System preferences won't save changes

When making changes in my system preferences, say changing the screensaver, the change does not save. When I go back into the preferences, they have reverted back to the previous setting. It's also doing the same thing with Safari. When I delete all website info in the preferences, it reverts back to the previous. I just upgraded to 10.7.1, but it was doing it before with 10.6 as well. Any idea what's causing this?

Possible conflicting or corrupted files, usually preference files. Step one is create a new admin user account, log into it, and see if changes persist.

Similar Messages

System Preferences won't save after change

Hello everyone,
I am running Mac OS 10.5.8 on a Black Macbook. The problem I am having is that none my changes will save in the system preferences. For example. I change the desktop background but the background won't change. The display window in the systems preferences window will show the picture I chose, but the desktop won't.
Another example: if I turn off "spaces" in systems preferences. It will show as off in the system preferences window, but as soon as I close the system preferences window, the changes won't take affect. This seems to happen with any change to settings in the system preferences.
I have recently used both "disk warrior" and Onyx to rebuild my desktop, check my drive and everything else those applications do. But still no change.
One more hint: I deleted an application (TomTom home) from my computer a few months ago, but the old icon shows up in the Dock as a "?" after each restart. I can drag it ot the desktop and delete it, but if I restart it will always show up.
What could be wrong? Should I do a reinstall? I don't have the disks...
Thanks Mac folks!

Ok, I tried both removing the "com.apple.systempreference.plist" and restarting from both a Disk Warrior disk, and the Mac OS X Install CD 1 and doing a repair of the disk permissions. Neither of the tricks worked.
I no longer have a "com.apple.systempreference.plist" file anywhere on my computer and I still have the same problems.
So what should I do now? I have (obviously) found my original disks. I am thinking I need to do a new install of the system software? What is the process for doing that and not lose my data?
Thanks again for everybodies help.
Josh

Macbook system preferences won't save

My system preferences, such as dock and trackball settings don't save when I restart my computer. After setting all preferences to my liking, added and removed apps from the dock, even moved the dock itself only to find everything upset when I turn my computer back on. Coming in and out of sleep is not the problem, just with powering up and powering down. Any help? I need it please!!

Might be corrupted preferences... (.plist)
Go to ~/Library/Preferences
Move the com.apple.systempreferences.plist file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac.
See if that helped...
~ (Tilde) character represents the Home folder.
For Lion: To find the Home folder in OS X Lion, open the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose Go > Library

