Apps opening in background

[spookmonkey]

I've got a new MacBook Pro, and it's great. I love it - but there's one thing that's really bugging me. Every application that I launch - by clicking in the doc, double-clicking in the applications, selecting the app and using CMD-DownArrow, or via QuickSilver, is launching in the background.

This is getting to be very frustrating, as when I want to launch an app, it usually means I want to use it. But if I have something like Safari open, then try to launch Calculator, I have to either use Expose to get to the Calcuator window, or click the dock icon again to bring it to the front, because it will appear behind the Safari windows.

I've been searching the web and various forums, as well as System Preferences, and can't figure out how to resolve this. I've never had this happen on my PowerMac, and I'm stumped. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[hayne]

This is of course not usual. It means that something is screwed up in your system. Has it been behaving like this since the beginning?

Try logging in as a different user to see if the problem happens there - create a new user account in Accounts preferences if you only have the one account.

[spookmonkey]

I just created a new account, and things are behaving normally there, so there must be something messed up with my account.
Ideally though, I'd like to be able to get this fixed without needing to migrate to a new user account.

[hayne]

Here's my generic prescription for user-specific problems:
----------------------------------
You have determined that the problem is only with the one user account.
The problem thus is almost certainly due to something under your home folder.
And it likely is something under ~/Library
( ~ = your home folder)
The most likely thing is a bad preference file under ~/Library/Preferences
You could start by removing the preference files for the apps you are having trouble with.
If the problem persists, you need to narrow the problem down - you could start by moving (via drag & drop) the whole "Preferences" folder that is under ~/Library to the Desktop, then log out and log in again. A default copy of the Preferences folder will have been recreated. Does that improve things? If so, you could use a divide & conquer approach to figure out which of the preference files is causing the problem - move half of the preference files back into the Preferences folder, log out & in again, etc.

If the problem persists, try the same thing with the other sub-folders of ~/Library. E.g. with ~/Library/Caches, ~/Library/InputManagers, ~/Library/Fonts, ~/Library/PreferencePanes, ~/Library/Application Support, ~/Library/Application Enhancers, contents of ~/Desktop, etc.
Also remove any files owned by your user in /Library/Caches (the Library folder at the top-level of the drive) or the sub-folders of /Library/Caches (e.g. the font caches under /Library/Caches/com.apple.ATS)

[spookmonkey]

Well, I fixed it, but I'm not sure how.

I cleared out the Preferences folder, logged out, then back in, and it was working correctly again. So, I began copying the old preference files back in, in groups of ten, logging out then logging back in each time.

Eventually, I had copied back in all of my old preferences, and after logging out, then logging back in multiple times, everything was still working correctly again.

So, thanks for the help, as something in that preferences folder apparently needed to be tweaked. What, I don't know. But thanks again.

[blubbernaut]

Perhaps the permissions on one of the pref files was wrong, and purely copying it out and back in again "realigned it" as it were....Hayne?

[hayne]

Perhaps the permissions on one of the pref files was wrong, and purely copying it out and back in again "realigned it" as it were....Hayne?
"I don't think so, Tim" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Improvement)
I think something else must have been the cause. It's quite mysterious if I take the situation on face value.

[ThreeDee]

Could be a corrupt pref file?

[bramley]

I have recently been having this problem myself.

Apps open in the background. The dock no longer magnifies, and menu highlighting seems to have stopped also.

There are no stalled processes visible, no messages appear in the system.log or console.log.

It would seem to be resolvable at least temporarily by unplugging my mouse. I am assuming the my Logitech mouse driver may not be very happy - it's up to date.

[hayne]

It would seem to be resolvable at least temporarily by unplugging my mouse.

So can we take it that the problem only arises when you are using that 3rd-party mouse?

spookmonkey:
Were you using a 3rd-party mouse?

[bramley]

So can we take it that the problem only arises when you are using that 3rd-party mouse?
Yes - nothing else seems to bring it on. But it's intermittent. I can plug the mouse back in and all will be well for 1, 2 or even 3 hours then suddenly the problem re-occurs.

I see 10.4.8 'improved support for 3rd party USB hubs.' I'm plugged in directly though - but perhaps there's been an important code change here. Still no messages though. I'll keep a close eye on the Logitech daemon/driver processes running and see if there's anything odd going on.