The application Finder.app can't be opened.

I saw this issue for the first time today.

I had connected to my laptop, from my Mac Pro, over my LAN. There was an external HD connected to the laptop via an eSATA cable, and I started copying files from that drive to a folder on the Mac Pro. In the middle of a copy operation, and while browsing other folders on the external HD, the Finder locked up with the SRoD (Spinning Rainbow of Death). A few minutes later, the laptop reported that the external HD had been "improperly ejected" (or some such wording), and the Mac Pro displayed the "server has stopped responding" dialog. My mistake was that I clicked "ignore" in that dialog, because I had already reconnected the external HD to the laptop. Well, the Finder continued to be hung, so I Force Quit (Relaunched) it. Problem was, it didn't Relaunch. So when I clicked on the inactive Finder icon in the Dock, I got the "...can't be opened. -10810" error.

So, I started searching on that error, and found this thread....

The next thing I did was to disconnect the external HD from the laptop. Within a few minutes, the Finder on the Mac Pro sprang back to life, and all has been fine ever since. This all happened about 12 hours ago.

So, my guess is that (in my case anyway) the Finder couldn't relaunch until the process that had locked up when the external HD disappeared from the network could gracefully quit. For some reason, that couldn't happen until the external HD was removed from the equation altogether.

I realize this may not seem like it relates at all to what some of you are experiencing, but I would make sure you explore the possibility that it might be linked to some device in your setup, networked or not, that has a less than stable connection to your computer...

Good luck everyone, and I'll report back if the dreaded message returns.

This is similiar to my experience: I was using my MacPro and copied from an SMB-share to an external drive connected via eSata. Disconnecting the drive and restarting the MacPro helped me on one or two occasion, but then there where also kernel panics. Since then I don't use SMB-shares and did not have any further problems, with or without my external drives. Of course this is no real solution, when you rely for your work on SMB-shares.

Why is apple ignoring this issue?

I am having a nearly exact experience, only in my case Finder locks as soon as I open the USB drive from the desktop. A Finder window appears, but the contents of the USB drive are not able to load and I get a "beach ball."

Trying to relaunch Finder simply closes it, and clicking the icon in the dock gives me the -10810 error. The only solution is to use the power button on my Macbook Pro to shut down the system, then boot again. Afterward, the USB drive is accessible.

I can't figure out what happens between that first boot and the later Finder crash. Apparently this might have something to do with Spotlight? I never use Spotlight, and I don't have Time Machine activated.
Curiously, I attempted to look at the Spotlight preferences after a Finder crash (but before a shutdown/reboot), and clicking the Spotlight icon in System Preferences caused System Preferences to also beach ball.

grumblybear's experience implies that the USB drive is the cause of the problem for him. It likely has fallen prey to some level of disk failure, and thus locks up the Finder when it tries to load.

So again, it sounds like the issue is directly linked to some degree of inability to connect to a device. In my experience, once you take the device out of play, the problem goes away....

The more anecdotal information I read about this problem, the more and more it sounds like the USB/Firewire/wireless drive involved is cutting out briefly (maybe due to a power dip or network blip) and making Finder unhappy. If the device is subsequently power-cycled, it fixes the problem for physically attached storage. I've also had success by hard-killing Samba in cases where it was an Airdisk that failed, although that doesn't always work.

In any case, the failure is widespread and appears to happen for a variety of reasons that all hinge around temporary disconnects or rapid disconnect/reconnect cycles.

except when the device causing the issue in your internal optical drive - as in my case with my Macbook - should a cd/dvd fail in reading/copying the Finder is done for..

Ben Steeves wrote:
If the device is subsequently power-cycled, it fixes the problem for physically attached storage.

In the case of a USB flash drive, what exactly do you mean by "power-cycling"? Physically disconnecting and reconnecting the device?

I'll keep this in mind for next time it happens. Maybe it will prevent me from having to do a hard restart.

Fizwidget wrote:

what exactly do you mean by "power-cycling"? Physically disconnecting and reconnecting the device?


Yes, that would qualify. Whether it will "solve" the problem is still up for debate and it may have a negative effect on the drive's filesystem, however. Proceed at your own risk!

Well, add me to the list too.

I definitely think it has something to do with external hard drives as this only started happening yesterday, and I just built a new drive and connected it through a Sonnet Tempo SATA card. The drive is a Mediasonic Dual Bay RAID. I have an identical drive case (with smaller drives in it) and it has functioned flawless for months, right through the upgrade to SL. No idea why the new drives (in the same model and reivison of case) have provoked these problems and I haven't had to time to thoroughly test things without them plugged in. I'll play around a bit more and report back.

Oh, I wanted to mentioned that I also upgraded the software on my Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P card yesterday.

I don't think the card is the issue as it has worked fine with SL for weeks...

Hey folks, I think I may have licked this problem by re-installing Snow Leopard. I didn't do a clean install, i just basically installed it over the existing version with the install DVD and then downloaded the updates.

I haven't fully tested everything, but it seems to be all back to normal...

I'll report back if anything changes...

If you look further back in this thread, I am afraid you will find many of us have already tried a reinstall without success. A few have had success, which must make the problem more difficult to solve as it may well be some complicated software/OS/hardware interaction that is causing this.

Wilson

just bought the new imac and getting the same error. It seems like every app I open, it freezes and I get the same message. Looks like a big issue and not limited to what we are doing.

Just bought a new imac....was that with Snow Leopard installed from factory or did you do the install yourself? or was it done at the store as an upgrade when you purchased it?

factory installed..It started almost immediately. I had to unplug my lacie drive to start it at one point. It seems to be an issue with the external drives. I think it started before I started installing software actually.