Finder extremely slow to show newly created files

Question

Finder extremely slow to show newly created files

Mojave 10.14.6

iMac late 2015 5k retina 27 inch

4ghz core i7

32 gb memory

AMD radeon R9 M395 2gb

500GB SSD

I have an issue that seems to keep getting worse and worse as time goes on. When I create or copy/paste files to either the HD (SSD drive) or a NAS, it is taking unacceptable amounts of time for the files to show up in finder. It doesn't matter what file type (word, system [screenshot], illustrator, photoshop etc.) generates the file. The issue is present on the SSD AND on the NAS drive but it does appear to be even worse on NAS directories. Copy/Paste updates appear much faster than if I create/save a brand new file from Illustrator for example, but all new file creation is unacceptably slow to update.

This is a work machine so there is nothing but productivity software on it. MS Office for Mac, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Audition, Indesign, Fusion 360 and a GIS application called QGIS.

The Adobe products always consume massive amounts of memory and cpu cycles, but that's been the case since the machine was brand new. I've cleared temp files and the SSD is currently at around 50% capacity usage. I've run disk health and it reports no issues. The fact that the problem exists in both the internal SSD and the NAS tells me it's not likely a drive failure. I'm not seeing any other real issues with speed even working on extremely complex files in any of the software. It's just the OS updating finder that is my issue.

Any other suggestions on what could be causing this super slow finder update?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Sep 10, 2021 5:59 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

D.I. Johnson

Level 7

22,355 points

Sep 10, 2021 6:24 AM in response to wildbrooktrout

Reboot your Mac and see if the problem is cleared. If rebooting your Mac doesn’t fix things, see if the problem still happens in Safe mode (hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support

Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's normal.

Does the problem persist while in Safe mode?

Exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally and re-evaluate the issue again.

If the problem is still unresolved, please return here and post a reply and we’ll see what else we can come up with for help.

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Answer 2

Sep 10, 2021 6:45 AM in response to wildbrooktrout

Sounds like a possible drive issue.

Be sure your backups are current and up to date.

In addition to giving safe boot a try, consider starting up from the built-in macOS Recovery system – press Command (⌘)-R at startup – and run Disk Utility's First Aid routine on the startup drive. See if that returns any indications of trouble.

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Answer 3

Sep 10, 2021 6:25 AM in response to wildbrooktrout

I wanted to add a few more issues that I think are related. If I duplicate a folder, it seems to take longer to finish copying the folder. Sometimes when I duplicate a folder and rename it, the renamed folder reverts back to the copied folder default name and then the finder window reorganizes the folders based on the old name and then it reverts back to the renamed name and the window reorganizes again.

To me it seems like there's some lag between what you do in finder and then what the system actually does. Like a cache or paging issue?

Also, the issue of new files not showing up seems to be compounded depending on how many applications are involved in viewing the files. i.e., create a file in illustrator, save it, open outlook, create new email, attach and browse for the file. Sometimes it wont show up at all in outlook. Then I open a new finder window and browse to that location and the file doesn't show up for a while, then it pops up. Then I go back to outlook and try to reattach and it might not show up immediately but will after a while.

Sometimes this whole process takes minutes which is a major productivity killer.

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Answer 4

Sep 10, 2021 7:42 AM in response to wildbrooktrout

FWIW some Terminal file manipulations with exiftool always create files that are revealed in Finder only after some other file is moved to the Trash from that folder via the Finder. I have just tolerated that issue.

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Answer 5

Sep 10, 2021 7:57 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Just tested in safemode and the issue wasn't present. Then rebooted into recovery and ran first aid on the boot drive and main drive. No issues on either. Rebooted again and tested and the problem seems to be gone. So it was a cache file that got wiped? Thanks for the help!!!!

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Answer 6

Sep 10, 2021 6:28 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

I'll try safe mode later during lunch.

I can say that rebooting has had no effect. This has been going on for a while, but as I said, it seems to be getting worse.

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Finder extremely slow to show newly created files

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