Desktop and Screensaver preferences will not open

Whenever I go to open the Desktop & Screen Saver pane in System Preferences, it won't work and I get the message "Preferences Error: Could not load Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane." If anyone could provide me with information on how to fix this that would be great. Thank you!!

Close all windows and quit all applications.
Hold the option key down and click the "Go" menu in the Finder menubar.
Select "Library" from the dropdown, then "Preferences" folder.
Look for these two files.
com.apple.desktop.plist
com.apple.systempreferences.plist
Right click each one of those and select " Move To Trash" from the contextual menu.
Restart the computer.

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Desktop and Screensaver Preference Pane not loading

First hiccup with Yosemite. Under System Preferences, Desktop and Screensaver Preference Pane will not open, saying "Could not load Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane."
Desktop is solid Aqua. Have removed Preferences, rebuilt Permissions and reinstalled OS X in Recovery Mode, but no go. Does the same in Safe Mode yet is fine in a New User Account. I have Little Snitch updated and have tried turning it off. No different. Any suggestions? Not causing any annoyance but just wondering why it refuses to load.
Thanks in advance
Pete

Imp68 wrote:
Three thoughts...
Any user installed screen savers? ~/Library/Screen Savers
Do you have a saved app state you could remove for system preferences? ~/Library/Saved Application State
Try creating an empty iPhoto Library for a test. Open iPhoto while holding Option.
1. Yes. Removed now but no go
2. Removed. No difference
3. iPhoto works fine
Pete

Desktop and Screensaver preferences crashes upon opening it...

hi,
recently for no reason whenever i try to go to desktop and screensaver option in the system preferences it crashes automatically and means i have to force quit it. Its very odd. Is there a way to stop it doing this?
thanks

Hello t:
recently for no reason whenever i try to go to desktop and screensaver option in the system preferences it crashes automatically and means i have to force quit it.
If it crashes, there should not be a force quit required. What do you see in the crash logs?
In any event, try trashing a preference file (com.apple.systempreferences.plist) and restarting.
Barry

Just updated my itunes and restarted and now itunes will not open on my desktop.

just updated my itunes and restarted and now itunes will not open on my desktop.

This forum is for questions from those managing sites on iTunes U, Apple's service for colleges and universities to post educational material in the iTunes Store. You'll be most likely to get help with this issue if you ask in the general iTunes forums.
Regards.

Odd bug: "keyboard and mouse" within "system preferences" will not open!!

After having to Archive and Re-Install yesterday and installing "X11", I have an odd problem:
- apple+i leads to crashing and restart of "Finder"
- when investigating this I found the "keyboard and mouse" registry in "system preferences" will not open.
Any ideas what could be wrong?
Is there any other remedy short of another Archive and Re-Install?
In the system library I have "Keyboard.prefPane" version 3.13. Clicking on it opens a blank "system preferences" page entitled "keyboard and mouse".
Your help would be greatly appreciated!
PowerBook G4 1.25 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Reinstallation solved the problem.

Preferences will not open??

preferences will not open from within the address book. I did a restart on the macbook but still wont open. any ideas?

SamRH,
Quit Address Book, and locate the com.apple.AddressBook.plist file in your Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences Folder. Drag the file to your Desktop, log out/in or restart and check for the availability of Address Book Preferences.
Let us know what happens.
;~)

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 in o Photoshop 6. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, you do not have necessary access permissions or another progra

I am trying to import developed images from LightRoom 5 Photoshop 6 for further editing. I am receiving this message and the images will not open.....'Could not open scratch file because the file is locked, or you do not have necessary access permissions or another program is using the file. Use the 'Properties' command in the Windows Explorer to unlock the file. How do I fix this? I would greatly appreciate it if you would respond with terms and procedures that a computer ignorant user, such as me, will understand. Thanks.

Have you tried restoring the Preferences yet?

I am on windows 7 and I upgraded to 10.0.2 and now it will not open. I have removed firefox completely and uploaded it again and that did not work. So my latest attempt I removed firefox 10 again and uploaded the beta version and once again nothing.

I am on windows 7 and I upgraded to the newest verison of firefox and now it will not open. I have removed firefox completely and uploaded it again and that did not work. I then made sure it could get through my firewall and that did not work. So my latest attempt I removed firefox 10 again and uploaded the beta version hoping that would do it and once again nothing. It will not open at all. Please help - is there a live chat or a number to talk to someone at Firefox?

I think when uninstalling you may also have to choose (tick) to delete the preferences and other personal data like the bookmarks, stored passwords etc. to erase completely. If you are installing afresh, please try right-clicking on the file and '''Run as administrator''' to install. And when uninstalling, please also make sure choose to delete all data and also manually delete any '''Mozilla''', '''Mozilla Firefox''' or '''Firefox''' from %appdata%, %localappdata% and %programfiles%. You can open a location by typing for eg. %appdata% in the '''Run''' box (Windows key + R). You may also have to check the '''VirtualStore''' folder in %localappdata%. Files in the VirtualStore can be problematic. I think a clean installation may help.
[https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Firefox]
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installation_directory Installation Folder]
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder Profile Folder]
Please note that using system restore would usually damage the Firefox installation.

Pdf and vector files will not open in Adobe Illustrator after Yosemite Update

I updated my OS on recommendation from apple. Pdf and vector files will not open in adobe illustrator now. Am i using the latest OS?

