Gordon Au

Q: file renaming bug

Hi all: This is a strange bug that has been recurring on my MacBook Pro 15" running Yosemite 10.10.5. These things happen together:

 

1) Dragging and dropping INTO Finder windows stops working

2) When clicking to rename files or folders, the highlighted name and cursor appear in the wrong place! (See picture.)

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-10 at 8.43.45 PM.png

 

It's as if whatever tracks the position of Finder windows always has the wrong coordinates. These things don't fix the problem:

 

1) Relaunching Finder

2) Deleting Library Finder preferences

3) Entering and exiting Sleep

 

Restarting DOES solve the problem, but it's a pain to do every time when it recurs. Any advice/ideas are much appreciated—thank you!

PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67/1.5 GHz), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 10, 2016 5:57 PM

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Q: file renaming bug

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  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Aug 10, 2016 6:08 PM in response to Gordon Au
    Level 9 (55,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 10, 2016 6:08 PM in response to Gordon Au

    Hi Gordon, log into your Guest account create a few folders and test the same operation. Does it work in the other account?

  • by Gordon Au,

    Gordon Au Gordon Au Aug 10, 2016 8:47 PM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 10, 2016 8:47 PM in response to macjack

    Hi Macjack,

    Thank you. The guest account works normally. Also I discovered logging out and back in worked the same as restarting as far as fixing the problem. But it would be nice not to have to do that.

     

    Also, updates—the bug also affects:

    - Text entry boxes like the Firefox’s address bar

    - Resizing windows is also messed up: they randomly jumping position when trying to resize!

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Aug 11, 2016 6:32 AM in response to Gordon Au
    Level 9 (55,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 11, 2016 6:32 AM in response to Gordon Au

    Yes, testing in a different user account isn't supposed to solve the problem, just to find out whether it is isolated to your user or system-wide. There are different approaches to troubleshooting, depending on which it is. Yours seems to be isolated to your user account. This is a process of elimination.

     

    First go to System Preferences > Users & Groups Login Items remove all of them using the - sign button (don't just hide them) You can always put them back later with the + button. Log out and in and test.

     

    Next, go to ~/Library/Launch Agents and move all of them to your desktop, then go to /Library/Launch Agents and do the same. Also check in ~/Library/Launch Daemons  and in /Library/Launch Daemons and move all to your Desktop. Then go to /Startup Items and remove any Startup Items to your Desktop. Now, restart and test.

     

    *(If your user Library (~/Library) is hidden, you can unhide it by going to your Finder "Go" menu and holding the option key.)

     

    Let us know.

  • by Gordon Au,

    Gordon Au Gordon Au Aug 11, 2016 8:32 AM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 11, 2016 8:32 AM in response to macjack

    OK, the bug reappeared in less than 24 hours, so I did these things. There were no removable users (just admin and guest); moved those /Library files; ~/Library folders did not exist; /Startup folder was empty. Have restarted and will wait and see if it reappears! Thank you.

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Aug 11, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Gordon Au
    Level 9 (55,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 11, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Gordon Au

    Gordon Au wrote:

     

    There were no removable users (just admin and guest); moved those /Library files; ~/Library folders did not exist;

    I didn't suggest removing any users, like the Login Items in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items. Sorry, the Home Library (~/Library) contains the LaunchAgents folder, that was my mistake.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 11, 2016 10:00 AM in response to Gordon Au
    Level 9 (70,011 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 11, 2016 10:00 AM in response to Gordon Au

    Try running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.
      

    Etrecheck – System Information

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack Aug 11, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 9 (55,682 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 11, 2016 10:07 AM in response to Eric Root

    Yeah Eric, good suggestion. That would've been too easy. Once started down the road of isolating the problem my old "training just kicked in

  • by garee76,

    garee76 garee76 Aug 31, 2016 9:29 AM in response to Gordon Au
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 31, 2016 9:29 AM in response to Gordon Au

    Hi Gordon

    I had exactly the same problem! I disabled some startup items and now the bug didn't reappear for at least one week! Do you use f.lux? I'm not entirely sure, but f.lux is among the disabled items and it's the only application I disabled that has a system wide effect.