System Preferences On 10.9.5 Replaced By Yosemite Version (wont Open)

S

SilentWarrior

Registered
Hello.

I recently decided to update to Yosemite, so I cloned my disk into another disk, removed my disk and put the other one, updated and tried it for a bit, I had problems with it, so I put my original disk back.

I plugged in the other one via external usb mount and poked around to see if I could find out what was wrong.
I found the new versions of System Preferences and other system utilities, they had the Yosemite icon style, so I thought, meh, and double clicked them to try and open them, they didnt, as expected, so I closed them and formated that external drive.

Later that day I needed to open system preferences, so, I click on the Apple icon on top left, and click system preferences, and it tries and open the Yosemite version of it, failing. I can still open my System preferences by manually searching for it on disk.

This also happens with other items like the terminal and others that I had tried to open.

How can I fix it so that the correct system preferences (and others) open when I need them?
 
Those apps that you mentioned are system-specific, and often won't work on the wrong system version. You've succeeded in really mixing things up. A good fix will be to remove one of the hard drives so you don't have two mixed systems interfering with each other (keeping the one that you like), then helping out the confused setup of apps by reinstalling OS X.
Boot to the recovery partition by restarting holding Command-R). Choose to reinstall OS X from the menu screen. That should reset the system apps so the various menus and etc work properly again, and you shouldn't lose your own apps and files.
 
DeltaMac said:
Those apps that you mentioned are system-specific, and often won't work on the wrong system version. You've succeeded in really mixing things up. A good fix will be to remove one of the hard drives so you don't have two mixed systems interfering with each other (keeping the one that you like)
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, I dont have both disks on the computer at the moment, after what I did I formatted the yosemite one and reused it on another computer.

Isnt there a way to force osx to use the other ones? I dont mind going editing configuration files by hand, if that helps it out, its only like 4-5 system apps that got re-routed.
 
Unless I misunderstand what you first posted, you are trying to force the system to use a few apps that may belong to OS X, but are too old (or too new)
You can't "force" OS X to open apps that are not compatible with your OS X version.
If you are not using Yosemite now, which version of OS X are you using for your present booting system?

If you still have some left over "wrong" version apps, then dump those in the trash, so that a quick reinstall will definitely restore the proper apps, so your system is complete with the correct version apps to match up with your system.

So - to assure that all the OS X apps and utilities match up with the system that you are running, trash the apps that are normally part of OS X apps and utilities, then reinstall the version of OS X that you want to continue to use. That will also install all the apps that belong to the system, and will fix your problem.
This page will remind you of which apps are Apple's apps, and ones that you can choose to delete for a reinstall.
 
I dont have Yosemite, I have the one before that, i think its name is Mountain Lion, well its 10.9.5.

The problem is that the "new apps" from Yosemite are no longer on my system, because they were on an external drive (that was removed and formatted), however my MacOSX still wants to open them, failing everytime (the icon bounces on the dock forever with the graphical design of Yosemite).

I dont want it to try and open those "new apps", but instead, open the ones currently on my system (the ones from 10.9.5).

I still have the apps from my systems version in it, I can tell because I can manually open them, however, the symlinks (i think) OSX is using are not correct and point to the wrong files :
- Yosemite versions of System Preferences, console, etc -> Were in my external disk (removed and formatted by now)
- Mountain Lion versions of System Preferences, console, etc -> Still in my system and work perfectly.

Current, wrong, behavior, clicking on Apple logo->System Preferences opens Yosemite version of System Preferences (and fails).
Correct behavior would be, clicking on Apple logo->System Preferences opens Mountain Lion version of System Preferences (that i still have on my system).

Maybe this picture shows it better (Top Hit is correct one, the other one isnt):
e91a01f1ff.png


I am afraid of reinstalling, since I am midway on a project that I cant afford to delay, if I could fix this somehow without reinstalling, it would be great (manually editing symlinks or config files).
 
I can't view your picture. You posted your picture, linked to a web site that is reported as a known malware site, and my ISP blocks your site every time.

If you have, in fact, removed both the drive that had Yosemite, and you also removed the apps that are part of Yosemite from your system, then your system would not display Yosemite icons. I will guess that, instead, you moved some of the newer apps to your main drive without realizing - or you have folders where you moved those apps for your own convenience, and those apps are simply in the wrong folder. The Yosemite icon is included within the app, so can't appear with the newer icon unless the app is still actually there - in the wrong folder/drive/etc.
If the apps were really not available, then your dock icon for that app would switch to a "?"
Open your Applications folder (from the Go menu in the finder). That's the apps that belong to the system (the OS X that you are running right now). Double-click one of your problem apps, and watch for problems when opening. If you still can't get there, then the QUICKEST fix will be to download and run OnyX. (Get the specific version for the OS X version that you now use, such as for Mavericks - 10.9.5 - here: http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html )
Run OnyX, and then fix your system by clicking the Maintenance tab, then click the Rebuild tab. Top item will be Rebuild Launch Services. Read what it says. It should fix the problem that you have. I suggest that you DON'T select anything other that Launch Services checkbox. Then, click the Execute button. You may have to restart, and that's a good next step after the task is completed.
I suspect that after using OnyX, you will be closer to normal. In my experience, if OnyX does not help, then you have really messed up your system and the Applications folder is well scrambled. The system that you use is NOT at fault. It's trying to fight against the problems that you have contributed. Best to take some time - and - reinstall OS X. The reinstall will NOT lose your project, it will simply reinstall a working system in place, and get you closer to normal (whatever that is), and in minimum time. The reinstall will likely take less than an hour. Run Software Update, or the App Store. There will be some system updates that will be available immediately after an OS X reinstall.
Good luck - let me know if any of this has helped you.
 
It seems like it worked.

It will now open System Preferences correctly.

I suspect the other ones are working correctly too.

Thank you once again.

PS: After what you said, I thought Id search a little better for those rogue apps. Finally found them, CarbonCopyCloner will create a "_CCC SafetyNet" directory on the root, it copied into them a dated directory that included a copy of those files, I suspect for keeping incremental backups. And thats why they were still around but not anywhere I was searching.
 
I didn't know the "well known" Puush service. ;) … So it was Onyx that corrected the problem? Or did you find the culprit folder before actually running Onyx?
 
fryke said:
I didn't know the "well known" Puush service. ;) … So it was Onyx that corrected the problem? Or did you find the culprit folder before actually running Onyx?
Click to expand...

I thought everyone knew Puush haha, anyway, what fixed it was Onyx with the settings DeltaMac told me.

After it did it (took like 5 seconds), it all started working, I restarted just in case. After it restarted, I thought about looking for those files, and thats what I did, after some searches about doing file searching from the command line, I found them.
 
For me, Puush generates alerts as a known malware site - probably because of the nature of the types of files that get "puushed" (or maybe it's just my system, but I doubt it. :D )
Maybe you can find an upload site that is not so close to the "edge"...
 
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