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This is on a MacBook Air, running OS 13.7..
I load a document, open thumbnails and click on a thumbnail. Often it works fine, but periodically either the image or its thumbnail or both go white. I can paste in a replacement page, but in doing so I usually generate extra blank pages.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.7
Be sure to uninstall Sophos according to the developer's insgtruvgtions so you remove all of the supporting files.
You can check to see if you've removed all of the supporting files by downloading and running the shareware app Find Any File to search for any files with the application's or the developer's name in the file name. For Sophos software you'd do the following search(es):
1 - Name contains sops
Any files that are found can be dragged from the search results window to the Desktop or Trash bin in the Dock for deletion.
FAF can search areas that Spotlight can't like invisible folders, system folders and packages.
If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and delete from there.
Note: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
If you're concerned about malware and adware the free version of download and run the free version of Malwarebytes is an excellent choice. It was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community.
If you get warnings that the file can't be deleted because it is in use or used by another app boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac, run Find Any File and delete from there.
NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following;
• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed
• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)
• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically
• Disables user-installed fonts
• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files
Note 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will assure a successful boot into Safe Mode.
Good to hear so far, my guess was Sophos, can we see an etrecheck report?
EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info. Give it Full Disk Access.
Give etrecheck Full Disk Access before running.
Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…
Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community
I’ve a message in Mail, seemingly from here, suggesting I run Etrecheck on my system, and share the report. I tried dragging the report here – nope.
Calling it ‘Additional text’ seems to have got it in?
I gave it 'full disk access' as the mail suggested.
Etrecheck report not showing here.
Thanks for Old Toad’s etrecheck instructions…
Slow iMac 2017 - Apple Community
The plists are in the hidden User's Library...
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.ViewState.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist
~/Library/Group Containers/com.apple.Preview/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.plist
~ tilde indicates your home folder
Apple hid the Users' Library folders...
Method 1:
1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.
2 In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.
Or…
Use the Command-Shift-period
Well, I was asked to sign in for the third time today (now the fourth time), and my recent posts are lost again. Still, I have the last
one I think...
I did that, and I now have a folder called ‘Folder', which appears to be associated with ‘Applications’. I clicked cmd-I and the machine answered its question ‘Where’ with ‘System’.
‘Folder’ refuses to open.
I’ve set the computer to do a Time Machine back-up – it refused the first few times, but now it claims to be about 24% done, with two hours left to go. I’ll go off and get some shopping meanwhile...
Well, the back-up seems to have worked, and the computer appears to have shut down by way of celebration. Nothing would wake it, until I pulled out its power-lead and replaced it (battery on 100%). I took a nap following my lunch, and was woken when the screen went black and the computer emitted a sighing sound.
I found a page I knew I could replace, and tried putting it into my file, starting with dragging the file-icon from a ’spare-pages’ folder. No good, so I opened it in (dragged it onto) Preview, opened ’Thumbnails’ and tried dragging it from there. Also no good.
The Apple community page took a minute or so to open, as usual of late. And now I’m offered ‘common.actions.post’ where formerly there was ‘post’, and of course, that doesn’t work!
What on earth else can I do – preferably without making maters worse !
I’ve copied the Etrecheck report into the Additional text below. Here’s hoping this will make it available...
‘common.actions’ etc has now mercifully been replaced bu ‘Post’!
Anthony Jackson3 wrote:
So today my Etrecheck report appears to be there in all its glory, five or six replies up from where I am at the moment (17h20 8 October)
That's just how the forum behaves. You can change the sort order to "Newest" to see a more logical ordering where the newest message is always first and on page one.
According to your EtreCheck report, you still need to restart to remove the remnants of your 3rd party antivirus apps. You were lucky. In many cases, those System Extensions can't be removed at all.
But since you did have antivirus installed, all bets are off. In addition to restarting, I recommend restarting in Safe Mode, as described here: Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support
This will reset certain system caches and databases. Hopefully that will push you a little bit closer to a factory-fresh status. Then, restart in normal mode and give it three days or so. Your computer might still need to rebuild some of those system caches and databases and that can take some time. Keep the computer on AC power and logged in.
Then, after that period, see if the problem still happens. Hopefully it will be fixed.
There are a couple of items that need to be taken care of ASAP:
1 - Time Machine backup which you've done.
2 - "Battery failure - Your battery is reporting that it needs to be serviced." That probably is part of the problem.