Linda Feltner wrote:
> I cannot import or open vector files in Freehand 10. I
just get large
> Xs instead of the image. I have a MAC OS 10.3.9,
Freehand 10. I'm
> trying to import some small files that are either .ai or
.eps files
> (all are vector) that open fine in Illustrator 10 (so I
know they
> work), but I can't use them in that program. I've tried
adjusting in
> Freehand Preferences the 'convert editable EPS files" ,
on and off. I
> tried adjusting the 'Embed...." selection on and off.
Can anyone tell
> me what thing I'm doing wrong. I have two files, they
are map
> boundaries, that need to scale and adjust their color
and line width
> over an aerial map. This can't be difficult, but I must
be
> overlooking something. Many thanks in advance. Linda
>
Freehand can't convert EPS files into editable vectors. I
usually run
EPS files through Illustrator and then into Frehand. If you
don't have
Illustrator you can convert the EPS into a PDF and that
Freehand will
sometimes convert into editable vectors (though it does
involve a lot
more clean up than going through Illustrator.)

I updated itunes Jan 23, 2014 and now it will not open

I updated itunes Jan 23, 2014 and now it will not open

I think when uninstalling you may also have to choose (tick) to delete the preferences and other personal data like the bookmarks, stored passwords etc. to erase completely. If you are installing afresh, please try right-clicking on the file and '''Run as administrator''' to install. And when uninstalling, please also make sure choose to delete all data and also manually delete any '''Mozilla''', '''Mozilla Firefox''' or '''Firefox''' from %appdata%, %localappdata% and %programfiles%. You can open a location by typing for eg. %appdata% in the '''Run''' box (Windows key + R). You may also have to check the '''VirtualStore''' folder in %localappdata%. Files in the VirtualStore can be problematic. I think a clean installation may help.
[https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ Firefox]
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Installation_directory Installation Folder]
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder Profile Folder]
Please note that using system restore would usually damage the Firefox installation.

I installed itunes 11 and now it will not open any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

I installed itunes 11 and now it will not open any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Hi
Can you use the mouse to access and start System Preferences?
When you rest the mouse over a dock icon, does its name pop up?
What happens if you open an application by ctrl-clicking on the icon then selecting Open?
Bob

Desktop and Screensaver preferences don't work;

Desktop and Screensaver Preferences worked perfectly until the latest update, 10. 5. 7 were installed.
I tried every suggestion and approach to solve this problem, nothing worked. So I reinstalled 10 .5
and it works perfectly again. What changes were made in the 10.5.7 combo that would cause this problem? J. Weigel

They work fine on my computers also.
If it occurs again, see if it also happens in a newly created User Account. If it doesn't, there is probably a corrupt preference file. If that's the case, return to your usual User account and remove all the .plist files with screensaver or desktop in them from the folder
Macintosh HD/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences
including any .plist files in the ByHost folder in that Preferences folder.
If it does occur in another Users Account, you will probably need to do an Archive & Install from the install disk.

Beachball When I Access Desktop and Screensaver Preferences

This is strange. When I try to access Desktop and Screensaver Preferences in System Preferences, I get a beachball after a few seconds. The D and S Pref window shows up at first but there is nothing showing for either the current desktop or the current screensaver, and clicking on anything hastens the appearance of the beachball. I then have to force quit System Preferences.
All other items in System Preferences seem to be working OK. The only other oddity I have noticed is that downloaded files do not appear directly on top of my Macintosh HD icon on my Desktop (like they always had), but they appear on the Desktop in another nearby location.
I have logged out and in, restarted, repaired permissions, verified disk and even reinstalled the Combo 10.4.11 updater. I have also trashed com.apple.desktop. plist, all without success.
Any ideas?
Regards,
Steve M.

Thanks for responding baltwo. After puzzling over my problem, I finally arrived at the idea that somehow the screensaver I was using had developed a problem. So I pulled my WorldBook 2003 screensaver to the Desktop and logged out and back in and lo and behold my Screensaver Preferences worked as normal!
Since my WorldBook installation is not very current, I suppose there may be conflicts of some sort with 10.4.11 (of course I don't know for sure when this problem started).
I guess I could put the WorldBook screensaver back in place and try deleting the prefs you suggested and see what happens. I'm a little leery of deleting systempreferences prefs for fear of losing a bunch of my settings. Since I don't really need the WB screensaver I may just leave it out permanently.
By the way, what exactly is meant by the ByHost preferences?
Thanks,
Steve M.
Message was edited by: Steve M.

System preferences will not open after upgrade

upgraded software today and now system preferences will not open. when i click on it a message says "you cannot open the application 'system preferences' because it is not supported on this architecture". system preferences icon has a circle and slash symbol on top of it. my imac is about 6 months old and have not had a problem with it. all other apps work. please help.
lennyg2
iMac dual core Mac OS X (10.4.7)
iMac dual core Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Tried that, did 'repair disk permissions and it said all was ok. But when I pressed the 'Verify permissions' button it came out with an error message. Said that there was an error upon exiting, said the hard drive was damaged. Do you think that is connected to 'system preferences' not opening. As I said the 'system now has a 'circle with a slash' symbolon top of it.

System preferences will not open after Yosemite 10.10.2 upgrade

system preferences will not open after Yosemite 10.10.2 upgrade. What should I do?

Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Also see:
Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive
Choose the version you have installed now:
OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet
if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Desktop and Screensaver preferences will not open

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