Catalina: Finder not refreshing with new items.

Question

Catalina: Finder not refreshing with new items.

So, I've seen this happen a few times now. Items saved from (primarily) Adobe products to locations on the disk, such as the Desktop or Documents folder, among others, do not appear as icons or in the finder windows until I relaunch the Finder (I'm using "killall Finder" in Terminal). They do show up in the Adobe file save/open dialogue boxes, though.

I'm not certain this is an Adobe-related issue, but those are the pieces of software I've been using.

I don't have a terribly congested desktop or file system, but it does interface with a couple network shares. I saw a Mojave-related thread from a little while back which suggested deleting the com.apple.finder PLIST, but that file's not present in any of my libraries.

Any help would be appreciated... Although periodically killing the Finder is somewhat satisfying, not knowing that it should be done until I notice a problem is, well, unsettling!

Other info: iMac 5K, 2017. 64GB RAM, various peripherals (2 external hard drives, network shares, OWC thunderbolt 3 dock, Dell secondary display using TB3/DisplayPort adapter).

Thanks! :D

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Oct 10, 2019 12:39 PM

Reply

Answer 1

WKirkR

Level 1

4 points

Dec 10, 2019 4:11 PM in response to Sambarbadonat

After installing the newly released 10.15.2, the problem may have been fixed. I can run npm install and generate large numbers of folders and files and Finder displays them now where it did not before.

Curious if others are observing the same result after the 10.15.2 update.

Kirk

Reply

Answer 2

Dec 14, 2019 6:45 AM in response to DanThe

It is pointless and futile to wait for an update to solve issues that are local. These issues are either caused by a corrupted file (such as corrupted Finder preferences or a bad cache), or by a software conflict (such as an incompatible system extension).

Think about it: if it were a bug, and millions of users had it, there would be much more than a thread like this. The outcry would have reach the news.

Did you try:

-restart in Safe Mode to clear caches

-delete Finder preferences?

-uninstall any antivirus that you may be using?

Reply

Answer 3

Dec 24, 2019 8:30 AM in response to vortander

Did you try deleting Finder preferences? This has worked for some people.

Press Command-shift-G, type

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Finder.plist

drag the file to the trash and force relaunch the Finder (command-option-escape, select Finder, click Relaunch).

Reply

Answer 4

Jan 21, 2020 5:11 PM in response to Sambarbadonat

Happened to me today, as said before, clearly a bug. But there is a workaround:

Delete file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Relaunch Finder by command+alt+esc to open "Force Quit" window, click on Finder and click on Relaunch

Reply

Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Dec 9, 2019 12:48 PM in response to Sambarbadonat

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isoloate issues with your Mac) and tests to see if the problem persists there. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing.

Reply

Answer 6

Mirche

Level 1

8 points

Jan 10, 2020 4:25 PM in response to AppleZinga

Looks like this problem is only if folder is on your data system partition. If you move working folders to HD/Users/UserName finder refresh works fine. Finder refresh also works fine on any external drive. So putting any working folder inside Users folder solves the problem (at least for me).

MacMini 2018

Reply

Answer 7

Mirche

Level 1

8 points

Jan 11, 2020 10:28 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

It is a bug. 134 people confirm it here. Put a folder on root data HD and save something on it. Finder will not show it. You'll need to go backward and forward so finder show it. If you do same thing, but on folder under Users/UserName/ or other drive it will show instantly. Apple made mess with new system partitioning and didn't put any effort to solve issues.

Reply

Answer 8

Jan 28, 2020 4:27 AM in response to Sambarbadonat

Just for your knowledge. I have not experienced this weird behaviour for the last weeks.

I realized at the begining that the icon of Keyboard Maestro on the status bar was active all the time. There are a few scripts there, basically to disconnect/reconnect drives before/after shutdown or standby.

My first try it was to disable the scripts. No success.

My second try it was to disable entirely KEYBOARD MAESTRO. No problems since then!

Next try would be to delete entirely KM and reinstall, but I can survive without KM for now.

Maybe there is another reason that I can not identify, but if I am not wrong KM was the cause in may case.

I will inform if the problem appears again, but my system is running fine for the last 15 days aprox.

Best regards

Reply

Answer 9

Oct 10, 2019 1:55 PM in response to Sambarbadonat

I did find com.apple.finder.plist, and deleted it. If this fixes the issue I'll post back. It was located in:

HardDriveName/Users/YourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Thanks. :D

Reply

Answer 10

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Dec 16, 2019 9:49 AM in response to LukasM85

Boot into Safe Mode (Use Safe Mode to isoloate issues with your Mac) and set the save location of screenshot there. Then test. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing.

Also use the cleaning feature of Etrecheck to remove those orphaned files under the Cleanup section.

Reply

Answer 11

Dec 19, 2019 2:46 PM in response to Sambarbadonat

10.15.2 might have solved it for me... but my workload dropped considerably in the past few weeks, so there've been fewer opportunities for the OS to stall out.

I haven't had any noticeable problems since going through and deleting a couple 32-bit apps which were still in the applications folder, and making sure to go through and delete any resources those 32-bit apps might have used in the past from the Library.

I got curious about all the EtreCheck talk, so I ran an EtreCheck report myself, to see if it was possible to identify anything which stood out.

The only really standout thing is there are still some 32-bit apps in the system, disabled by Catalina, and these are mostly in Adobe products which seem to be trying to hide lazy programming by inserting the 32-bit app in a 64-bit shell. I deleted all the orphans and a few pieces of software which are no longer in use and ran another check. Some of the Adobe apps are there to interface with a 32-/64-bit system, so I'm betting that deleting them all would cause issues.

I'll probably go ahead and uninstall all Adobe files again, walk through the file system and delete anything which stands out as 32-bit, and then reinstall and see what happens.

I'm wondering if a clean install would have prevented this issue. This particular machine was updated from High Sierra to Mojave and then to Catalina, so it had some holdover files in the system which can be crufty.

Attached the report for any curious folks:

etrecheque report

Reply

Answer 12

Jan 11, 2020 8:32 AM in response to Carlosbcn

You are assuming it is a bug.

Since most users do NOT see this problem, it is far more likely to be caused by an interaction with something that is installed on your system.

You can run Etrecheck and post its report and maybe we can spot something.

Reply

Answer 13

Feb 3, 2020 12:52 PM in response to delihums

Does it happen in Safe Mode also?

Try deleting Finder preferences and relaunch the Finder.

Reply

Answer 14

Dec 16, 2019 5:32 AM in response to LukasM85

Did you notice this:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.abbott.launcher.plist

Executable: /Applications/FreeStyle Libre/.adc_launcher.app/Contents/MacOS/adc_launcher

Details: Executable file is hidden - possibly adware

Are you familiar with such an application "FreeStyle Libre"? This looks suspicious, just as the report says. A hidden executable file...

Reply

Answer 15

Old Toad

Level 10

215,346 points

Jan 12, 2020 9:29 AM in response to SheekTech

Have you tried relaunching the Finder via the  ➙ Force Quit menu? It's quicker than rebooting. I sometimes can't see a new file on the Desktop so I open a new Finder window and go to the Desktop that way. One I can see the file closing that Finder window and going back to the Desktop brings it up.

Reply

Catalina: Finder not refreshing with new items.

Similar questions