Mac Sleep Timer (through 'Energy Saver' in System Preferences) won't work

Hello,
I have a MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009) running Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3,
and it has been installed with the latest software updates possible.
(The latest update is the 'Security Update 2010-003')
Previously I was using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 on my MacBook,
and I can vaguely remember the timed computer sleep through Energy Saver would work.
That is, when the counter's time matches the amount of time I specified (e.g. 10 minutes), the computer enters sleep mode and displays a pulsing power light.
After upgrading to Snow Leopard I can barely remember the scheduled computer sleep will work as I don't really notice how it sleeps / I will shut down my MacBook before I go to bed.
==========
However, last night I was really tired and slept in front of my MacBook unconsciously.
When I woke up, I found that my MacBook didn't display a pulsing power light but a continuously-growing power light.
I tapped the trackpad and the display turned on, so I knew that my MacBook didn't go to sleep a whole night.
*What that means is that the Sleep Timer (through 'Energy Saver' in System Preferences) won't work.*
But the timed display sleep DOES work.
==========
After spending a whole day Googling,
I found that there are plenty of people suffering the same problem as me, although their Macs and OSs vary.
I also found an official support page from Apple concerning the related issue:
Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1776
I tried the following methods but still can't resolve the problem:
_- boot my MacBook in safe mode_
_- use the 'Disk Utility' to repair Disk Permissions through booting my MacBook from the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Installation DVD_
_- reset NVRAM (Intel-based) (as PRAM is used by PowerPC-based Macs)_
_- reset SMC (System Management Controller)_
NONE of the above-mentioned methods can resolve the problem.
Althought I am sure that the Spotlight isn't indexing the hard drive, and I just start my computer and do nothing and wait for the scheduled computer sleep, the scheduled computer sleep just won't work.
In the other Mac forum, I saw someone suggest installing an application called PleaseSleep:
http://www.dragonone.com/products/macosx/pleasesleep/
It works.
But I really want to find out what caused this problem as this is a function shipped with Mac which is expected to work normally.
What's more, Apple is claiming to be a green Apple, right?
==========
Here's the log taken from 'Console':
- Sleep by closing the lid of my MacBook:
Apr 18 13:21:05 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback WILL sleep
Apr 18 13:21:05 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Sleep notification received from the system
Apr 18 13:21:07 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: network configuration changed.
Apr 18 13:23:21 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback will power on, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:23:21.028 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:23:19.410 PM = Deltatime:1.618421972
Apr 18 13:23:21 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: handleUnlockResult, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:23:21.579 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:23:19.410 PM = Deltatime:2.169138968
Apr 18 13:23:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Sleep: Success - AC 98 - Clamshell Sleep
Apr 18 13:23:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Wake: Success - AC 98 - EC LID0
Apr 18 13:23:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Hibernate Statistics
Apr 18 13:23:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Wake notification received from the system
- Sleep by manually clicking the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the screen -> 'Sleep':
Apr 18 13:31:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback WILL sleep
Apr 18 13:31:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Sleep notification received from the system
Apr 18 13:31:49 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: network configuration changed.
Apr 18 13:32:04 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback will power on, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:32:04.033 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:32:02.720 PM = Deltatime:1.313067079
Apr 18 13:32:04 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: handleUnlockResult, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:32:04.589 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:32:02.720 PM = Deltatime:1.869303048
Apr 18 13:32:06 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Sleep: Success - AC 98 - Software Sleep
Apr 18 13:32:06 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Wake: Success - AC 98 - OHC1
Apr 18 13:32:06 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Hibernate Statistics
Apr 18 13:32:06 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Wake notification received from the system
- Sleep by manually pressing control + eject, and the press 'Sleep':
Apr 18 13:34:17 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback WILL sleep
Apr 18 13:34:17 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Sleep notification received from the system
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback will power on, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:34:46.080 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:34:44.720 PM = Deltatime:1.360466003
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: handleUnlockResult, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:34:46.564 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:34:44.720 PM = Deltatime:1.844347000
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: PMConnection AirPort configd plug-in com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 566 ms
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: bootpsessiontransmit: bpf_write(en0) failed: Network is down (50)
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: DHCP en0: INIT transmit failed
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: PMConnection IPConfiguration com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 567 ms
Apr 18 13:34:46 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: network configuration changed.
Apr 18 13:34:48 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Sleep: Success - AC 98 - Software Sleep
Apr 18 13:34:48 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Wake: Success - AC 98 - OHC1
Apr 18 13:34:48 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Hibernate Statistics
Apr 18 13:34:48 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Wake notification received from the system
- Sleep by _turning on the application called 'PleaseSleep' based on the settings from 'Energy Saver'_:
Apr 18 13:37:22 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Application is enabled
Apr 18 13:37:29 Michael-Leungs-MacBook System Preferences[1136]: * AGCAttach() failed
Apr 18 13:37:31 Michael-Leungs-MacBook [0x0-0x58058].com.apple.systempreferences[1136]: Couldn't find any matches.
Apr 18 13:38:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Checking sleep conditions...
Apr 18 13:38:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Going to sleep...
Apr 18 13:38:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback WILL sleep
Apr 18 13:38:23 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Sleep notification received from the system
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback will power on, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:38:56.042 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:38:54.720 PM = Deltatime:1.321902931
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook loginwindow[25]: handleUnlockResult, Currenttime:4/18/2010 1:38:56.571 PM - Waketime:4/18/2010 1:38:54.720 PM = Deltatime:1.850627959
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: PMConnection AirPort configd plug-in com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 707 ms
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: bootpsessiontransmit: bpf_write(en0) failed: Network is down (50)
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: DHCP en0: INIT transmit failed
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: PMConnection IPConfiguration com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 708 ms
Apr 18 13:38:56 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: network configuration changed.
Apr 18 13:38:58 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Sleep: Success - AC 98 - Software Sleep
Apr 18 13:38:58 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Wake: Success - AC 98 - OHC1
Apr 18 13:38:58 Michael-Leungs-MacBook configd[37]: Hibernate Statistics
Apr 18 13:38:58 Michael-Leungs-MacBook PleaseSleep[288]: Wake notification received from the system
- If I disable 'PleaseSleep' and only depend on the non-working 'Energy Saver', nothing happens.
==========
Looking forward to your replies! Thanks in advance!

