Clean Install Sequoia on iMac 2019

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

Well, I have given up on Sequoia on my iMac. It is a mess and so I’m looking to clean install sequoia. Everything is crazy and the computer messes up all the time - won’t enter spaces in text all of a sudden, weird behavior when I want to see a document using Quick Look form the menu (since pushing the spacebar causes all kinds of problems with the text but if I double press the spacebar the item opens in Preview but then won’t let me enter a text box with any text using a space between words.

So with fear and trepidation I am moving to clean install. I am using Time Machine and will do Carbon Copy Cloner with multiple backups on several different disks to assure I have everything. I have read that I need to download a copy of Sequoia from the App Store and install it on a thumb drive. My question is how do I do that? Won’t the App Store download Sequoia to my apps in my hard drive? Or is there. na installer version that I can download to the thumb drive?

Please help me with any suggestions and recommendations you have on how best to do this. I’m working with vision limitations and a lot of what I will be doing will not be with the advantage of the zooming ability I presently have. Thanks in advance for any guidance you provide!

[ace (Adam Engst)]

Are you seeing these problems in fresh user account, Doug? If so, it’s probably hardware failing (possibly even a bad USB device on the bus). If not, it’s something in your account.

An installation of macOS can’t really be corrupted anymore, so what we used to consider a clean install likely won’t help if you bring back everything that’s in your user account afterward. I had luck with what I call a “level 2 clean install” a few versions back. In essence, you wipe the drive, reinstall macOS, and bring back only the contents of my Home folder when restoring. All apps have to be reinstalled manually.

Level 2 Clean Install of Ventura Solves Deep-Rooted Problems - TidBITS

I could even imagine going further to bring back everything via Finder drags only to eliminate the possibility of corrupted preferences in ~/Library, but that would be even more work.

[tom3 (Tom Gewecke)]

won’t enter spaces in text

No idea if it applies to your situation, but often this is the result of having “Full Keyboard Access” accidentally turned on in Accessibility settings.

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

The only thing that changed was I updated the OS from Catalina to Sequoia. It has been bug filled ever since. I did have the problem of the stuck ethernet connection but after guidance from TidBITS folks I was. able to release that but that was after the system update which was already giving me grief. I once owned Techtool which would let me test all the various items of the computer - fans, connections, ram, etc. I may have to spring for a new version of that to see if it is a usb or something.

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

I read your Level 2 Clean Install and it sounds interesting. I’m not sure how to boot into Mac OS Recovery. I tried the previous way holding down command-R but nothing happened.

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

No, I don’t see full keyboard access turned on in Accessibility settings. Thanks.

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

I have reset NVRAM and SMC but no change. I’ve been following Take Control of Solving Mac Problems, version 1.1" guides to check other items. Seeing where this will lead.

[ace (Adam Engst)]

@dougeddy

The only thing that changed was I updated the OS from Catalina to Sequoia. It has been bug filled ever since.

But that’s a really big jump, making it all the more likely that there is corruption in some core preferences files. Again, you really want to test in a clean user account to eliminate that as a variable.

Reinstalling Sequoia won’t hurt anything, but if the problem is with preferences files or hardware, it won’t make any difference. Since the installation has to pass cryptographic tests to boot, it’s basically not possible for there to be a difference between what you’re running now and what you’d install. I suppose it’s conceivable the installer could do more checking for preference corruption or the like since you last installed it, but that seems tenuous.

@dougeddy

I tried the previous way holding down command-R but nothing happened.

That’s still correct, but you have to do it immediately after powering the Mac on. If it doesn’t work, that’s an indication of something being wonky at a low level, and you can use Internet Recovery in that case. Details here:

Use macOS Recovery on an Intel-based Mac

@dougeddy

I once owned Techtool which would let me test all the various items of the computer - fans, connections, ram, etc

Try Apple Diagnostics first by holding down D at boot.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

[brucesherman]

When I had problems like this, it was the failure of an old Hybrid drive. My current 2019 iMac is running Ventura with no problems. This does sound a lot like hardware failure.

[ashley]

I wonder if this is a problem with the space bar key. Do you have another keyboard you could try instead?

[eric2 (Eric Rosenbloom)]

That was my first thought.

[dougeddy (G. Douglas Eddy)]

Sorry to have been away so long but having health issues. I’m still working with a crazy computer situation. Appreciate all the responses.

RE keyboard situation, I tried another bluetooth keyboard and still had the save results. I now am having issues with the tab key - it will not enter a tab into any of my documents.

[ashley]

Sorry to hear you are still having trouble. Two ideas, FWIW…

Idea A.

macOS has a built-in Keyboard Viewer feature. It shows which keys are currently pressed. A useful tool for odd keyboard issues, particularly when trying to work out “is this problem due to software or hardware?”

On Sequoia, it looks like this for me, using a MacBook Air.

It’s a little difficult to see here, but there is a red outline around the tab key, which I’m pressing down.

Access to Keyboard Viewer seems to have been buried a little more in recent macOS. To get to it, on my system, I had to turn on System Settings > Keyboard > Text Input > Input Sources > British > Edit > “Show Input menu in menu bar”:

The menu bar at the top of the screen should then show an icon (pictured below) with a “Show Keyboard Viewer” menu option…

I find Keyboard Viewer useful in a few ways… 1. If a particular key isn’t working, and Keyboard Viewer doesn’t show the presses, I start leaning towards “the cause is hardware”. 2. Keyboard Viewer will show if a key is reading as stuck down. I was wondering about this possibility in my last post. I’ve seen this caused by both hardware and software. 3. If the key presses show as expected in Keyboard Viewer, but not in a particular app, I start to suspect that a software issue with that app…

Oh - and if your physical tab key isn’t working, you can click the on-screen tab key in Keyboard Viewer instead, as a work around.

Idea B.

Have you tried Adam’s suggestion of creating a fresh user account to test in? On Sequoia, this is in System Settings > Users & Groups… press the Add User button there, and create another user, called Test perhaps.

Before you do that, though, make sure you know which user name and password you normally use.

Once you’ve set up the Test user, try logging in as Test, and see if the keyboard works properly there. You won’t have access to your usual stuff whilst logged in as that user, so this won’t solve your problem, but it might help to narrow down where the problem is.

[Shamino (David C.)]

@ashley

On Sequoia, it looks like this for me, using a MacBook Air.

If you don’t see a layout that matches your keyboard (e.g. if you have an external USB keyboard), you can change it. If you use an external keyboard with a laptop, you may want to add a layout that matches it, so you can switch between them. In my case, I needed to tell it to use the layout that matches my wired USB keyboard, because the macOS default didn’t include the cursor- and number-pad sections:

To change it, go to System Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard, and click on the “Panel Editor…” button. The panel editor lets you add/remove panels, accessible via the Accessibility Keyboard:

You can also customize the keyboard panels, in case you are not using an Apple-standard keyboard layout, or for any other reason you might find useful (maybe you want to add a virtual button that doesn’t exist on your physical keyboard).

The panel you select as the home layout is what appears when you open the keyboard viewer. You can select any others from its “…” menu:

When you’ve switched to a non-default layout, its home button may be used to get back to the default layout:

[tom3 (Tom Gewecke)]

I tried another bluetooth keyboard and still had the save results

Does the space bar still not work between words? Does option or shift space work?