Only Desktop Wallpaper showing after turning off Mirroring

[Gravydog316]

I just turned Mirroring off
(was mirroring from iMac to TV with HDMI cable);

turned off Mirroring in Settings, now I can't see any windows of any apps?

(i turned off all the icons on the Desktop)

- opening apps, & they open but I can't see any windows or do anything;

- just hard-powered off iMac & restarted, & now only the wallpaper is showing, no Dock or Apple menu or anything!


What do I do??
How do I get the Dock/Finder/ANYTHING back???

oh my gosh
===

UPDATES:
- just restarted using Command-R and just the wallpaper & nothing else showing (no Dock, no windows, no menus, no apps)

===
just restarted using Command-Option-P-R
& again, restarted to just the Desktop wallpaper,
no Dock, no windows, no menus, no apps showing

= = =

ok, just restarted & held down Shift key, & this time, my login flashed for like a quarter of a second in front of the wallpaper,
then disappeared,
& just wallpaper showing

===
- restarted with Shift-Command-Option-R
& my wifi login appeared,
entered password but nothing happening, just the spinning gear

===
...anyone know what else I can try?

 

[chabig]

Unplug the HDMI cable. With just one display, everything should return to the iMac screen.

 

[Gravydog316]

Unplug the HDMI cable. With just one display, everything should return to the iMac screen.

okay; at work right now. will try when i get home & let you know. VERY weird.

 

[chabig]

I think that somehow your iMac still thinks an external display is connected. Unplugging the cable should fix that.

 

[Gravydog316]

Unplug the HDMI cable. With just one display, everything should return to the iMac screen.

ok;
- unplugged
- restarted holding down Shift key
- my Login appeared
& is worked

Do you know why that happened??

Why did turning the mirroring off hide everything??

 

[chabig]

I don't know what you were using screen sharing for, but generally it would be used to mirror your iMac display onto the TV. With sharing off, your Mac will add the TV as a second display and you'll have one large contiguous desktop. I suspect you had the TV turned off and didn't see the windows that were on it. Unplugging the TV restored your Mac to a single display and that forced the windows to reappear on the iMac screen.