My scroll bar has disappeared. I have it checked to always show. But, for some reason, it shows sometimes (in Safari) and sometimes not. Sometimes I can hover over it and it will show and sometimes not. Any ideas? Could there be something corrupted that I should get rid of?

I talked to AppleCare about this and was told not to ever get rid of a plist without calling them or looking on Apple Discussions because some plists don't come back. I thought they all came back.

Thanks.

Rita

http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/03/show-scroll-bars-mac-os-x-lion/

According to her signature, plantsower is using Mountain Lion (not Lion) and Mavericks. Or doesn't it make a difference?

And according to Rita's post, " I have it checked to always show."

AppleCare is correct not all plists will come back if they are deleted. I can't find it at the moment but there was a discussion about this on FTM maybe a year or so back. As I recall these were in /LIbrary/Preferences and not ~/Library/Preferences and/or were related to system functions.

And although this does not pertain to you — yet, deleting plists has changed pretty radically in Yosemite. In fact deleting plists manually really does not work any more.

In Yosemite, Safari does not display scroll bars if there's no scrollable content (i.e. if the entire page is viewable in the Safari window), even with Always checked in System Preferences -> General -> Show scroll bars:. I suspect that's how it is in Mountain Lion as well, though I don't recall for sure.

That wouldn't explain why you can sometimes produce them by hovering, though. In cases like this—when a behavior seems to reflect a different preference choice than the one you've made—the first thing to try is toggling the choice off and on again. In other words, click the When scrolling button, then click the Always button again.

Wow, so when someone says try removing a plist to correct a problem, that's not possible anymore with Yosemite? Maybe a good reason not to upgrade to Yosemite just yet. Thanks for the heads up.

When I am looking for my scroll bar, it is always when the whole page isn't showing. I just don't know why it changed. At the moment, I have a scroll bar. Go figure. So many things I would like to bring back from some of the older OS's. I will try the toggling trick. I have Mountain Lion on an external drive for emergencies, but I use Mavericks.

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ is a famous/infamous example.

I'm having a problem with the network, lets just delete that. ok good it made a new one. Is it smaller?

Oh I have no network adapters! OK lets just re-add them. why is the list blank when I click [+] ?

A good reason for me not to get rid of plists. I just don't know what I'm doing. Thanks.

Even if the advice was given to delete a preference file, it should always have been to remove it from its current location, put it on the Desktop or in a folder on the Desktop, and not to Trash it. This way it could be returned intact, if needed.

Thanks, Ira. Seems safer that way. Not knowing exactly how things work, I would have thought it would still be doing it's thing whether it was on the desktop or in the library. Now I know better.

Rita

Agreed, but to prevent frustration among those reading this who are running Yosemite or later, it would be good to add the phrase "prior to Yosemite" to this advice. Gangbustein's excellent post makes it abundantly clear why deleting or relocating prefs in Yosemite is a fruitless exercise, unless it is performed using cfprefsd through the Defaults command.

Excellent observation. And even Gangbustein's post emphasizes moving to the Desktop and not immediately trashing it so that the restoration method he describes can be used.

OK, it might be a coincidence, but after I got rid of Evernote, my scrollbar came back. It's only been a day, but I think that was the culprit.

Rita

Oh, never mind. I spoke too soon. Scrollbar gone again. Phooey!

Rita

In Yosemite (and maybe Mavericks and I just didn't notice) the normal behavior of the scroll bar is to fade out and only appear when on a page that does not fit in the window and a gesture is made with the mouse or trackpad that could be interpreted as intending to scroll the window and then fades away after a few second delay. This behavior is normal in Finder and most other Apple apps. (Calendar does not use scroll bars at all.) It is a tossup whether third party apps use the revised Apple style or have persistent school bars.

I just looked in MacPilot to see if I could find a hidden preference "switch" to turn this behavior on or off and came up empty handed.