Found this discussion by googling "com.apple.systempreferencescouldn't find any matches"...
One month ago I bought a brand new Macbook Pro 13", and after a couple of weeks I realized it wasn't sleeping on its own when it should, per the system preferences. (I did sleep when I chose "Sleep" in the menus or closed it... It just wouldn't sleep on its own, while open.) What was extra frustrating was that it was intermittent... It would sleep on its own maybe 1/3 of the time, but other times it would NEVER go to sleep. I deleted PowerManagement.plist, reset the SMC, etc... No luck.
I took it to the "geniuses" at the Apple Store, and the guy took all of five minutes trying to diagnose the problem. When my MBP wouldn't sleep on its own, he promptly replaced it with a new one. That was nice, but I actually would have preferred that he diagnosed and fixed it. (I think the store was so swamped with people coming in for service that day that they were doing anything they could to close cases and get customers out of there ASAP.)
Now, sitting here with my 48-hour-old MBP, I still have the problem. The other one was so new that I had barely put anything on it yet. The only applications I had put on it were MS Office for Mac 2011, Firefox, Chrome, and Adobe Flash Player. I've put Office and Flash Player on this one, but not yet Firefox or Chrome. That's it. No other customization or fancy business.
I looked into the Console just now, and I see the "Couldn'tfind any matches" entry popping up again and again. The last three seemed to pop upright around the time when my MBP should have gone to sleep on its own, but not down to the second, so it's hard to definitively point at that and say it's it for sure.
They need to fix this!!

My System Preferences won't let me open accounts?

My System Preferences won't let me open accounts? I really need it to work please help. Hugz and kissez Abbyxoxo1010

Hello Makena Little,
It sounds like you are unable to change your wallpaper background because that section of your System Preferences says that it is loading adn will not finish. I recommend performing a Safe Boot, then leaving it and retesting the issue:
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
Starting up in Safe Mode
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sterling

Address book won't save changes to note field

Like the header says. Address book won't save changes to note field. There's another thread with the same header: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2591053?threadID=2591053 But it's archived so I had to post this new one.
If I made a change in any non-note field however, it would stay.
Note: the notes field can be edited with actually having to go into official "edit" mode. Does this make it more prone to corruption? Why would Apple make the notes field NOT need that extra step of protection. Do they think my notes aren't as important? How would they know?
I fixed this one card with a bandaid solution by exporting it and reimporting it. But I guess I need to do that with all 2,000 of my contacts now. It was mentioned on theother thread that somebody made an address book backup and then deleted every contact in the address book and imported them fresh from the backup and that worked.
The underlyilng issue is still not solved though. How could this happpen in the first place, and how do I know what other contacts haven't held lthe changes I thought I made?

Hi,
Using the Note field
You can add notes to any contact in Address Book. This makes it easy to keep track of details about a person in your address book.
Select the person in the Name column in Address Book, then click the Note field in the card.
The Note field can be edited at any time, even if the card is not in edit mode.
You could make a dedicated field that requires the edit button...
Using custom labels
You can change the label that appears next to a piece of information on a contact's card. For example, you might want to change "work" to "support" next to a phone number.
Select the contact that you want to change.
Click the Edit button at the bottom of the window.
Click the label next to a field, then choose Custom from the pop-up menu.
Enter a new label for the field.
The new custom label appears on this contact's card only.
If you want to change a specific label on all cards in your Address Book, edit the card template. Choose Address Book > Preferences and click Template. The Template pane also allows you to add other types of fields on contact cards, such as a nickname, job title, birthday, anniversary, and URL. Use the Add Field menu.

