Wake from sleep - No wallpaper; no Dock; no Switcher; Finder glacially slow

[GarryB]

My Mac Studio has had problems with displaying the wallpaper on wake from sleep since new (Apr 2022). Since then some symptoms have gone and others arisen. At present on wake from sleep:

• the Desktop is black i.e. no wallpaper;
• the Dock, which is hidden, cannot be displayed;
• the Switcher does not work;
• Finder actions such as moving items on the Desktop are glacially slow.

Often, everything pops back to normal after a unpredictable amount of time. Sometimes, the only solution is to logoff and logon again. Sometimes, after a time, a shaded area appears on the Desktop, middle grey in colour sized about half of my 5120x2880 display in the top left quadrant. When that happens, the Dock can be displayed with cmd-d but it is displayed as if the shaded area was the Desktop i.e. about 25% up from the bottom and the display and about 75% of the width.

I've attached a capture showing the grey shaded area and weird Dock.

Relaunching Finder has no effect.

The Studio is a vanilla setup with no external monitors and just 2 external drives (SSD and HDD).

Has anyone seen anything like this mess ?

 

[rb2112]

Sometimes, after a time, a shaded area appears on the Desktop, middle grey in colour sized about half of my 5120x2880 display in the top left quadrant.

The Studio is a vanilla setup with no external monitors and just 2 external drives (SSD and HDD).

Has anyone seen anything like this mess ?

I have not seen anything like this before. But I have to ask: If there are no external monitors....how can you see *anything*?

 

[GarryB]

Oops, thanks. I do have a Studio Display. I usually don't think of it as an external display, which of course it is.

The disappearing wallpaper and Desktop weirdness has declined recently. Usually, on wake from sleep the wallpaper appears quite quickly. The problem seems to have been attenuated but not solved.

 

[ColdCase]

Have you tried booting without the external drives attached? Is it still under warranty?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you tried in a new, test user account with no third-party apps installed?

 

[GarryB]

Have you tried booting without the external drives attached? Is it still under warranty?

Thanks. I do a cold boot every day with the external drives disconnected. Sometimes, I don't connect them during a session which includes periods of Sleep. I bought the Studio in April 2022 so, I guess it's out of warrantee.

Have you tried in a new, test user account with no third-party apps installed?

Good idea. I have three user accounts and have only noticed the issue on one although, I can't remember the other two ever being left logged-on with the Studio in sleep mode.

Another idea is to transfer everything to a new user account but recreate all the macOS-related settings and preferences – assuming the cause is related to a macOS setting.

 

[garth_h]

I have exactly the same issue as the OP with my Mac Studio (interestingly, also with an Apple Studio Display). Same randomness - sometimes it wakes fine, other times the same symptoms: black desktop, no dock and can't switch apps. The only reliable fix is to log out and in again, which is a pain. Disappointing for the old Apple hardware integrated with their OS. Don't they test these things? :-/

 

[GarryB]

I have exactly the same issue as the OP with my Mac Studio

Many thanks for posting – it's a relief to know I'm not alone. I have used the "Feedback Assistant" app to send reports to Apple, usually after each dot-point macOS release. I first submitted a report in July 2022.

Frankly, I get the feeling that Apple have put Mac Studio and Studio Display maintenance onto the back-burner. The Display, because it runs a custom iOS, possibly requires a lot of work for just a single device that doesn't sell in big numbers.

Cheers.