Activity Monitor Won't Load

Question

Level 1

17 points

Activity Monitor Won't Load

Activity Monitor will not load on my Mac.

When I double click Activity Monitor to open it, nothing happens. No error messasge; it just doesn't open. If I open the Force Quit window, and then try to open Activity Monitor, I see it briefly flash onto the list (of open apps available to force quit,) and then disappear in a fraction of a second.

I've read this older thread, and I've tried it's suggestions but nothing has worked: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2244144

-I deleted the plist file for Activity Monitor

-I booted to recovery mode and ran First Aid.

-I made sure Activity Monitor was located in the Applications > Utilities folder. (I had never moved it from there).

-And I tried to restore Activity Monitor from an old Time Machine backup.

None of these steps has helped.

How do I get Activity Monitor back?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 14, 2020 7:53 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

210,615 points

May 14, 2020 10:42 AM in response to JHerrick79

Download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

Copy the report

and use the Add Text button to include the report in your reply. How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report

IMPORTANT:

Before running Etrecheck assign Full Disk Access to Etrecheck in the app's Privacy preference pane so that it can get additional information from the Console and log files for the report:

ALSO IMPORTANT:

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the root of the problem.

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Answer 2

JHerrick79 Author

Level 1

17 points

May 14, 2020 12:04 PM in response to John Galt

Problem solved: Freedom was indeed the culprit.

As a general piece of advice for other people reading this in the future, using the Console to see what was happening was the key to solving it.

Open Console, and click system.log, and then watch what entries get added as you try to open the app. Those new log entries may hold clues, as they did for me.

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Answer 3

JHerrick79 Author

Level 1

17 points

May 14, 2020 10:05 AM in response to John Galt

OK, I logged into Safe Mode and Activity Monitor successfully loaded. Then I went back to the regular boot, and it wouldn't load, just like before.

Then I went to console and system.log, and watched the log as I tried to load Activity Monitor, and I got this:

Freedom is an app I use to block social media during my work hours, (because I need some help with self control). It is presently active. It will go off at noon today for my lunch break. So I'll try to launch Activity Monitor again when Freedom is not active. Let's see if that's whats interfering.

Does anybody know what SIGTERM means?

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Answer 4

JHerrick79 Author

Level 1

17 points

May 14, 2020 11:25 AM in response to Old Toad

Freedom is an app I use to block my social media during working hours because I need some help with self control. https://freedom.to/ It allows me to set a schedule, and during the hours I select, it doesn't let me get to Facebook or Twitter or whatever else I tell it to block. It shouldn't be blocking apps, but the log from the console sure seems to indicate that it may be interfering.

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

146,534 points

May 14, 2020 8:55 AM in response to JHerrick79

Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac . If that does not help then reinstalling macOS is justified: Reinstall macOS - Apple Support.

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Answer 6

John Galt

Level 10

146,534 points

May 14, 2020 11:09 AM in response to JHerrick79

Does anybody know what SIGTERM means?

SIGTERM is sent by a process for the purpose of terminating it.

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Answer 7

JHerrick79 Author

Level 1

17 points

May 14, 2020 11:16 AM in response to John Galt

Thanks. It sure seems likely that Freedom is stopping Activity Monitor. I'll be able to find out for sure in 45 minutes, when it's my lunch break and my Freedom session ends so I can disable it.

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