I deleted libstdc++.6.0.9 from usr/lib folder and now my mac won't boot

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 13, 2015
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Someone please help. I really messed up my IMac. I was trying to follow some instructions on installing something, that required me to replace some .dylib files. all of them were replaced fine but one. I found the original file in the folder (libstdc++.6.0.9) and moved it to the trash. The i moved the replacement one into the folder. I immediately lost all items on the desktop and the finder and all apps closed. I tried to restart, and now it wont even get to the login screen. I'm completely stomped and could really use some help. Any ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
8,428
Reaction score
295
Points
83
Location
Waiting for a mate . . .
Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
Why, why, why do people mess with System Files, when they don't NEED too . . Unless you know exactly what you are doing !!!!! Exactly !!!

Anyway, welcome to the forum. First, do you have a Backup ?? If so, see if you can boot into that (unless its a Time Machine Backup)
What Mac ?? What OS where you running ?? Can you restart, holding down the ⌥Option button, and selecting the Recovery Partition (if you have a OS that has a recovery Partition)

None of this really matter, BECAUSE you will need to reinstall the OS. I'm just trying to find, if you can do this via Recovery, or a USB Install stick, that I hope you made when you upgrade, or have a friend that can make one for you :) Either way, I say you are buggered. . .
 
OP
Y
Joined
Jun 13, 2015
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Points
1
im using 10.6. unfortunately i'm not sure if that's mountain lion or not. When i hold option at startup, it just says macintosh HD. I know i probably shouldnt have messed with anything in that folder. I wish there were a way to simply undo it.
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
If you don't have backups, you are basically toast, as TatooedMac said.
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,494
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
FWIW, all the "libstdc++.6.0.9" files and bundles etc. etc. are in my SL 10.6.8 "Developer" folder and their appropriate folders, so it seems just a reinstall of the older Developer stuff could fix the problem.

Unless the OP's got some other situation.


EDIT:
Just to add a note that all the ".dylib" files stuff etc. are also all within my "Developers" folder.

So must be something else to cause a Mac not to boot I'd say.

But mucking about in the system's bowels without a current bootable backup clone = mind bobbling!!! :Blushing:
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
8,428
Reaction score
295
Points
83
Location
Waiting for a mate . . .
Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
im using 10.6. unfortunately i'm not sure if that's mountain lion or not. When i hold option at startup, it just says macintosh HD. I know i probably shouldnt have messed with anything in that folder. I wish there were a way to simply undo it.

If holding down the ⌥ button while starting up, doesn't bring up a Recovery Partition, you have only 2 options.

One solution I know that could help, without reinstalling the OS (and knowing what OS you had to start with) is to use Pacifist and extract the libstdc++.6.0.9 file form the OS X Installer and put it back where it came from.
The other thing you need, is another Mac and connecting in Target Mode.
BUT, you don't know what OS you have, you don't seem to have a Backup, and you don't have the OS X Installer for your OS, so this means it is going to be the Second Option, is a complete reinstall.

No you just need to find someone to make you a USB Installer stick with your OS and it using Diskmaker X . . .

so there's no way to even backup my files either?

No, not unless you can boot into the System, which you can't do. You should of Backed Up BEFORE you started playing with files like that.
 
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 11,3 (15" Retina, Feb 2015), 2.8/4.0 GHz Core i7-4980HQ, 1TB SSD/4-lane PCIe, 16GB RAM, Yosemite
Does your Mac have a Firewire port? If so, and you can borrow another Mac from a friend, I'm wondering if you could just connect it to that other Mac as a Target Disk (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725?locale=en_US) (yes that's for Mountain Lion, but IIRC you could also do this in Snow Leopard).

If you can, then even if you can't boot to your Mac, the files on it should still be readable by the other Mac, in which case you could create a folder on the latter, and copy all your personal files over to it.

Can others comment whether this should be possible?

EDIT: It seems TattooedMac's post appeared while I was posting mine, confirming Target Disk mode should work.
 
