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Recently, my copy of Mathematica v.12 started reporting the error

An improperly formatted directive with head Times was encountered.

on startup.

pop-up error message This error also shows up in the Messages window while working with random notebooks.

message box error list Does anyone know what the cause of such a message is? I tried to reinstall Mathematica but that didn't help. I work with a version for MacOS v. 10.15.1.

B. Naskrecki
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  • Do you have any code in this file FileNameJoin[{$UserBaseDirectory, "Kernel", "init.m"}]? – Jason B. Dec 11 '19 at 21:59
  • No, the file contains only a comment "(** User Mathematica initialization file **)" – B. Naskrecki Dec 12 '19 at 10:20
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    It could be some package or palette that you installed. Have you installed any? I suggest you click the ... button next to the message, choose Show Stack Trace, take a screenshot of that and include it in the question above. – Szabolcs Dec 13 '19 at 08:51
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    Error messages only appear in the Message window and there is no ... symbol next to it. They generate every time I switch notebooks or swipe it. I have not installed any extra packages or palletes. – B. Naskrecki Dec 13 '19 at 21:49
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    What does FileNames["*.*", FileNameJoin[{$UserBaseDirectory, "SystemFiles", "FrontEnd"}], 5] return? – Carl Woll Dec 14 '19 at 00:10
  • It returns this: {"/Users/bartek/Library/Mathematica/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/\ SystemResources/FunctionalFrequency/AutocompletionHistory.m", \ "/Users/bartek/Library/Mathematica/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/\ SystemResources/FunctionalFrequency/CodeAssistHistory10.4.m", \ "/Users/bartek/Library/Mathematica/SystemFiles/FrontEnd/\ SystemResources/FunctionalFrequency/CodeAssistHistory11.2.m"} – B. Naskrecki Dec 14 '19 at 20:44

1 Answers1

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Following the advice of the Wolfram Technical Support I have performed a clean start of Mathematica. All the preferences and history were removed in the process but the problem was solved.

B. Naskrecki
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