Notifications icon and right side pane

Im about 2 weeks into my switch to mac as a full time machine (still running win 7 natively and sometimes through vmware/bootcamp, so the training wheels are still on, so to speak)... and I remember seeing a notifications area/element in the system preferences, the notifications icon at top/right of the task bar (I think thats what its called (where time, wifi and other icons appear)) and a dark grey 'pane' you could expand from the right side of the desktop with a gesture of some sorts....

but now I dont see any of that. most troubling is that theres no longer the notifications icon in the system preferences. I did command R and reinstalled thinking that would fix it, but nothing.

what am I missing here? is it gone as a result of updates to the OS? I only have xcode, MS office for mac, ilife and iwork installed besides chrome and a couple of other fairly basic apps.

Thanks for any help you all can provide. overall though, I must say, I am thoroughly impressed and keep finding myself floored at how robust and powerful yet remarkably easy to use the OS is.

"Notifications" appear in the upper right hand corner of your screen just below the top menu. It should appear each time you open your Mail app and receive new mail. It will also appear when software updates are available. The System Preferences Notification Pane allows you to change the options for Notifications.

If you no longer have a Notifications Pane in System Preferences, it may have been accidentally removed. If you tried a reinstall and it didn't restore the Notifications Pane, there may be some problem with your account. Let's try this:

Create a test account for yourself by going to System Preferences, Users & Groups, click on the small lock at the bottom of the dialog box and enter your Admin password. The lock will open. Now, click on the small + sign at the bottom and add a new account. Call it test or whatever. Assign it admin privileges. After doing that, log off your regular account and log on to the new account. Now open System Preferences in the new account and see if the Notifications Pane is there. Let us know.

Thanks first off, I appreciate your help.

I followed your steps but still, under the newly created account, there was no notifications icon at top right next to spotlight icon and nothing in system preferences. I might add, in system preferences, I notice that preferences window isnt resizable, and that the top row (personal) is full from left to right with icons, none of which are notifications icon, when I look online at screen shots I see the notifications icon there on the far right (for instance: http://www6.pcmag.com/media/images/295197-apple-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-system-prefs.jpg ).

in mine, the top row lists:
- General
- Desktop & Screen Saver
- Dock
- Mission Control
- Language & Text
- Security & Privacy
- Spotlight
- Universal Access

Any other ideas on what I might be dealing with?

Thanks again.

OK, I think we're on to something here..... First, tell me which version of OS X are you running? I ask because your System Preferences layout is not from Mountain Lion. I believe it's from Lion.

When I go to 'about this mac' it says 10.7.5 .... I noticed that it looked like a low version number earlier today and went and tried to use 'software update' to pull down any updates I might need, but it says its up to date. from the app store, when I try to see if there are any updates I get "no updates available".

in app store I also see that mountain lion is 10.8.2 and it costs 20 bucks.... but do I have to pay for this since I just bought the mac book pro and it was there when I got it? weird.

I came across a URL for "OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date Program"... it says

If you recently bought a new Mac from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller that doesn’t include OS X Mountain Lion, you may qualify for a free upgrade from the Mac App Store.

I just submitted a claim and hope it works. I spent too much for this machine to have an old copy of the OS! I wonder how long before I hear back?

One last question, can I perform an 'upgrade' to Mountain Lion or does it have to be a clean install that blows away everything I have setup now? Bootcamp and windows partition affected at all?



Thanks for your help.

One last question, can I perform an 'upgrade' to Mountain Lion or does it have to be a clean install that blows away everything I have setup now? Bootcamp and windows partition affected at all?

Click to expand...

It will just update from Lion to Mountain Lion without removing any apps or documents or personal settings. It's a safe upgrade. However, it's always good practice to make a backup first. Use Time Machine.

I guess that solves the problem of why you weren't seeing the "Notifications". I really should have asked you in my first reply which version of OS X you were running. I just "assumed" you were running Mountain Lion and were missing the Notifications banner.

re: "I guess that solves the problem of why you weren't seeing the "Notifications". I really should have asked you in my first reply which version of OS X you were running. I just "assumed" you were running Mountain Lion and were missing the Notifications banner."

Yeah, my fault completely. I've been dealing with software issues along these lines for the better part of 20 years now and I never even mentioned the OS version number. I deserved to be flamed for that but appreciate that I wasnt. everybodys been really helpful and I know I only saved 20.00 but it something I expected to be a headach was resolved in under 5 minutes. so at this point Im in love with the hardware, software and customer service since switching.

thanks

I suspect that the reason you used to have Notifications and now you don't is that you somehow downgraded the machine when you did your "reinstall."

You haven't specifically said, so let me ask: did you buy this machine new from Apple or an Apple Store?

How did you accomplish this "reinstall"?

Are you sure you didn't just have Growl (a third-party notification app) on before and it stopped working?

chas_m said:

I suspect that the reason you used to have Notifications and now you don't is that you somehow downgraded the machine when you did your "reinstall."

You haven't specifically said, so let me ask: did you buy this machine new from Apple or an Apple Store?

How did you accomplish this "reinstall"?

Are you sure you didn't just have Growl (a third-party notification app) on before and it stopped working?

Click to expand...

You're right. That's the case - during my reinstall (internet recovery I think its called) it downgraded to just lion and I didnt pick up on that until AFTER I posted the question here (totally my fault for not checking the version number - as soon as I did I saw right off the bat that it was OS version that was the problem).

I was able to the Up-to-date program for and Apple authorized me to upgrade to Mountain Lion - really easy process and was quickly resolved... so now in the app store it shows ML as a previous purchase that Im authorized to install/use.

Question for you though (in case you are knowledgeable in this area): if I ever have to do an internet recovery process again if that means it will now default to ML or instead go back to just Lion so I have to manually re-download Mountain Lion and upgrade?

Question for you though (in case you are knowledgeable in this area): if I ever have to do an internet recovery process again if that means it will now default to ML or instead go back to just Lion so I have to manually re-download Mountain Lion and upgrade?

Click to expand...

It will default to Mountain Lion. You would do an internet reinstall from the recovery partition which is ML. No worries there.