"Places" links in Finder Sidebar have corrupted, can't open, can't remove

Welcome to the discussion forums That Mustache Guy -

I would first suggest booting from Install DVD and running DiskUtilities from the drop down menu>utilities repair disk and repair permissions reboot as normal. We will know more and can go from there if your problem persist.

I am having the same problem. I was using a MacBook Pro (10.6.4) and my new iMac arrived yesterday. I transfered everything over using boot-with-T-held-down thingy, and downloaded all the software updates. So the iMac is on 10.6.5 and the MacBook Pro on 10.6.4. Now on the iMac some "PLACES" in the Finder sidebar do not respond to a mouse click. The folders are there - I can navigate to them with Finder - it is just that I cannot go straight to them in the PLACES list. Some places are ok, others not. It all still works fine back on the MacBook Pro, which has exactly the same file system structure because they are just copies of each other. The only difference is the iMac is on 10.6.5.

A bit more information. On the iMac, using a file chooser, for example when I "save as" in an application, the places that I cannot click in the Finder sidebar do appear the places list in the chooser but when I click on them I get a generic folder icon, the folder name and a "calculating size" message. When I click on the 'More info...' button I get a message saying "The operation can’t be completed because the item can’t be found". I can navigate to the folder within the chooser though so it is there. Also on a Terminal I can navigate to the folder on the command line.

Curiously, I have also now upgraded my MacBook Pro to 10.6.5 and the issue is not occurring there.

You can try Relaunch the Finder. Apple ()>Sys Pref>Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch

and see if this is all it wants to be happy.

Correction:

You can try Relaunch the Finder.

Apple ()> --Sys Pref-- >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch

Relaunched. Still got the problem.

Hi there!

My friend is experiencing the same problem! She deleted the folder what had a shortcut in the "Places" sidebar, but after emptying the trash the icon in the sidebar became inactive and it is unable to click on it and drag out from places.

Any suggestions?

Thank You for the help!

Laszlo

Have got the issue after the upgrade to 10.6.5 on my 13".
Links in the sidebar where referencing local as well as mobile me places.
I can create new links, which work.
When I try to save a document to a 'locked' link, the save to location jumps from the selected locked link to the functional one I just recreated.

Gents,

I found a workaround to remove the locked links from the sidebar.

You can't right click on them, but if you select them, you can drag them into the waste bin on your dock.

I re-created my links. Rebooted and locked my MAC a few times, and I still can use the recreated links.

Problem solved for me 😉

Cheers.

Yes, that worked for me. Although I cannot 'select' and item in the Places list I can still drag it out of the list and therefore remove it from the list. When I put the folder back into the list it works just fine. No reboot etc needed. Just drag the non-working links off the list and re-create them.

Regards,
Roger.

Hi, I have the same problem. It works when you replace the "places" icons in the sidebar with the originals, but upon restart all the places folders in the sidebar that aren't working are locked up again and the sidebar has reverted to its original non working status.

I've a similar problem and so far none of the fixes have worked.
Problem: Places new folder location appeared as part of an iso disk burn under disk utility in 10.6.6 . Now can't click-on/choose it to dump it. All other places dutifully respond normally
System sudo find shows the "folder" isn't on the system
Tried-
Finder restart.
System reboot.
Tossed the finder plist from user's preferences and had it rebuild on restart.
Booted from install DVD and ran disk utility permission and disk repair ( two passes.)

Problem only on single user. other users on system no phantom Place

Short of a complete system reinstall Any ideas guys?

JD

I forgot to mention that I had also tossed the sidebar.plist and did finder relaunch and restarts that hadn't worked .

After repeating the finder and sidebar plist removals It did work on a system reboot while Zapping the PRAM . I hadn't thought of that as it had not been useful for the last couple of years.

This time that combination seemed to work as the phanton Place is now gone.

JD

Wow! Thanks for your last post John. I wouldn't have thought that zapping the PRAM would have had any affect either. I had edited the sidebar plist manually, then I tried tossing the finder and sidebar plists all together without any affect. However, doing that plus the PRAM reset on restarting finally did the trick.