Right clicking causing spinning beach ball

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Right clicking causing spinning beach ball

I am having trouble with accessing contextual menus via right clicking in several applications. I use Pathfinder and every time I right click on a file/folder the program hangs and need to force quit. I searched their forums/support site and saw several complaints about this since Snow Leopard. So I thought it was a PathFinder problem.
Now I noticed it happens also in Excel 2004, Evernote, iTunes 9.0.2.
I have not tested all my apps but it doesn't happen in Mail, Safari, Finder, Address Book, 1Password, etc.
In searching forums, etc. I have found complaints about many of these individual applications without any consistent resolution.

This seems like a bigger issue than an individual application.

I am running SL 10.6.2 and Mac Pro quad core Xeon

Any help, thanks.
Jim

Mac Pro quad core Xeon, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Nov 17, 2009 8:14 AM

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Answer 1

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Nov 17, 2009 8:25 AM in response to stack309

It may be LaunchServices. These are only cache files but can get corrupted.
Launch /Utilities/Terminal and copy & paste this at the command line to rebuild LaunchServices:

Code:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

</pre>

Then press return. Wait until terminal returns to the command line. Quit Terminal. After that, log out and back in or restart. Let us know

EDIT: If it persists, take a look in your ~/Contextual Items folder and drag themto the desktop and test again. If it then functions properly put them one by one to find the troublemaker.

-mj

Message was edited by: macjack

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Answer 2

stack309 Author

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Nov 17, 2009 9:10 AM in response to macjack

Thanks a lot for the quick reply. This helped me isolate the problem. It appears that Pathfinder has a problem.

After I followed you suggestion I tried each of the applications that I was having problems with. First I tried Pathfinder because I have that starting at Login. I still got the spinning beach ball. I forced quit. Then tried iTunes - worked fine. Then I tried Excel - worked fine. Then I tried Evernote - worked fine. Tried Pathfinder again - spinning beach ball. This time I just left it and didn't force quit. I tried iTunes and Evernote - worked fine. Tried Excel - spinning beach ball.

So I rebuilt LaunchServices again and this time tried Pathfinder last. All other applications worked fine until I tried right clicking in Pathfinder then I started having right clicking problems in some other applications.

I am going to share this with the Pathfinder folks. Like I said I did see some complaints of this problems there. I didn't understand that it could cause me problems in the other apps.

btw - after rebuilding the LaunchServices as you suggested I also noticed that my login time was DRAMATICALLY reduced. I load about 10 apps at login and they all loaded very fast now. So that rebuild really helped with that also.

also - I use Onyx about once a month and run many of the recommended scripts. I noticed that they offer an option to rebuild LaunchServices. Do you know if this is the same thing as the command you recommended?

Thanks so much for your help.
Jim

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Nov 17, 2009 10:00 AM in response to stack309

I'm glad you isolated your problem to PathFinder.

Yes, that option would be the same as the command I gave you for LaunchServices. I know that Onyx generally works well, but IMO gives folks a tendency to be way too zealous in their "cleaning". If it's not broke don't fix it. That means there's really no need for OnyX unless you run into a problem it can repair.

I've kept Onyx in my Utilities folder for years and never remember using it, other than to open it to see what folks who used were referring to in the interface.

-mj

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