judahman

Q: Finder screwy except in safe mode

Yesterday my finder started acting screwy. New windows would not display folders and files properly, regardless of mode, and I could not navigate through the files or sidebars in windows. The search function yielded blank windows. The desktop became inaccessible next, followed shortly by the dock.

 

Regained some control last night though a command-opt restart, but the finder still do not operate normally. Today I did a cold start in safe mode (shift key), which allows basic finder functionality, too minimal. I need a real fix. The fact the finder works in safe mode, logically, suggests that this is a software conflict rather than a hardware issue. I dunno.

 

The disruption surfaced, by the way, when I was customizing the toolbar, moving the search bar farther to the left, so it's visible in small windows. That may or may not be causal. I just know my finder's ability to find things is fouled up.

 

Has anyone run into this problem before on Mavericks? I'm running 10.9.5. All wisdom welcome here.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15 inch

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 2:19 PM

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Q: Finder screwy except in safe mode

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Aug 20, 2016 2:35 PM in response to judahman
    Level 10 (270,831 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 20, 2016 2:35 PM in response to judahman

    You might try deleting the /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file and the /Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.finder folder. Then relaunch the Finder by pressing the COMMAND-OPTION-ESC keys to open the task manager. Select the Finder and click on the Relaunch button.

    If your /Home/Library/ folder is not visible, then see the following:

    Three Ways to Make the Home/Library Folder Visible

     

    A. This method will make the folder visible permanently. Open the Terminal application in the Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:

     

         chflags nohidden ~/Library

     

    Press RETURN.

     

    B. Click on the Desktop, press the Option (⌥) key, select Library from the Finder's Go menu.

    C. Select Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Paste the following in the path field:

     

         ~/Library

     

    Click on the Go button.

  • by ktshastsa,

    ktshastsa ktshastsa Aug 20, 2016 3:18 PM in response to judahman
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 20, 2016 3:18 PM in response to judahman

    My husband and I had similar issues and found the culprit was our Google Drive's.  If you have access to a GD, you might try unchecking the "Show file sync status icons and right click menu" in the GD preferences, rebooting and see if that solves your problem.  It sure worked for us!

     

    Good luck!

     

    kt

  • by carramar30,

    carramar30 carramar30 Aug 20, 2016 6:29 PM in response to judahman
    Level 1 (88 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 20, 2016 6:29 PM in response to judahman

    If you run Google Drive, this is an old bug that has reappeared ...

     

    Information about the preference work around here ... reboot after unsetting the preference and all should be good.

     

    https://www.maketecheasier.com/fix-google-drive-crashing-finder-in-mavericks/

     

    Chris.