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Couchcowboy

Q: Wonky finder

I am having considerable problems with my Mac and most seem to center around the finder. I have posted about problems ejecting external hard drives and disk images (such as used by installers and encrypted sparseimages) at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11149647&#11149647. I have had the following problems:

1) unable to drag select a group of files. the "gray box" hangs momentarily, I can count to about five and it will then disappear, allowing me to redraw and select the files/folders.

2) unable to eject drives/discs without the "unable to eject" warning as mentioned; I could eject the drives after relaunching finder

3) Finder seems to become increasingly slow after a restart. There are sometimes seconds of delay before opening folders or Spotlight starting to work. It's better after restarting.

4) I've noticed files moved to a different location than where I know I left them when I reopen a folder. It seems to be files that I've renamed.

5) When trying to trash files from an external drive, got the "error 1407" every time trashing was attempted. This was gone after ejecting and rebooting the drives (which required relaunching Finder in order to be able to eject the drives due to the "unable to eject" warning!)

6) icons for files have disappeared during dragging or after first opening folders. They reappear after scrolling off them and then going back to them.

7) icons are pixelated (see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11192854#11192854)

These are the main problems that I can recall right now. I have trashed Finder prefs, trashed caches, ran maintenance scripts which helped but didn't eliminate the glitches. I usually leave TextExpander, Tags, Scansnap Manager, YouControlFonts, DejaMenu, iClip, Mail, and Safari running pretty routinely. I'm starting to turn these off one at a time to see if that makes a difference. I've kept my software updates up to date (except iClip, which is no longer updated; guess I'll have to delete; major bummer). I have a 1Tb drive that's a a little less that half full.

Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated!

CouchCowboy

iMac 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 8, 2010 8:17 AM

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Q: Wonky finder

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  • by CT,

    CT CT Mar 8, 2010 8:25 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 6 (17,882 points)
    Notebooks
    Mar 8, 2010 8:25 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    One routine thing to check/rule out is disk directory damage. Have you run Disk Utility and verified your disk? ("Verify Disk" button on the right hand side of the Disk Utility window.)

    charlie
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Mar 14, 2010 2:43 PM in response to CT
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 14, 2010 2:43 PM in response to CT
    Yes. Disk checks out fine, both with Disk Utility and Onyx. Thanks, though, for the suggestion!
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Mar 14, 2010 2:53 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 14, 2010 2:53 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    I also wanted to note that Safari seems to become progressively more and more sluggish after a few days of moderate use. The beach ball begins spinning, apps begin switching out more slowly when changing windows, selecting and dragging sometimes takes a few moments before it will complete. I also failed to note a couple of other add ons that I run on my computer most of the time. They include iClock in my menu bar and VideoBox and CosmoPod in Safari.
  • by baltwo,

    baltwo baltwo Mar 14, 2010 2:58 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 9 (62,256 points)
    Mar 14, 2010 2:58 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Dump the Safari add-ons, download and install the 10.6.2 COMBO update, repair permissions, and restart.
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Mar 28, 2010 3:31 PM in response to baltwo
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 28, 2010 3:31 PM in response to baltwo
    Thanks for the suggestion. Have actually updated recently and am using 10.6.2. Have repaired permissions several times. Safari seems a little better. Finder begins to act peculiar after three to four days of use. Things like not allowing files to be selected, moved, or renamed without significant delay, icons appearing after delays and/or becoming indistinct, and little things that just "don't seem right." I used to leave my computer on for three or four weeks or even more, but now have to restart every two or three days. I've also found that re-launching finder helps for a while. Bizarre. I've wondered at time if some hack has powned my computer.
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Apr 16, 2010 9:28 AM in response to baltwo
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 16, 2010 9:28 AM in response to baltwo
    Thanks for the links! I'll check them out. Plan to update to 10.6.3 soon, which may help. Sometimes I don't mind restarting every few days, but sometimes I have things going on on my computer and don't want to shut down/restart. Sometimes it forces me to whether I want to or not.

    Thanks!
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Jul 8, 2010 2:51 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 8, 2010 2:51 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    I have done some of the above suggestions and although they all seem to make things better for a short time, it's back to similar hi-jinks after a day or two. I have updated to the latest OS, repaired permissions, dumped all caches, and done every maintenance thing I know how to do and yet the finder will become less and less responsive. For instance, I can count to three sometimes before items will become highlighted after attempting to select several at once, some icons become "fuzzy", files or folders are moved (seems to be files that I have re-named; they sometimes get moved waaaaay down in their folder, creating a very large window), etc. None of this happens all the time, but just increasingly often. Deleting the caches seemed like it was going to correct the problem, but then it came right back. Is this something that re-setting the NVRAM could help? Any help would be appreciated. I fear I'll have to re-install my OS and all my software.

    One thing that did correct my problem with Safari was deleting the VideoBox plugin. Safari seems to work OK now, although Flash causes it to crash sometimes. A new issue that now occurs in Safari is a bit bizarre. I use TextExpander a lot to address urls and after a period of use, usually very short, TE will add the first letter of whatever abbreviation I've used to the expansion! For instance, I commonly use ht to expand to http:// and if I put that in Safari, it inserts hhttp://. Does it in all users. Haven't tried it in other browsers, yet. TE works fine in every other type of text entry software. As I said... bizarre.
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Jul 26, 2010 2:04 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 26, 2010 2:04 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    No other ideas out there? Have noted another peculiarity. When I have an attachment visible in an open email in Mail, if I click on "reply", the attachment immediately becomes blurry. I can click off the email, then click back on the same and the attachment once again becomes clear. Click "reply" and it becomes blurry. Is preview involved in viewing attachments in line in Mail?

    Finder continues to move items about in folders, usually the last renamed file. Sometime it changes files I have sorted into groups into alphabetical order. It does this both on folders in my primary computer and also folders in external drives. There's still delays in selecting, moving, and renaming files. Not impossible to work around, but quite annoying and certainly not "snappy" like I would expect. I do have a thousand or more folders or files in other folders on the computer. w\Would that make a difference?
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Jul 26, 2010 2:06 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 26, 2010 2:06 PM in response to Couchcowboy
    Sorry 'bout the "w/Would". I'm typing on a Windows machine at work and it won't display all of my message while I'm typing, so part of it is typed "blind".
  • by Couchcowboy,

    Couchcowboy Couchcowboy Aug 12, 2010 7:41 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    Level 1 (36 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 12, 2010 7:41 AM in response to Couchcowboy
    No comments? New weirdness in that email attachments don't always clear up after de-selecting given email, then re-selecting. Also, my iMac will no longer connect to the internet upon first starting or awakening. Waiting about five minutes will then allow you to connect. Checking Network System prefs reveal "Ethernet not connected" during that down time, then it suddenly connects. The modem shows "green," all systems go except no "pc activity" until it for some reason re-connects. Looks like I'm headed for a complete re-install of the OS. Would be willing to go to all that hassle if I knew it would fix all this very, very annoying behavior. I'm very frustrated with Snow Leopard at this point.

    Message was edited by: Couchcowboy