Thanks for checking that for me. Oh well. I've had Mavericks almost since it came out and I've never had a problem with my scroll bar showing. Now it's a different story. It comes and goes at will. Hovering does not bring it to the fore nor does scrolling. I guess I will just have to live without it, which is a pain on a long page. I like to know where I am on it.

Rita

Try going to your Apple menu, choosing System Preferences, and clicking the General icon. In the middle fo the General pane, you should see

Show scroll bars:

with choices for Automatically, When Scrolling, and Always. Make sure Always is selected.

And if you haven't done so already, toggle the preference off and then back on.

Thank you. It was already checked on "always." It just isn't listening.

It toggled, it wiggled and nothing else happened.

In the absence of any better ideas, I'll suggest that you d/l and re-run the OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Update (Combo).

That'a a major step. Wouldn't I lose all my stuff?

You didn't lose your stuff the first time you ran the Combo, and you're not lkely to lose it this time, but as with all such stuff, it pays to have an up to date backup before you proceed.

Actually, Rita, re-running the Combo is a venerable and often successful troubleshooting step.

Good luck.

It's not all that major, and it won't touch your data (although having a backup is good practice). The Combo only affects your OS if there are items to update/fix. The idea is that your OS should be OK afterward, and persisting problems due to 'something else', like settings etc. A downside is that any OS/Security updates introduced after Apple made this Combo available will have to be applied again.

Okay, I don't know what to do exactly. d/l means delete, right? I could back it up on my external drive (which I do anyway) but then I would have to start up from my external drive should something go wrong, right?

So, since I'm not just updating for the first time, what are the steps to d/l and then download the combo? (I don't know as much as you think I do, apparently. :))

Rita

Thanks for the Security Updates caveat, but doesn't it extend to any Apple updates issued subsequent to the Combo?

And I'll note that Software Update won't necessarily show which updates must be reapplied, so it pays to figure it out on your own (not that I'm sure how to go about it).

Edit: Are Security Updates "combos" as they once, but maybe only sometimes, were?

D/l is shorthand for "download".

Just d/l the Combo from the link I posted, and run it from the volume you want it applied to, i.e. your boot volume, after you're fully backed up to your external. (If my memory serves me, a Combo will only run on the volume into which you're booted.)

Should Murphy stick his finger into the pie you'll have a fall-back.

And how would I go about doing that? I thought everything came in the same combo/pkg.

The Combo is all-inclusive up to the point at which it was released; it obviously can't include stuff that came later. (Edit: Or if you wondered whether it's been adjusted retrospectively, not it hasn't.)

After you've run the Combo, run Software Update, and let's see what it tells you.

I've always considered it - not a bug, but - a flaw in the Combos that they don't go into a user's receipts/boms and delete any related to Apple updates that were installed after their release date so Software Update can respond correctly to inquiries when they've been rerun.

Even if some of the later updates aren't affected by rerunning the Combo, reinstalling them won't be detrimental.

Well, for one thing, it'll tell her that "[t]he OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 Update is recommended for all Mavericks users."

In that case, maybe Rita should run the 10.9.5 Combo rather than rerun the 10.9.4?

Edit: That should overcome at least part of the subsequent updates problem.

Hello! I can hear you. Standing right here. Anyway, I updated the 10.9.4 combo. I was going to update to 10.9.5, but there are some complaints about it making Safari slower and Apps bouncing on the dock unless the computer is restarted. I decided to just keep what I have unless I have problems and then, maybe upgrade. I know people have complaints about any update that comes along, but still, I will wait. I am not going to go to Yosemite unless forced to do so. You still have Snow Leopard for crying out loud. So, I will see how long I can hang onto Mavericks.

My scrollbar is back. I hope it's not a temporary thing.

Thanks for all your help.

Rita

> My scrollbar is back.

Let's hope that's a big "GREAT!" and not another temporary aberration. (Got my fingers crossed for you. Well...all but the arthritic ones.)

I think I remember you disdaining 10.9.5 a while back...no big deal. Like you said...Snowy!

Have you run Software Update yet?

