How to Fix Activity Monitor Columns That Are Missing

Having trouble finding the information you need because some columns missing in your Activity Monitor?

You usually use the Activity Monitor feature to check the status of your CPU activity, memory allocations, energy consumption, network communication, and cache storage. But apparently, there have been reports that some of the columns that indicate the different statutes of your Mac appear to be missing from the interface.

After much research and testing, we can say the below solutions can help you out if you’re experiencing the same “Activity Monitor Columns that are missing” issue. We will explain why this is happening to your Mac as well as share the available workarounds and permanent solutions. Hopefully, you can find the fix that applies to you as you go through each method. 🙂

Let’s dive in!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Adjust Column Size, If Not, Scroll Up or Down
2. Check Selected Columns
3. Update to the Latest macOS Version
4. Delete the Activity Monitor Preference File (plist)
5. Reach Out to Apple Support

How to Fix Activity Monitor Columns That Are Missing: 5 Ways

1. Adjust Column Size, If Not, Scroll Up or Down.

It does not clearly define what could have caused the columns to disappear in your Activity Monitor. One of the suggestions given by users who happened to experience the same issue was that the first column (the list of applications) filled the whole window. This meant the other columns remained hidden as a result. To see the columns, try to expand the Activity Monitor window to view it on the full screen.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. First and foremost, launch the Activity Monitor app on your Mac.
2. Then, press and hold the Option key while you click on the Green (Maximize) button at the top left screen.

3. After that, you should be able to adjust the length and width of the screen in full size.
4. Now, you should be able to adjust the width of the first column to see the rest of the columns.
5. Finally, if you cannot still adjust it, try to scroll up or down using your mouse scroll wheel to navigate to the columns.

This is just one of the suggested immediate workarounds to this issue, but we thought it was worth sharing before we get into the more robust solutions.

2. Check Selected Columns.

One of the possible causes that you are not seeing the columns of the Activity Monitor is because it might be disabled. It might be that something triggered the change in the settings or was manually disabled. This kind of weird activity can usually happen, especially if you’ve recently installed a macOS update. So just to make sure that all of your columns are selected, you will need to go into your Activity Monitor settings and check it.

On your Activity Monitor screen, you can click on the View option and click on the Columns option. You will be able to see which of the columns are checked and the ones which are not. If a particular column that you want is unchecked, click on the columns selection to enable it. After this, you should be able to see the missing columns from your Activity Monitor app.

3. Update to the Latest macOS Version.

A highly likely suspect which can cause this kind of behavior with the Activity Behaviour is the macOS version itself. It may be that the current macOS version which you’re on is experiencing some bugs which affect the interface layout of the Activity Monitor app on your machine.

What you will need to do is check for the latest macOS updates available for your Mac and then proceed to install them. To do this, click on the Apple menu on your screen, then click on the System Preferences option and click the Software Update option. To complete the installation, follow the instructions provided. After the update, you should be able to see the columns of your Activity Monitor back.

4. Delete the Activity Monitor Preference File (plist).

This was the solution that managed to fix the issue for us. IThe preference file or, in short, plist, handles all of your settings and preferences that are configured for your Activity Monitor. When a plist gets corrupted or encounter issues, this will cause your application, in this case, your Activity Monitor to be slow, glitchy, and even crash. By deleting the plist file for your Activity Monitor app, the old plist will be erased, and a new one plist file will be created with the default settings. The new file with the default settings will no longer have the corrupt data that was causing you trouble before.

⚠️ Note

Deleting the preference list file (plist) WILL NOT erase any of your data, apps, or information that is stored on your Mac. It will just erase the settings that are set for the Activity Monitor app.

When you’re ready, here’s how you can do it:

1. Go ahead and close the Activity Monitor app if it is launched.
2. Then, click on the Finder app on your macOS and click on the Go option.
3. Now click on the Go To Folder option. (Shortcut: Command+Shift+G keys)

4. Next, a window will prompt asking for a command. Type ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ActivityMonitor.plist and click on the Go option.

5. Once you are in the Preferences folder, select the file com.apple.ActivityMonitor.plist and move it to the Trash.

6. Finally, relaunch the Activity Monitor app.

Now that your application has rebuilt its preference file try once again to see if the columns in your Activity Monitor app are back and working.

5. Reach Out to Apple Support.

If you are having trouble following these instructions on your own, or if you wish to have someone do it for you, then you always have the option to get professional assistance. You can talk to an Apple Support representative over the phone, and they can guide you on how to fix the issue and can help you every step of the way. But the best part is, they can fix it themselves via remote access on your computer, of course, with your permission.

You can also choose to go to the nearest Apple Store, where an Apple-certified technician can fix your Mac for you. Just be sure to check your Mac that it is fixed before leaving the store!

This wraps up our guide on how to fix your Activity Monitor columns that are missing on your Mac. We hope that this article has been helpful, just like all the other articles that we have provided for you. If you have questions related to this topic, please feel free to leave a comment below.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