Many of my System preferences won't load in mavericks?

Since updating to 10.9 many of my system preferences won´t load. These are:
- Security: You can’t open Security & Privacy preferences because it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac.
- Notifications: Could not load Notifications preference pane.
- Printers & Scanners: Could not load Printers & Scanners preference pane.
- iCloud: Could not load iCloud preference pane.
- Internet accounts: Could not load Internet Accounts preference pane.
- Networks: Could not load Network preference pane.
- Sharing: You can’t open Sharing preferences because it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac.
- Users & Groups: You can’t open Users & Groups preferences because it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac.
- Parental Controls: Could not load Parental Controls preference pane.
- Date & Time: You can’t open Date & Time preferences because it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac.
Any hints on a solution are greatly appreciated!
Best regards, Mikkel

To further explain:
     I didn't need to locate any invisible files in my case. I discovered that I had 4 versions of the System Preferences application on my computer. (The System Preference applicatioin is what loads the preference pains when you seledt System Preferences.) I merely searched for "System Preferences" in spotlight. Spotlight located 4 different versions of the System Preferences application. Some of those versions apparently tied to preference panes that used the old 32 bit encoding from the non Intel processor days. When I clicked on the System Preferences under the Apple menue it was apparently pulling up an old version of the System Preferences applicatioin instead of the correct one in the main Applications folder. I also noted that if I clicked on System Preferernces in the dock or directly in the the Applications folder, I would not have the problem of some of the preference panes not able to be viewed because of the " "it doesn’t work on an Intel-based Mac" message. So I surmised that the correct System Preferences application was in the Applications Folder on the top level of the drive directory like it was supposed to be but that when I clicked on System Preferences from the Apple menue it was loading one of the 3 old System Preferences applications that were buried elsewhere on my hard drive. If you find you have more than one System Preferences application on your hard drive you need to trash the other System Preferences Applications. Before trashing the duplicates, you should test the one in the main Applications folder by directly double clicking it and make sure all the preference panes in it work properly then trash the duplicate System Preferences applications you found in spotlight.
     You may also find like I did, that you not only have duplicates of the System Preferences on your hard drive but also several old duplicates of the entire Applications folder buried on your hard drive. if that is the case you should compare each folder and make sure there is nothing in the old duplicate Applications folders you still need. You will probably find that all of the latest versions of your applications are in the main Applications folder where they should be. If so then trash all the old duplicate Applications folders as well. Keep only the main Applications folder on the top level of the hard drive.
     Trashing all these extra old Applications folders that held old duplicates of all my applications in them on my hard drive solved a bunch of other problems I was having with some of the applications as well.
     For the technically minded: Why does this happen with Mavericks and not with Mountain Lion? I suspect that the old Applications folders and old duplicate System Sreferences applications didn't matter to Mountain Lion because it searched for the System Preference application under the Apple menu differently than Mavericks does. I believe Mountain Lion seached all the top levels of the Application folder before drilling down into any subfolders to find the System Preferences application. Mavericks apparently does it the opposite way. It searches the first subfolder in you Applications folder and drills all the way down in that subfolder first before going to the next subfolder and drilling down in that subfolder all the way to the bottom. So it searches all the subfolders before searching the main level of the Applications folder for System Preferences. Since my old duplicate System Preferences applications where in subfolders with titles that were earlier in the alphabet than the main System Preferences application it searched those subfolders first, found the old System Preferences application in the those earlier folders and loaded the old System Preferences first in the subfolders instead of the correct one further on in the main Applications folder. If any one else has a better idea let me know.
--Scott
micmac2105 wrote:
Hello,
have the same problem, however, I do not understand the hint for solving the problem.
How to show invisible files?
How to find applications/system preferences and call Get info from file menu?
Where are all these things, have never seen them before or heard of them.
Thanks for help
Michael
micmac2105 wrote:
Hello,
have the same problem, however, I do not understand the hint for solving the problem.
How to show invisible files?
How to find applications/system preferences and call Get info from file menu?
Where are all these things, have never seen them before or heard of them.
Thanks for help
Michael
micmac2105 wrote:
Hello,
have the same problem, however, I do not understand the hint for solving the problem.
How to show invisible files?
How to find applications/system preferences and call Get info from file menu?
Where are all these things, have never seen them before or heard of them.
Thanks for help
Michael

