Cannot open preferences. Tried fixes and reinstall. pls help :)

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have spent majority of the day trying to fix my Maya it just broke on me out of nowhere. 

I get several different errors while trying to access preferences. 

- First click on preferences results in the following error and fails to display window:

// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2018/scripts/startup/createPrefWndUI.mel line 1705: Cannot find procedure "prefsUpdateAppearance". // 

- Second click on preferences displays the window

- First click on Settings fails to change tab and results in the following error:

// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2018/scripts/startup/createPrefWndUI.mel line 3386: Cannot find procedure "prefsUpdateSettings". // 

- Settings changed and upon clicking Save this results in the following error:

// Preferences saved. See Script Editor for details. //
// Error: A permanent scriptJob cannot be killed. //

If I repeat it, starts all over again and the settings that I change are wrong!

EDIT: I just noticed when I close the settings window and reopen it there is another error:

// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2018/scripts/startup/prefsHoldCurrentState.mel line 1096: Cannot convert data of type int to type float[]. //

Also in the settings I changed cm to meter and when I opened it, it was set to mm!

I tried the fix where you change value from 0 to 1 in userprefs mel. Did not work. I tried a repair. Did not work. Then I re-installed. Still the same issue!

I have just over a month to complete my masters project and am in dire need of a solution.

Attached screenshots.

Thank you!

[mspeer]

Hi!

Try a reset of your preferences (in your user directory).
Rename the folder prefs in folder 2018 to something like prefs_backup, or to reset everything, the folder 2018 to 2018_backup (or even the maya folder to maya_backup). Maya creates new folders (don't copy preferences from previous Maya versions). Detailed at:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Reset-May...

[Anonymous]

thanks but yeah I tried that already. Just does the same thing even after creating new default prefs. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I managed to fix this by replacing updatePrefWndUI.mel with the one off my friend's laptop that was working. So it must of become corrupted even after repair and reinstall. I guess it didnt clean fix it. So that along with resetting user prefs seems to have worked 🙂

[mspeer]

Hi!

A re-installation does not change preferences, so only resetting preferences should have worked.