I just took a look, and you need to run these three updates, even if SU doesn't say so. I'd run them in the order I presented them, which is the order in which they were released:

1. OS X bash Update 1.0 – OS X Mavericks

2. Security Update 2014-005 Mavericks

3. OS X NTP Security Update:OS X Mavericks

No dice. No scrollbar this a.m. When I was running the combo something popped up saying "software update" and it did some stuff, so I didn't have a choice. I am scared of updates, too, because sometimes they screw stuff up. But, since I don't like how it is now, I will click on your links and update anyway.

Sorry about your fingers. I mean .

Guess what? I got my scrollbar back and you'll never guess how. I called Applecare and after trying a couple things (he was winging it) we got it back. He could see it and I couldn't which was a clue. We went into Sys. Prefs - Accessibility. Under "Enhance Contrast" I moved the arrow more to the left toward "normal." It instantly brought my scrollbar back into view! Just thought I'd share. Big mystery over.

Rita

Thanks!

I'd have never figured that out, because unless I've missed it, there's no such pref in Snowy. (I've got brightness, but not contrast.)

You mean under "Accessibility"? Because my brightness control is under "Display" and the contrast control is under Accessibility on my Mavericks.
v
Rita

Here.

Wow, that looks so different than in Mavericks. Hope that helps Artie.

Rita

I use F1 & F2 to adjust brightness, not System Preferences > Displays.

I had a nasty feeling that I'd be hearing from you.

Thanks for reminding me. I enabled Universal Access years ago and, never having any need to look at its pref pane, had long since forgotten what options it offered.

It helps me only insofar as I'll now maybe remember that it's there if the subject ever comes up again.

Who'da thunk that contrast would be at the root of your problem? It never would have occurred to me even had I remembered that it was there.

Yeah, you'll probably never need that info, but it was interesting. On the other hand, my F1/F2 quit working a long time ago for brightness. So, now I use F1 to bring up some of my widgets.

> ...my F1/F2 quit working a long time ago for brightness. So, now I use F1 to bring up some of my widgets.

It sounds like you've usurped your basic "F" functionality, in which case function-F1/F2 should adjust your brightness. (In Snowy, the applicable check box is at System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard.)

Edit: Doesn't either F4 or fn-F4 call up your widgets?

F1/F2 used to work for brightness but stopped working a long time ago. F3/F4 do nothing. We'll probably get in trouble for getting off topic here anyway.

Rita

Even if you depress the fn key (in the lower left-hand corner) at the same time?


Read this thread, and then say the same thing with a straight face. Dare ya!

Ok, Ok, you made me laugh. From battery questions, to Starbucks flat white drinks to Paypal. Wow!

As to the F keys, you're right, when I press the fn key, they work and I can use F2 for my brightness now. Don't know how I missed that. Thanks!! Should we talk about coffee now just to round out this thread? Just kidding. I'm done. Have a good one.

Rita

> I can use F2 for my brightness now.

You should also be able to use fn-F1 to decrease your brightness and fn-F4 to show your widgets.

I see now that F1 shows some of my widgets, fn+F1 decreases the brightness and fn+F2 increases the brightness. fn+F5 shows it's decreasing brightness but actually does nothing and fn+F6 shows it's increasing brightness but actually does nothing. Fn+F4 shows launch pad. I rarely use my function keys anyway. Since I've programmed some of the function keys to do what I want, they probably don't do what yours do. Sometimes I try to program them to do certain things but it doesn't take. Not that important to me.

Rita

Actually, all my F keys are programmed to do my bidding, and I've got to hit fn to get them to do their default actions.

fn-F5 and fn-F6 should decrease and increase the brightness of your keyboard backlight.

OK, once I turned the light off I could see the difference in the keyboard backlight. Thanks. I never had a keyboard backlight until I got my Macbook Pro mid-2012.

Thanks, Artie.

Rita

Apple really needs to quit moving their preferences around....

There should be a preference for that.

is that like forming a committee to look into ways to cut down on the number of committies?