My system preferences won't load. It opens straight up to the desktop folder and pictures won't load, leaving me with a color wheel. I've tried restarting my computer and that doesn't help. System preferences just won't open/load at all. Any ideas?

My system preferences won't load. It opens straight up to the desktop folder and pictures won't load, leaving me with a color wheel. I've tried restarting my computer and that doesn't help. System preferences just won't open/load at all. Any ideas?

Deleting the System Preference or other .plist file
..Step by Step to fix your Mac

Optic disc drive not working for picture cd's. System preferences won't let me change off ignore.

When I insert a picture cd, it just gets spit back out. When I check under system preferences, in the space asking what to do when a picture cd is inserted, it defaults to ignore and I can't change it. Any ideas on how to resolve this? DVD player works fine. Music cd's sometimes work. Thanks.

Catherine, welcome to the forum.
Yes, I can feel your irritation. I have been there many times myself. Therefore, the reason that help on the forum.
Have you tried this software to see if it will help you. I have never used it, but thought that it is worth a try.
If this doesn't work, your next stop may be with ASUS Tech Support. They know their products best and will possibly have a better understanding of your problem.
Please click the "Thumbs up + button" if I have helped you and click "Accept as Solution" if your problem is solved.
Signature:
HP TouchPad - 1.2 GHz; 1 GB memory; 32 GB storage; WebOS/CyanogenMod 11(Kit Kat)
HP 10 Plus; Android-Kit Kat; 1.0 GHz Allwinner A31 ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core Processor ; 2GB RAM Memory Long: 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1600MHz); 16GB disable eMMC 16GB v4.51
HP Omen; i7-4710QH; 8 GB memory; 256 GB San Disk SSD; Win 8.1
HP Photosmart 7520 AIO
++++++++++++++++++
**Click the Thumbs Up+ to say 'Thanks' and the 'Accept as Solution' if I have solved your problem.**
Intelligence is God given; Wisdom is the sum of our mistakes!
I am not an HP employee.

Try to change table image but system preferences won't open

Hello all. I need your help. My table image got all blue. Itried to change it but the system preferences doe not open. What should I do?

Restart the machine, that's where I'd start.

My system preferences won't let me change anything

Ever since I upgraded to Mavericks, my system preferences have been broken. Anything which requires a button to be clicked for a new window to open (the most recent time is when I tried to change my gatekeeper settings) simply does nothing. I've repaired my permissions, reinstalled Mavericks, nothing has worked so far.
Does anyone have any idea what I could do to fix this? I've also tried disabling gatekeeper in Terminal but it isn't working. However let me stress, it's not just gatekeeper that is broken, clicking the often present "Advanced" or "Assist me" buttons also do nothing at all.
Thanks for any help!

Hello Makena Little,
It sounds like you are unable to change your wallpaper background because that section of your System Preferences says that it is loading adn will not finish. I recommend performing a Safe Boot, then leaving it and retesting the issue:
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
Starting up in Safe Mode
To start up into Safe Mode (to Safe Boot), follow these steps.
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key.
The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple logo and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
After the logo appears, you should see a progress bar during startup. This indicates that your computer is performing a directory check as part of Safe Mode.
To leave Safe Mode, restart your computer without holding any keys during startup.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sterling

Energy Saver preferences won't save, I want to kill my mac

When I change the preferences in Energy Saver, in the System Preferences, to shut down the computer at 10 am, it won't save the change.
I go ahead and unlock Energy Saver (I'm the Admin), make my changes, lock it, and exit. Upon re-entry to the Energy saver screen it shows none of my changes. I tried restarting after making my changes and that did nothing either.
Some number of months ago I told my computer I needed it to shut down at 3:30 am because I often forgot to shut it off when I went to bed. Now it's seemingly perma-stuck on shutting down at 3:30 am when I don't need it to. Frequently I need to leave a download going but my bleeping computer shuts off at 3:30 am in the middle of the download and I have to either start over or wait 5 hours for it to finish when it could've been downloaded while I slept.
This is a ridiculous problem to be having and I can't figure out why the changes won't save.