3 - DuckDuckGo VPN. Unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's, school's or bank's servers, they provide false security from a privacy standpoint. Read these articles: Pubic VPN's are anything but public and Security Risks: The Dangers of Using Free VPNs (eccu.edu).
4 - you're low on free space. "383.94 GB used, 111.45 GB available, 94.67 GB free)". One should strive to keep a minimum of 80-100GB free. One way to free up space is the following using Disk Utility:
Boot into Restore mode,CMD+r keys...
Look at top of screen for Utilities menu...
In Disk Utility>View, select Show all Devices, highlight the top left entry.
Run Disk First Aid on all items in the left panel, from top down.
Are you running any VPN, Anti-Virus, or Cleaning apps?
Hi BDAqua, thanks for your reply.
Yes, I still have Sophos, but afaik it does no good, and may do some harm. Should I ditch it before doing the re-start?
Not blindingly obvious how I can ditch it!
Best regards, Tony.
Well, I did what BDAqua suggested. All seemed quite convincing, When it was done I did another restart. Preview still shows me a load of blank pages, my browser, DuckDuckGo,took a long time to open the apple discussions page, and meanwhile I appear to be listening to a microphone somewhere. Sounds like some diy is going on, possible blow-torch, water and scrubbing or sanding now...
Rest of my answer to BDAqua’s note, no VPN or Cleaning app.
My last contribution seems to have been lost. I experimented and found that Preview no longer permits me to delete pages (at least, blank pages – I didn’t risk trying it on a filled working page).
So it seems that Preview is now worse than it was before!
I had earlier attempted to ditch the Preview plist, but the page showing these has nothing between “com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist” and “com.apple.print.add.plist"
Well, I was asked to sign in for the third time today, and my recent posts are lost again. Still, I have the las one I think...
I did that, and I now have a folder called ‘Folder', which appears to be associated with ‘Applications’. I clicked cmd-I and the machine answered its question ‘Where’ with ‘System’.
‘Folder’ refuses to open.
I’ve set the computer to do a Time Machine back-up – it refused the first few times, but now it claims to be about 24% done, with two hours left to go. I’ll go off and get some shopping meanwhile...
Well, the back-up seems to have worked, and the computer appears to have shut down by way of celebration. Nothing would wake it, until I pulled out its power-lead and replaced it (battery on 100%). I took a nap following my lunch, and was woken when the screen went black and the computer emitted a sighing sound.
I found a page I knew I could replace, and tried putting it into my file, starting with dragging the file-icon from a ’spare-pages’ folder. No good, so I opened it in (dragged it onto) Preview, opened ’Thumbnails’ and tried dragging it from there. Also no good.
The Apple community page took a minute or so to open, as usual of late (but not today, two days later). And now I’m offered ‘common.actions.post’ where formerly there was ‘post’, and of course, that doesn’t work!
(I’m now invited to post…)
What on earth else can I do – preferably without making maters worse !
Just signed in for the fourth time this morning. The pop-up asks if I wish to sign in from another address. The answer is ‘No”, but there is no ‘No’ button. I can cancel, which requires me to sign in with my normal address, same thing if I click on the ‘other address’ link. Boring...
I did a restart again this morning. No obvious change.
The battery lasts a fair while, but when I got the computer back from a repair (by local apple store, I think) it started telling me that I had a foreign battery, but everything, including the battery, was working, so I didn’t fuss about it. A little while later both power amplifiers failed, and were replaced. Only one of the new ones actually worked, but at least it didn’t distort everything like its predecessor, so again, I lived with it in mono.
AFAIK I don’t have or use a VPN.
I do have some software remains from earlier, more reliable times, which is occasionally pointed out to me. Is there a safe and convenient way to turf it ut, thus creating more space?
My Time Machine backups are all on external disks. The lates disk is a Toshiba, which seems to have lived usefully longer than the two Seagates which preceded it. Nothing in the SSD in the computer to do with Time Machine apart from the app AFAIK.
I gave up waiting for the Screenshot of Disk Utility to appear in my previous post. I have just four items in my Container disk 1. Three are called ‘System’ – each System shown as an item inside the previous one. The fourth is called MacBook...
A bit belatedly I wonder what ‘Servicing’ is in relation to the battery?
Thanks, every one, for your patience!
Regards, tony
Images go blank in Preview
