003100AC 0x000B4448 0x9816C485
Proceeding back via exception chain:
Exception state (sv=0x30195780)
previously dumped as "Latest" state. skipping...
Exception state (sv=0x37fe1a00)
PC=0x95492954; MSR=0x0000D030; DAR=0xE34BCCA8; DSISR=0x40000000; LR=0x95492948; R1=0xBFFF99B0; XCP=0x00000030 (0xC00 - System call)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: DashboardClient
Mac OS version:
9L31a
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:57:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_PPC
System model name: PowerBook5,6
System uptime in nanoseconds: 373029901008580
unloaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBTCKeyEventDriver 1.7.4f1 - last unloaded 5772792683945
loaded kexts....

Yes, a widget can cause kernel panics — particularly an old one that hasn't been updated as needed for compatibility with a more recent OS version.
Starting with the widgets that you know you've added yourself, open each of your installed widgets and put it through its paces doing whatever it does, in an effort to provoke a kernel panic on purpose. While you have it open (if no KP occurs), consult the website of its developer to see whether any updates are available for it, and apply any that are appropriate. (Avoid any update that is designated as compatible ONLY with Snow Leopard or Intel machines, if you run across any such.)
If you get through updating all your widgets without a KP, just keep using your Powerbook and see what happens. It's unfortunate that you may have to wait several weeks to conclude that the problem has or hasn't been solved, but it may take that long if your KPs up to now have only occurred about weekly.
Message was edited by: eww

Dashboard widget with streaming video breaks after upgrade to Mountain Lion

Hi. I recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion. Under SL, I had an OS X widget that was a web clipping of a streaming mpeg image being produced by a Linksys/Cisco WVC54GCA web camera. When I brought up the dashboard, the OS would start streaming the data from the mpeg filename, which looks like "hostname.com/img/video.mjpeg".
After upgrading to Mountain Lion, I noted that the widget never fully loads, indefinitely displaying a "Loading Clip..." mesasge. After deleting and re-adding, I can still get as far as adding the web clipping to the dashboard at the right dimensions, but there's no content.
Unfortunately the camera unit doesn't provide for the display of HTTP access logs, so I can't see if there's an issue there, but my understanding is that if I can display the image in a Safari browser, it should work just fine in Dashboard too. (I did make sure that, where needed, the username/password for accessing the video are included in the URL.)
I did sniff the network traffic between my system and the camera host, and show that video traffic starts flowing between the two as soon as the widget is brought up. So, it's almost like the widget doesn't know when to stop "loading" and start "displaying," perhaps because the HTTP request is never truly "done."
Can anyone speculate if something may have changed in Mountain Lion affecting the ability of web clipping widgets to display streaming video?
Thanks,
Chris

Hi James
I have exactly the same problem with the same "Loading clip" then blank. I have been trying a lot of stuff to get this working, but haven't had the chance of sniffing the network traffic as you have done. By reading what you said about the traffic seems to be flowing without the picure being displayed makes me even more puzzled by this. I never had a streaming video while I were using Snow Leopard, but I had a still-image, as I also do now in Mountain Lion. I recently began to research for a way to display the video.cgi MIME image that my camera produces, and I've also concluded that this should be an easy task for the dashboard web clip function; the video does display in safari after all.
I suspect that our cameras uses the same built in webserver solution written by a "Steven Wu". Cheap webcameras frequently uses his script with MJPEG (stream of JPEG pictures) to avoid the expensive licenses of using other video codecs.
I read this a bit down at this site: http://channel9.msdn.com/coding4fun/articles/Everyone-Loves-Babies-Webcams-and-M otion-Detection
Have you come any closer in your research?
I have started to think that maybe I have to write a dashboard widget on my own to accomplish this.
trelements

Dashboard widgets won't pop up.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for