Your Mac’s System Settings are not responding. What to do?

If you’re a Mac user, you know that the OS is very stable and will rarely hang. But issues can arise, and that’s why you want to narrow down the best way of dealing with unresponsiveness, especially in the computer’s System Settings.

The first step is to check the currently running apps and see if there are problems evident in each one. A restart could also help, depending on the situation.

What causes the System Settings to not respond?

There are different causes for the System Settings hanging or not working the way they should. It could be a hardware issue; perhaps the hard disk has an error that needs addressing. Checking if the plist files are corrupted can come in handy in that scenario. And there could be issues with Mac OS itself, too.

Restart in safe mode

Restarting in safe mode is usually a good idea, because you can remove recently-installed apps that may be causing newly-emerged issues. Shut down the Mac, wait for 10 seconds or so, then press and hold the power button until you see some startup options.

Select the startup disk and press the Shift key to continue in safe mode, finally releasing the Shift key once Safe Mode starts. When in safe mode at your desktop, see if System Settings can be accessed.

If the System Settings can’t be accessed then remove login items, extensions or apps that you’re not using.

Use a cleanup tool

The role of a cleanup tool is to help free up some space, eliminate malware and improve your Mac’s performance. A cleanup tool can help solve specific system issues, with inaccessible System Settings one of the problems that can be fixed.

Remove plist files

In the Library folder, open Preferences. The com.apple.systempreferences.plist file should be put in the Wastebasket or Trash Can. Empty the trash and restart your Mac. You should now be able to open System Settings without issue.

After the restart, a new file will be created by the Mac which should alleviate most issues. You may need to go through individual System Preferences to ensure they’re set how you like.

Access the recovery mode

Use recovery mode to perform a quick repair using the First Aid feature. Enter recovery mode by pressing and holding the power button when turning on the Mac. Continue to press it until you see the startup options. Press the gear icon and Continue, entering your password. Enter Disk Utility and use the First Aid feature on your startup disk.

Restore the System Settings from a backup

If you use Time Machine, find the latest backup from when you know there were no System Settings issues. Pick the information you want to restore, in this case, the system and network settings, starting with com.apple.systempreferences.plist. The Mac will handle the process from there, restoring the older settings that you know worked well.

Reinstalling the operating system

This may seem a drastic approach, but it’s one thing that could help if there is no other solution. The idea here is that you reset every aspect of your computer to its original settings. Note the process should always be preceded by backing up all your important files.

Reinstall your OS and make sure to update it to the latest version. Most if not all of the issues should go away after a complete reinstall, unless your problem is hardware related.

There are situations when you have issues with the System Settings either hanging or just not opening. Thankfully, one of the solutions above should be effective. Good luck.