Dashboard stuck

Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 9:53 am

Hi everybody.
My Dashboard is whacked out. Widgets don't work except iStat Pro, a system monitor. I tried to "Manage Widgets" and the box which lists the widgets is blank and dead, unable to close it. I removed all the widgets from the dashboard desktop. The Manage Widget window remains. I can move it around, but it is a dead fish. Placing a widget from the list does nothing but place a blank widget on the dashboard desktop. Hmmm.... What do you think? I am grateful for any help.
p.s. I am the only user (of 4) that has this trouble.
Thanks,
Bird

Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 11:09 am

I went to the Apple forums and found an answer that worked. Here is the link:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2163353

The basic text of the link:
try resetting dashboard preferences. delete the file /users/username/library/preferences/com.apple.dashboard.plist and enter the following command in terminal
killall Dock
then try starting dashboard again.

Is there an overview of plist files and how they affect SO MUCH of the way these Macs work? When can they be safely deleted? Are they re-created automatically? Etc...

Thanks everybody.

Bird

Member Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 763 Location: classified

An extremely technical overview:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/PropertyLists/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000048-CJBGDEGD

Basically, plist files hold important initialization information that the application needs to work. If it somehow becomes corrupt, the application won't work right. If there's no plist file available, the application can just make a new one, or try to get the required information from the defaults subsystem. So for most applications, especially those developed by Apple, you can delete the plist file anytime you feel like it, knowing that it will likely be recreated at some point - probably the next time you open the program or log in.

It's important to remember, though, that user preferences are also sometimes set in application plist files as well, although Apple recommends against this. In such a case, deleting the plist file will cause the application to return to its default settings. Normally, you won't lose a whole lot if this happens, but it's good to be aware of the possibility anyway.