Mac Studio - Weird, unrelated issues

[ccbruegge10]

Hello, I've been having some issues that are seemingly unrelated to each other, but have persisted.
For starts, the Mail app won't launch. It'll get stuck and say "App not responding" and never open. Secondly, nothing will download from Safari. It will say "preparing to download" and then nothing. It will do that for eternity if I let it. And it's not specific to Safari. Any browser I try to download from will do that.
Lastly, other non-Apple apps will not launch either. Brave Browser, Adobe apps, Microsoft Office. Other apps will open and others won't. There doesn't seem to be any correlation.
Here are the troubleshooting steps I've already taken.
1. Restart
2. Complete wipe and reinstall of OS, without restoring from a backup.
3. Internet connection is fine.
4. Booted in Safe Mode. Problem still exists.

If anybody has experience with this or has potential solutions, please let me know! The computer is practically unusable at this point.

 

[ab22]

If possible, create a new user in System Settings - Users & Groups, then log out of the existing one & into new, & see if the problems persist.

 

[ccbruegge10]

If possible, create a new user in System Settings - Users & Groups, then log out of the existing one & into new, & see if the problems persist.

I just tried that and the problem doesn't happen in the new user. I've logged back into the original user and tried removing login items, but that hasn't fixed it.

 

[ab22]

Is it practical for you to manually set up everything in the new account ? - bit by bit, so as to reduce the possibility of transferring the problems too.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I just tried that and the problem doesn't happen in the new user."

Then SOMETHING... or possibly a "combination of things"... is causing the problems in your original user account.

It can be a difficult task to ascertain JUST WHAT is causing the problems.

Do your existing applications (those that you use daily) work ok with the NEW user account?
If so, that would indicate them as being "not guilty".

Do you use any anti-virus protection?
That can often cause problems.

 

[HDFan]

2. Complete wipe and reinstall of OS, without restoring from a backup.

I've logged back into the original user and tried removing login items, but that hasn't fixed it.

I just tried that and the problem doesn't happen in the new user.

That implies that there is some issue with the original users' setup since I assume you restored it in some way.

Try running etrecheck to verify that nothing but the restored OS is running.