If you lock the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences immediately after changing the setting, it might not be able to record those changes; in many cases, changes made to an application's preferences take effect once the window has been closed instead of immediately once the setting is made. Before closing the padlock, move to another pane of System Preferences or the main screen.
Basically, this happens because administrator access is needed to write the changes to the disk or PRAM, but you revoked this access when you closed the padlock, which stops the changes from being saved.
(19695)

In system preferences I can not change my wallpaper; it just freezes

I need help; today I went to change my wallpaper and the system preferences froze; I did everything from repair disk to safe boot and still it is frozen; have the new Mountain Lion system. also in my preference folder there is no list for desktop or system preferences; what is going on?

First follow the instructions in this support article:
System Preferences stops responding after viewing Desktop & Screen Saver pane
If there's no change, continue as below.
In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the menu bar. From the Library folder, delete the following item, if it exists:
Caches/com.apple.systempreferences
and move the following item to the Desktop:
Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
Launch System Preferences and test. If you still have the issue, put the item on the Desktop back where it came from and post again. Otherwise, delete the item.

System preferences won't "stick" after archive & restore

Because my OS10.3 appeared to be damaged, I did an archive and restore using the OS10.2.3 disk that came with my computer. After the restore I find that I cannot get any changes I make to the system preferences to stick. For example, with "Energy Saver" the preferences, after restore were "custom" and the "show battery status" was unchecked. I unlocked, using my account ID and password, changed the settings to "presentation", checked "show battery status", and locked. Nothing changed in the menu bar and when I restarted, the Energy Saver preferences had reverted to the initial ones and was unlocked. This problem is particularly bad because I can't change the network preferences and get back on the Internet through my airport system. What did I do wrong?!
LarryNM

Oh I see. I guessed wrong then. Unfortunately I neither use 10.2 nor Airport so lacking the personal experience to help you, may I suggest also posting in the Airport forum, as someone there may be able to get you more quickly online. Here is the link,
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1011

System Preferences- Desktop/Screen saver- crash EVERY TIME

Hi-
I have a brand new iMAc 24" with Leopard and all software is up to date via update as of 12 hours ago (10.5.1 etc). I have office 2004 and photoshop/illustrator but NO other software loaded. The computer is now 7 days old. Yesterday I used system preferences to change my desktop picture to something from my iPhoto library, as per normal with 10.5.1 I got one picture up and then went to change it and now EVERY TIME I try to change anything in the desktop/screen saver system preferences the application dies. I can get the desktop/screen saver page to open but as soon as I click any conceivable option on that window the system preferences application dies. I have sent about 7 crash reports to apple and see that others are describing similar (not identical) problems. Is apple going to fix this? I DID not install leopard on this computer, its BRAND NEW. The only thing I have done is to update whatever apple told me was available. HELP...

My computer was a month old when I installed Leopard (which turned out to be an adventure....), and once I finally got a proper install one of the features I explored was Desktop and Screensaver, specifically I tried the new mosaic option in the Screensaver for pictures, it seemed to work. The 10.5.1 update came out, a bit later I tried that Screensaver option again and not only did it not work, but it crashed System Prefs. I ended up trashing every plist and cache file having to do with System Prefs, Screensaver, and iphotomosaic in my home ~/Library folder. Oh, and in searching for them they managed to crash the Finder too. So take a look thru ~/Library, especially Preferences, be sure to also look in the ByHost folder, and you might also check the Caches folder. Remove all files you can find that have to do with System Prefs, Screensaver, and Desktop. Once I did that all was fine again with my System Prefs. The mosaic option even started working again.
Francine
Francine
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System preferences won't save changes

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