Does anybody know what time it is?

[cincygolfgrrl]

Late 2013 i7 iMac (non-retina), shortly after I upgraded to Sierra I noticed the Date & Time function had stopped and that attempting to correct the issue in Preferences resulted in an error message:
"Could not load Date & Time preference pane."

My first thought was selecting "Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac" was the culprit. I unchecked the box, rebooted (which, incidentally, clears the issue), and waited to see what would happen. Within a week the Date & Time had stopped again.

Another symptom is menu bar apps like bluetooth status, wi-fi, eject, volume, character launcher, active user, search, Siri, and notifications are inoperative; moving the cursor to the menu bar at one of them generates a spinning beach ball.

I looked at the Web sites of all the third-party apps installed that use Date & Time data. None of them mention anything about this issue. I've checked sites where the gurus live, including Apple, and found no mention of the issue. Rebooting clears the issue until the next time, which could be a week or a day.

Other than not knowing where along the time continuum it is, the iMac works fine. But the freaking clock outta work, ya know? I'd appreciate any thoughts all y'all might have about this issue. Thanks!

 

[fisherking]

boot into recovery, run first aid, then, perhaps... reinstall the OS. sounds like something is hosed with the system. if that doesn't do it... possible hard drive issue? might be worth running that test...

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

boot into recovery, run first aid, then, perhaps... reinstall the OS.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll report back.

UPDATE: Ran First Aid in Recovery mode—no issues found. Reinstalled Sierra—now I'll wait a couple weeks to see if the issue is resolved. Thanks again.

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

Back to the drawing board. My "fix" didn't even last 12 hours.

 

[fisherking]

Back to the drawing board. My "fix" didn't even last 12 hours.

have all the issues returned, or just date/time?

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

have all the issues returned, or just date/time?

All the same issues. Date/Time is just the most visible. One new item of note: I noticed the Date/Time on the lock screen is correct. It's just when I log in the problem shows itself. I'm going to run Caffeine next to see if it's a log in issue or not.

I know operating on a test account is the next logical step. It's just a pain in the butt doing so

Troubleshooting is so much fun.

 

[fisherking]

trying a test account couldn't be easier. just create another admin account, simple name, simple password. log in to the account, test these things out. you'll at least then know if the problem is specific to your account, or global...

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

trying a test account couldn't be easier. just create another admin account, simple name, simple password. log in to the account, test these things out. you'll at least then know if the problem is specific to your account, or global...

Setting up a test account is no problem, it's having to live in and do work in that account for as much as a couple weeks to determine if that's the problem.

I know I'll do it eventually, just not looking forward to it.

 

[fisherking]

Setting up a test account is no problem, it's having to live in and do work in that account for as much as a couple weeks to determine if that's the problem.

I know I'll do it eventually, just not looking forward to it.

is the problem that sporadic? (my sympathies, if). perhaps setup fast user switching, then login to the test account, surf, do basic things in that account, then log back in to your real account (without closing the other account) to do your real work. so you're keeping the test account 'active', and can jump into it when you can, see how things go...

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

Update Time: I've had the problem crop up within a few hours after a reboot as well as doing fine for a week then crapping out. So yes, it is that sporadic.

As of now the iMac has been running just a few hours shy of seven days. Early in this cycle the OS got really slow, like almost 2 seconds for a click to generate the requested response. Then after two days of that it cleared up. Now the machine is responding as fast as ever. Maybe, or maybe not related was the iTunes update I installed a couple days into this cycle.

That's where it stands now. The clock and nearby apps are doing their intended jobs. If it crashes again I'll jump into test account mode (hell?). Thanks again for the help you've given.

 

[fisherking]

fingers crossed everything keeps working correctly. good luck!

 

[cincygolfgrrl]

The Final Update — August 28, 2017 (10 months later)

Since my last post issues continued to become more numerous and more frequent; they were mostly just annoying, never compromising the actual work being done. A couple months ago I realized that putting successive operating systems on top of each other was the likely culprit. A *nuke & pave* seemed like the the ultimate solution. I spent some time planning, making sure I had all passwords, access codes, and more than one clone. I also had a spreadsheet with all the apps on the installation, sorted by App Store or direct from the developer.

On the appointed day, two weeks ago, I made a final clone, erased my SSD, then began the task of installing Sierra, then apps, and finally putting my files back where they belong. About five hours after I started it was done. I'm still tweaking settings, but I expected that because I could have done a better job making note of them beforehand.

This wasn't a Sierra issue. I wish I'd posted this in the macOS thread.

My purpose in posting this update is to let all y'all know that annoying issues caused by almost anything can be resolved by wiping the drive and reinstalling IF YOU HAVE A SOLID CLONE (two are better than one) and take some time on documentation.