I was having a problem where none of the icons would show up. ( All my icons went away! ) It was suggested that I re-install.
I no longer had the installer, so I went to the Trimble website and downloaded the latest 2025 installer and ran it.
Now, SketchUp 2025 will not start. It gets as far as displaying the menu bar, but then goes into the Spinning Beach Ball of Death.
Every other crash, it first says “The last time you opened SketchUp, it was force quit while reopening windows. Do you want to try to reopen its windows again?” and I click “Don’t Reopen”.
At this point, I would generally delete preferences. I found com.sketchup.SketchUp.20*.plist files in ~/Library/Preferences and renamed the 2025 and 2026 ones to .BAK. That didn’t seem to have any effect.
I also re-booted the computer, no no effect.
I’m dead in the water now, with building crews coming this week! I can’t ever look at my model to gather key dimensions! I’m considering re-starting from scratch in Rhino or Blender or ANYTHING BUT SKETCHUP!
Any help appreciated!
SketchUp preference files are not plist, they are json.
On Mac, they should be located at:
~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 2026/SketchUp/
Toolbar setups are usually in the "PrivatePreferences.json" file.
Thank you, Dan.
Yes, I misspoke. I meant that I no longer had a .DMG disk image file.
I downloaded it and dragged SketchUp.app into Applications, to no avail; it still gives a forever spinning beachball when starting up.
I tried it on my laptop, same result. My laptop had a 2014 version (shows you how long it’s been since I ran SketchUp on a laptop!). I was able to open my model with the 2014 version, although it warned me that things might not work on a file made on a newer version.
I was able to at least use the Tape Measure, which means I can now at least re-create the model in some other application.
I also had a copy of SketchUpViewer 2022 on my desktop, and it successfully opened my model, but no Tape Measure tool.
So I’m going to go download older and older versions until I find one that works… possibly 2022.
I had been using it just fine on an old, but very upgraded Mac Pro 4,1 that runs everything else I throw at it.
FYI: Upon first run SketchUp should have written new good preference files. But 2026 will attempt to copy preferences from older versions. (Bringing the problems forward.)
Since I had been using 2025, I renamed both the 2025 and 2026 Preference files, and they did get re-created upon running 2025 and 2026.
(I had prefs files going back to 2014 in there!)
I asked Gemini AI …
On a Mac, does an AMD Radeon R7 support Metal 2?
It replied …
The short answer is no. In a standard macOS environment, an AMD Radeon R7 series card does not natively support Metal 2.
Apple’s Metal requirements generally start with the “Graphics Core Next” (GCN) architecture, but specifically focus on the R9 series and later (such as the HD 7950, RX 400/500, and Vega series). Most Radeon R7 cards are based on older architectures or entry-level revisions that Apple never provided Metal drivers for.
SketchUp’s HW & SW Support page, under the SketchUp’s Graphics Engine section …
- For MacOS, the new renderer requires Metal 2 support. For more information on MacOS versions satisfying this requirement, see Apple’s Metal support page.
So you may need to edit the PrivatePreferences.json file and manually set the switch for the legacy OpenGL renderer, by changing these to false.
"This Computer Only" > "Preferences" > "TryNewRenderer"
"This Computer Only" > "Preferences" > "UseNewRenderer"
Thanks for your help, Dan.
Both those entries were already set to “false” in both 2025 and 2026.
2026 has never run successfully on this machine. It’s PrivatePreferences.json file was just 8% of the 2025 one, which I had been using up until I lost all my icons and downloaded a new version of 2025. 
Well, you may need to go back as far as 2023 on that old machine.
I had been using 2025 just fine until the icons all went away! That’s when I went and re-downloaded the 2025 version. I’m not impressed with Trimble’s regression testing.
Well, I’ll try different versions and see what happens. At least I know 2014 works!
Just for grins, I renamed the prefs file to .BAK and tried 2025 again.
Still hangs. After about ten minutes, the only thing in the re-created prefs file was
{
"This Computer Only": {}
}
So I put the .BAK back as the prefs file.
YAY! 2024 came up! But with the message: “You have exceeded your allowed activations.” With no link to fix it. Sheesh.
So as the dialog recommended, I logged in and removed all my activations. Then when I went back in to 2024, it insisted that I only had a trial license, and there is no record of me ever having been licensed. So I guess I have to now dig through my email to find how to re-activate my license.
Now, I get this every time I attempt to log in, using the same stored credential I used to remove my activations.
I am soooo very close to switching to whatever open source CAD program I can find.
SketchUp now uses all subscription licensing.
Yes, and I’ve been paying for it every year.
Do you think it’s confused because I’m running an older version? I was able to run 2014 on my laptop! (I think that was pre-subscription.)
DOH!
I forgot Time Machine! I have automatic backups!
It didn’t take long to scroll back and find the first time I had v2025 on my machine. I simply restored that one, and everything works!
I have no idea why both the current 2025 and 2026 versions on the Trimble website will not start. I’m just happy I can get through this project. Then, I’ll be switching to something else.
