Catalina: Finder not refreshing with new items.

I have a similar issue since I updated to Catalina. I see files that I created today in the finder, but when I want to include them in an email (or send through another program) and I open the finder through that program, I only see files from yesterday and older... I cannot find the file you mention, so still figuring out how to deal with it. After a while they seem to appear. Somethimes when I move them to another location.

New MacBook Pro 16 w Catalina - exact same symptom. I first noticed this when using npm to generate javascript node modules. But then also noticed it with items being downloaded into the Downloads folder but not visible in Finder (but visible and with the correct permissions in Terminal).

Force quitting / relaunching Finder corrects the issue for a while. I do not have any lock on a pattern that leads to the loss of visibility. It's only documents created after the issue shows itself; all prior documents remain visible.

I'm still looking for evidence that Apple has acknowledged the issue. Has anyone found that evidence?

Kirk

Same situation here. Finder of OSX Catalina is not refreshing.

Idid:

delete /Users/YourUserNameHere/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist without success.

I ended up relaunching the Finder.

Thank you Apple for your Help

Jumping in to say, "Same!"

I bought a new MacBook Pro, I've had it a week, and this has happened several times. File type and location don't seem to matter. I've had this happen when moving audio files, text, PDF, etc. This morning I downloaded a PDF to a Google Drive folder and I can see the file in "fan" view from the dock but when I open the folder in Finder, the PDF is not there. There just seems to be a big time delay. I haven't tried killing Finder so for me I just wait a few minutes and the file turns up. But that's still a big problem!

(And in the time writing this the file in question still isn't showing up in Finder so I'm not sure how long the "delay" tends to be)

Same issue, downloading files via FTP to Finder doesn't display files.

Using Coda / Transmission / saving from Google Chrome/ pretty much everything....

Force Quitting finder corrects the files not displaying issue:

Mac Book pro 2014

--- Also same issue with external drives as is the issue on the internal drive ---

I get this too. Often when I run a OSX shell command that creates new files in Downloads, they do not appear. I've tried closing finder windows but this doesn't fix the problem.

OSX shell sees them OK when I run

ls -l 

for example.

For me, Finder will not work on the first bootup of the day: there is no initial response when clicking on Dock icons, and when there is things open incredibly slowly (with spinning beachball action). I have to kill/relaunch Finder before things even start to begin working. This problem started after the latest Catalina update (10.15.1), on a 27" late-2014 iMac.

It has not worked fine for me with the previous version since couple of months ago. I used to remove list file it helped from time to time but not always... Today upgraded to Catalina and 30 minutes could not attach a file to a n email... nothing worked. The trick was to move it to Download and then drag and drop from Download icon on the dock bar... it's just frustrating such simple thing like file browser to not working and Shanna you may be right about the forum is for the users only but a simple message from Apple will save our time to go to a store for support.

Same issue here, multiple times a day. Also when trying to delete something from the desktop nothing happens, and forget about ejecting an external drive. Sometimes relaunching finder works, but usually not. The only option seems to be to restart the computer. This only started with Catalina update and is making things very frustrating.

Somehow in my mind I did not consider that Apple would establish the forum for users to help each other without their contribution. Maybe that is indeed the situation. It is useful to understand the breadth of the issue.

Kirk

Restarting with a fresh installation does not help! I had this problem with an old MacBookPro recently updated with Catalina and have the same issue with a bland new top of the range MBP 16 inch out of the box with a fresh install (not from the backup). It's a MacOS issue! Totally unreliable!!!

Same problem within first hour after installing Catalina on Mac Mini 2012. Checking the "Terminal" shows all files correctly. I do a work around to "cp <missing-file-name> ~/Desktop" if I need to get a file with my mouse.

Extremely disappointing by Apple. This defect can be replicated in minutes.

It would seem that I'm not the only one super annoyed with the macOS instability. Especially since this is happening on a large variety of hardware.

Having started my journey on Mountain Lion in 2013, my pride and confidence in Apple started going down hill since the release of Sierra and APFS. I left the other company (too much troubleshoot and not enough time using my system) for Apple but it seems that Apple is now becoming that other company. To add insult to injury, is Apple's denial and lack of transparency regarding the quality of their releases.

My hope and wish is that Apple stops adding more unfinished features on top of an already bug ridden OS's (macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS) and releases these only once they are solid and ready. Emojis are nice and all (how many do I really need?) but not at the price of OS instability.

I have been using finder to sort and clean up some of my older files. As someone stated earlier, they hope that they haven't lost any files. I can confirmed that I did lose file transferring from one external SSD to another. Even Time Machine and the Snapshots weren't any help since the drive was now formatted before discovering the missing files. These were paper documents that I had scanned in order to get rid of the physical versions. Luckily I hadn't deleted my original ScanSnap Home versions or else I would have lost all of these permanently.

I do realize that the Apple ecosystem is much more complex now which it is why the need to slow down and focus on stability. Please let's go back to it just works.

I have seen this issue since Catalina upgrade as well. I agree with others that this is really not good. the File System is the most basic element of this OS. Apple you better get this fixed quick.

For those who are worried about files truly going missing, you can try using unix commands such as ls and ls-al in the appropriate directory in a terminal window. So far this seems to work for me. I can see the files that are missing from the Finder view of the same. Hope that helps.