Mac Users, You are my Only Hope!

Li_Akahi

Okay, so before my Western Civilization class today two of my Spaces disappeared. The problem with this is that my System Preferences was set to open on Space 6, and Spaces 5 and 6 are the ones that disappeared. I have my system backed up on an external hard drive, but Time Machine really did not help me with this problem. I would hate to blow away my hard drive, but if I have to I will. Can anyone help me with this?
EDIT: Also, whenever I go into Spaces, I can see the System Preferences open, but it is completely unusable.

CHOIS CHOIS CHOIS

Try opening it from the applications folder. Let me know if that works.

Li_Akahi

It unfortunately doesn't, it just opens it in the space that I can't get to.

Omnutia

Is it just that they've vanished from the selector? Have you tried finding the "move to next space" key combo and use that?

-Fellow Unix user.

Dr. Timo

Go to your Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist file, open it (just double click) and under "workspaces-app-bindings" change the "com.apple.systempreferences" key value to a space that you still have.

Luke Burrage

You can move things outside the area of the screen on OSX. This is used by some programs to let windows run outside the frame, out of the way where you don't have to bother with it. I discovered this as I sometimes use a second monitor for my laptop and sometimes don't, and some windows are impossible to get back if I disconnect the external monitor. You can download scripts and run them to get all the windows back on your one screen though, so maybe something similar exists for Spaces. But, to be honest, I've never used Spaces. I'm not even sure what it does. But I think it is to do with moving windows about.

Li_Akahi

Go to your Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist file, open it (just double click) and under "workspaces-app-bindings" change the "com.apple.systempreferences" key value to a space that you still have.

I can't find where to change the System Preferences in the code. Could you be a little bit more specific? I see System Preferences in there a lot, but which one in particular?

Dr. Timo

You can download scripts and run them to get all the windows back on your one screen though, so maybe something similar exists for Spaces. But, to be honest, I've never used Spaces. I'm not even sure what it does. But I think it is to do with moving windows about.

Make sure you absolutely trust the source of that script (or read through the source). With OS X the preferences for individual programs, including where and what size to open a window, are stored in .plist files. With Spaces the problem is that the prefs for where to open programs are actually stored in the .plist file of the Dock.app.

Dr. Timo

I assume you have found the com.apple.dock.plist file in your Library/Preferences folder. After you double click on it you should see something like this in tha plist editor (click pic for larger version):

Here I have already opened the "workspace-app-bindings" sub key (by clicking on the little arrow). Find the entry that says "com.apple.systempreferences" and click on the number in the third column and change it to 1.

Separately, you could probably uncheck the "workspaces" checkbox to disable Spaces all together.

Li_Akahi

Thank you so much Timo, it worked. Now I just need to figure out what happened to my computer, maybe I can take it to the Apple Store the next time I go home.

Dr. Timo

Mac OS X first aid: open Disk Utility (found in the Applications/Utilities/ folder), select your hard disk and click on "repair permissions". You see, sometimes what can happen is, when you install a program that is not so well written it may change read/write permissions on files it has no business to do so. If this happens to a preferences file (.plist) then a program, e.g. Spaces, can start acting really weirdly.

If repairing permissions doesn't help then OS X "second help" is deleting the affected program's .plist file (while the program is not running). Once you start up the program again it should create a default .plist file that is OK. Now, Spaces seems to be handled by the Dock app which can only be closed by the Terminal command "killall Dock" (despite what the name implies this is not dangerous to do). Actually you could just try this command if you haven't already tried rebooting your system (which I know is anathema to many Mac users ;-) ).

"Third help" would be setting up a second user account (System Preferences -> Accounts) and see if the problem persists when logged in as that user. If yes, you're probably f***ed since the problem lies with the app and not some setting and you'll have to reinstall the program, if not you're f***ed anyway since you have to do more digging to find the screwed up setting in your main account that is responsible for the mess.