Mac users - have you downloaded OS X Yosemite? How's it working for you?

[IBrakeforPastry]

I don't know what older version I had. I think it was a leopard.

I know! The favorites bar: The graphics made each "favorite" look like an individual little button. Now it's just text, no graphics. Nothing to really separate them. I'm sorry - it's just really hard for me to explain.

And you know how websites have little icons that show up on the left side of the address bar/box? That's missing, too. It's all just black, grey and white.

[OakLeaf]

I don't know what older version I had. I think it was a leopard.

I know! The favorites bar: The graphics made each "favorite" look like an individual little button. Now it's just text, no graphics. Nothing to really separate them. I'm sorry - it's just really hard for me to explain.

And you know how websites have little icons that show up on the left side of the address bar/box? That's missing, too. It's all just black, grey and white.

I wonder if you haven't yet installed, or created a path to, the apps in your Dock. Do you see a big question mark icon, and then if you hover your cursor over it you get the text name of the app that's supposed to be there? Click on it and it will either find the path automatically, or ask you to show the path, and then you should have the icon. The icons are on by default. If that isn't it, there's something else weird going on - I looked to see whether the icons could be switched on or off, and I don't see that option in System Preferences.

If you haven't updated your OS since Leopard, many of your apps are probably incompatible with Yosemite. You'll need to either update them too, or if you have a favorite game like I do that hasn't been updated, keep your old box around to play it ...

Same with the website icons. Once you visit those, they will fill in. You just don't have them cached in your new browser yet.


Oh, and I just found that User Libraries are hidden by default in Yosemite. If you need access to any of yours, it's super easy to turn them back to visible (no messing around with the Terminal or anything scary like that [I'm not trying to be condescending, I'm terrified of Terminal myself ]). I just did it and immediately forgot the exact steps, but if you can't find it on a quick search I'll look it up again.

[IBrakeforPastry]

It's really driving me nuts, and I'm very disappointed.
I clicked on the big question mark. Nothing happened.
The website icons haven't returned, they're just generic.
There is often a delayed reaction when I click on something. Not that it's slow to respond, it just doesn't indicate that it's doing anything. The cursor doesn't change from the arrow to Mickey's glove, the virtual button doesn't look selected, and then the beachball shows up.

Thank you for your information. I'm not afraid of Terminal. I don't know what it is

[OakLeaf]

Which app(s) have the question mark(s) in the Dock? Are you sure you have the latest version of each of those apps installed ... and that you had the latest version BEFORE the OS upgrade?

Can you launch the apps by clicking on them directly in your Applications folder? If that's the case, then the simplest thing will be to drag the old placeholder question mark out of the Dock and drag the current, working one in. You can either drag it directly from the Applications folder (it won't move the actual path to the app, just create a path from the Dock), or else when the app is running, click and hold its icon in the Dock until a pop-up menu comes up above it (again, something that as far as I can tell you have to physically click the button), then from the Options submenu, check "Keep in Dock." Then you can drag the icon to wherever you want it in the Dock.

If you can't launch the apps from their icons in your Applications folder, if you restored from a backup, it's possible that you excluded your apps from the backup protocol when you set it up, so you will have to download and re-install fresh copies. That's really best practice anyway.

What browser are you using?

[IBrakeforPastry]

The question mark is standing all by itself. When I hover the cursor over it, a bubble shows above it saying "install OS X Yosemite". Does that mean it's not completely installed? Nothing happens when I click on the question mark. If I right click, I get the option of removing it from the dock. I think I'll do that. Just make it disappear.

I'm using Safari.

[OakLeaf]

Ah ... The way I understand it, once the installer has run, it deletes itself from the hard drive. Sounds like the cleanup routine didn't finish somehow. Yeah, I would just delete that if it were me. If you still have the disk image on your hard drive, copy that to an external drive just in case you need it in the future. But if you don't, there's no reason to save the icon.

But I thought you were saying the icons for the other apps were also appearing as question marks?

[IBrakeforPastry]

But I thought you were saying the icons for the other apps were also appearing as question marks?

No, the apps are fine. There was a question mark over iPhoto, but that went away after a re-start (after the update).
My two biggest problems now are the cursor and the freezing. It seems to work fine on this message board, but on another one that I've been visiting often, it freezes, or doesn't download the page completely.
Oak, I really appreciate your help, but I don't want you to waste your time on my problems. If you do think of something, though, I'll be here. Thanks!