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
8,428
Reaction score
295
Points
83
Location
Waiting for a mate . . .
Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
I know its a long shot, but try booting into Safe Mode, holding down the ⇧Shift key. As I said, a long shot, but worth trying if it looks like you are losing a lot of important files.
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
or you can get a friend with a Mac to make a bootable USB stick for you, then boot form that stick, put back all the files you mucked with and then see if it will boot.

And then go buy a backup external, back up your files and then print a sign to past onto your keyboard that says, "Don't mess with system files!"
 
Joined
Jul 14, 2015
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Your Mac's Specs
17 inch 2011 Macbook Pro, i7, 16gb RAM, 750gb HD. 10.7.5 osx
Please help, Im having the same issue, (I've been following the software installation instruction) I moved libstdc++.6.0.8.dylib from usr/lib folder to Desktop, then Finder and upper bar disappeared, I rebooted the macbook and it's stuck on apple logo and spinning wheel, the system won't load.
ImageUploadedByMac Forums1436882839.333048.jpg

What I've tried to do:
1) Safe boot - won't load
2) Resetting PRAM didn't help
3) Booting in Recovery mode - Disk Repair - no result. (also I don't have backup so I would prefer not to reinstall osx)
4) At last I booted into Verbose mode (cmd+v) and here's what I got:
ImageUploadedByMac Forums1436879172.997992.jpg

Im desperate don't know what to do now, any ideas on how to solve this or any help would be EXTREMELY appreciated.

10.7.5 osx, early 2011 Macbook Pro 17 inch

George
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,494
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
Welcome and congratulations, it looks like you've managed to create a Mac that's now FUBAR!!!

It's too bad if you were apparently following the discussion that I guess you missed Jake's closing comment:
"Don't mess with system files!"

Have you got a local Apple tech you can take your Mac to and maybe get it back to normal??

Patrick
======
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Assuming this is your 17" MacBook Pro you're unable to boot.... here is what you can do:

Remove the hard drive and place it in a USB carrier. Attach the carrier to another Mac and backup whatever data you can gain access to. If you use another Mac, you should be able to read the drive and copy most of your data off it. If you only have access to a PC, then you will need a driver for the PC in order to read and copy the data off the hard drive. You can purchase the driver from Paragon Software. Once you've got all your data copied, then you can reinstall Lion.
 
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
4,781
Reaction score
166
Points
63
Location
Groves, Texas
rosgeorge since you have a recovery partition, boot into it, go into Terminal and move the file back.
See if that works.
Edit: wait, Lion? Don't know if it has Terminal in recovery mode.

youngpriz, IF you are running 10.6, I'm afraid you're in for a reinstall from the original disks. I hope you have a backup.
 

chscag

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
65,248
Reaction score
1,833
Points
113
Location
Keller, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
Lion Recovery does have access to the Terminal, so he "should" be able to move the file back and reboot normally. The other guy is out of luck. He has to reinstall.
 
Joined
May 19, 2009
Messages
8,428
Reaction score
295
Points
83
Location
Waiting for a mate . . .
Your Mac's Specs
21" iMac 2.9Ghz 16GB RAM - 10.11.3, iPhone6s & iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.2.1, ATV 4Th Gen tvOS, ATV3
3) Booting in Recovery mode - Disk Repair - no result. (also I don't have backup so I would prefer not to reinstall osx)

You should be able to boot into recovery disk, and reinstall the OS without losing your data. Its not like Leopard where you could choose the do a clean install or Archive and install. By default, 10.7 Archives and Installs the OS over the one that is meant to be there.
 
C

chas_m

Guest
Just so we know the next time someone does this, what "instructions" are you following that cause you to do this stupid thing??

(and for the hard of reading, I am not calling the users stupid -- I am calling the instructions stupid)
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
I get the feeling much more is at work here. libstdc++ was deprecated by Apple three years ago and as this developer notes, "libstdc++ is occasionally needed for some legacy applications, especially those that must run on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard." So, with that, I have to know: what else did you edit as per these instructions?
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
I do agree with Van. Can you show us what instructions you followed?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top