Clearing system font cache on MacOS 12 (Monterey)

Thierry Blancpain

To help everyone get better support, we added a how to clear your font cache guide to our website. But the steps don’t work anymore on MacOS 12. Has anyone figured out what to do instead?

The process starts with this first step that still works:
atsutil databases -removeUserBut atsutil databases does not accept "-shutdown" or "-ping" arguments anymore. There’s atsutil server -shutdown and atsutil server -ping commands but those don’t seem to do the job. 

So after this first step and without the -shutdown and -ping commands, Font Book lists 0 fonts. Only a system reboot fixes that.



How can we shut down and restart that font cache system instead?

Ramiro Espinoza

I am fond of my Font Finagler but I haven't tried it with OSX 12 yet.

Thierry Blancpain

Thanks, but I’m hoping to find a solution that does not require the installation of a third-party app.

jeremy tribby

check out this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253301202

seems like a similar-in-origin issue and that things may have improved in 12.1

Stephen Coles

I was having font cache issues in Monterrey. IBM Plex Sans Bold would only show question marks when used in Mail.app’s preview panel, but I can confirm that it’s fixed in 12.1.