Minimize button keeps disappearing!

This just started happening a couple days ago and is still going on even after the update. I'll have program open for a while and then for no reason the yellow button to minimize down to the Dock turns grey and unusable. The only way I can get it back is to restart the app.

Any ideas/suggestions?

can you post a screen shot?

The middle button at the top left should be yellow and I should be able to click on it to minimize to the Dock, but for some reason it'll just go grey and I can't use it. It happens with all programs.

Is this an intermittent problem? If so, did you play a game or movie in full-screen mode right before the button disappears?

that is really weird...
I suppose you have already tried repairing your permissions

I have the same problem playing certain games in full-screen mode. Once I quit the game, the minimize button disappears in the apps I had open as well as in Finder and I have to quit all the apps and Finder and relaunch them to get back the minimize button.

It seems it's a bug in Tiger and Leopard combined with some kind of code that is present in some games. As for fleurya's problem, I dunno if this is brought on by game playing or not. He hasn't replied to my question yet. We'll know more later.

You were right, MHC!! Only, instead of a game, it's when I run Windows full screen using VMware Fusion. I run full screen Windows in one space and my Mac apps in another and toggle in between. I found that whenever I toggle back to the space with my Mac apps from the Windows space, the minimize buttons are inactive.

If it's a bug, I guess I'll just have to live with it. It feels better knowing what it is, though.

fleurya said:

If it's a bug, I guess I'll just have to live with it.

Click to expand...

Maybe not, if the bug hasn't affected double-clicking the title bar, which is the same as clicking the yellow button (on machines not hacked with Window Shade).

If that's turned off on your machine, go into the Appearance preference to turn it on.

Browny, I had that Appearance pref turned on. So it really has to be a bug, me thinks.

I saw a few threads in Apple Discussions and other Mac forums on this problem and so far, nothing has been fixed.

It seems the bug appeared in the earlier versions of Tiger and is still alive and kicking in Leopard as well.

The game that made this bug appear for me was Zamby. I tried another one (can't remember the name of that one though) and the bug appeared after I played it too. Then tried another game in full-screen mode and the bug wasn't triggered, so it definitely is a combination of code between versions of Tiger and Leopard and certain code lines in games and apps (including Finder).

Some thought some lines of code in OpenGL were involved with this.

Quitting and relaunching apps (including Finder!) that exhibit the disabled minimize button usually solves this.

I have the same problem with the minimize button going gray. Like fleurya, I run Windows XP full screen. In my case, I'm using Parallels, running in Space 2.

I have the same issue, and I'd love a solution...

I'm running Windows XP fullscreen in space 2 with VirtualBox, which, based on what I've read above, is what's causing the problem.

For me, some windows will have a greyed out minimize button, while other windows of the same app will have a functioning button. The windows with the greyed out button won't let me minimize by double clicking the title bar, but I can on the window with the functioning button.
New windows will have the functioning button.
For apps like Mail, I can close the window (without quitting) and reopen it to get the button back.

I'm running into this and so far I've felt it had something to do with Parallels. It really is a pain.

I run XP with parallels full screen and never noticed this issue!

lucky me, first time i dodge one of this nasty bugs.

1. Close whichever app is missing the button
2. Relaunch Finder via Force Quit
3. Relaunch the app. If the button is still missing, close any suspected offending programs and go to step #1.

This works for me, hopefully it will help someone else as well.