Problems from inherited software from old macOS versions

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Level 1

10 points

Problems from inherited software from old macOS versions

I have a MacBook Pro that has inherited material through Migration Assistant since Mac OS 10.0 Cheetah at least, and maybe earlier. Several OS operations do not work properly on the admin account which has that inheritance, but work fine on a new standard account. Examples are:

FInder Add to Photos extension (and maybe other extensions) where nothing happens.
application windows do not stay on external monitor over machine sleep and revert to the built-in screen.

Help appreciated in either finding the offending file(s) that have been copied from an old Mac OS that stop correct operation, or in defining a process to rebuild the user account correctly. I am reluctant to mass delete files and re-install as I don't want to lose years of preferences. The problems have continued over several recent system updates, major and minor.

Machine: MacBook Pro Nov 2023 with M3.

OS: Sequoia 15.7.2

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.7

Posted on Nov 12, 2025 8:57 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

427,379 points

Nov 12, 2025 9:10 AM in response to curious-one

You're going to see the gamut of replies to this all the way to you should not migrate anything en masse but basically reinstall fresh when you upgrade macOS. I'm not at all surprised you may be having issues with Cheetah age items, though what surprises me is that they work at all in any account.

Go64.app might help you get a start on this.

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Answer 2

curious-one Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 24, 2025 7:47 AM in response to curious-one

I'm the original poster:

with great help from Apple Support NL the answer to the external monitor problem was System Settings -> Desktop & Dock -> Mission Control. The switch 'Displays have separate spaces' should be active, and 'When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application' should be active. The user interface for this is incorrectly written leading to confusion for me - a control set 'off' is presented as a greyed-out image as well, making me think the control was inoperative. The rewrite from System Preferences to System Settings changed the defaults (I think), making me think it was a legacy software problem.
the Finder Add to Photos extension still does not work, even after upgrading from Sequoia to Tahoe.

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Answer 3

steve626

Level 6

13,821 points

Dec 24, 2025 11:30 AM in response to curious-one

Add to Photos ... this could be a very old and no longer functioning extension. But try this:

Go to System Settings. Select Login Items and Extensions. Scroll down to Extensions. Then select Sharing and click the little i and make sure the extensions you want (Add to Photos is shown there) are enabled.

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Answer 4

curious-one Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 24, 2025 1:37 PM in response to curious-one

Add to Photos issue fixed - see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/256217151?sortBy=rank&answerId=261758992022

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