Finder App not responding and WILL NOT Relaunch itself - Help Please

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Level 1

8 points

Finder App not responding and WILL NOT Relaunch itself - Help Please

Hi,

Suddenly I noticed my document folder disappeared from Finder. No matter what I tried I could not get it to show again. Next my Finder app that was already open disappeared. I can see the icon and when I right click the icon it says "Not Responding' (no reason why). When I click 'Relaunch', although it allows me to relaunch, Nothing happens, the app does not relaunch itself at all. I have tried by right clicking the icon and through the apple sign trying to FORCE QUIT. For Force Quit, it doesn't not offer that option, the only option is Relaunch.

Right now the Finders app is not available to me at all, I cannot search or do anything on Finder. It simply does not open or relaunch, The icon is still there though but nothing happens when it is click, right clicked or otherwise.

The other issue I am having is that I am not able to do any backups using external hardrives, ever since Apple did the latest update in 2019 to Catalina, my external hardrive is not able to conduct any backups - my understanding is that it is because of new Catalina system. I guess most developers of other software have not been able to catch up with the latest Mac update. So unless the backup is within my macbk pro laptop itself, that is not an option for me unless someone knows of another way. If so please share with me.

Can Anyone explain how to get Finders back or access to my documents folder? Can anyone explain why it happened in the first place, did I do something wrong without knowing?

I use a Mac but I am not a technical genius so the most simplist way, or at least if someone can offer me instructions in lawman's terms Please.

Thank you

Posted on May 16, 2020 3:01 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 16, 2020 8:15 PM in response to s214

Do a forced shutdown by pressing and holding down the Power button until the computer shuts down. Wait 30 seconds, then do the following:

Repair the Drive for El Capitan or Later

Restart the computer. Immediately, at or before the chime, hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo and progress bar appear. Wait until the Utility Menu appears.
Select Disk Utility and press the Continue button.
Then select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volume entry from the side list.
Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar and wait for the Done button to activate. Click on it, then quit Disk Utility.
Select Restart from the Apple menu.

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Answer 2

s214 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 17, 2020 8:55 AM in response to Kappy

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU so much for this information. It worked. At first when Finder showed up, the Documents folder was still missing. At the left side (where documents usu is) I saw something named MacBook... I clicked that and followed it all the way down and there was my document folder. I didnt know how to make a copy of it or how to bring it back to the left side. With the documents folder still clicked, I went up to the menu bar at the top and clicked 'File' under that I saw 'Add To Sidebar' I clicked that and it added my documents folder back to the side. I now have my documents folder and finder back to normal. Thank you so much, I sooo appreciate this :D

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Finder App not responding and WILL NOT Relaunch itself - Help Please

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