finder windows

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finder windows

I have a 2011 macpro and am stuck on High sierra - In the top finder menu the 6th item is “windows”. When I click it I see 27 items listed. But when rebooted only 18 came back. Can I do something to make it so all 27 will come back after rebooting?

Or to put it another way, I had 27 finder windows open. When I rebooted only 18 came back. I then closed 12 of the windows leaving 15 finder windows open. I rebooted and only 10 came back on reboot. It seems that the system only open certain folders and ignores the others. Is there any way to change that so the exact folders that I want to reopen will reopen?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 7, 2022 7:24 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 7, 2022 7:34 AM in response to bloke99

Start with this...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 8, 2022 10:43 AM in response to bloke99

This worries me...

Free RAM: 47 MB
Used RAM: 10.93 GB

But, Delete these files & restart...

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.brother.LOGINserver.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.bomgar.bomgar-scc-pinned-login-5E0F80CD.plist

~ tilde indicates your home folder

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Method 1:

1 From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.

2 In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.

I'd also seek & destroy any symantec files

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 7, 2022 2:51 PM in response to bloke99

We need more info...

You can save us asking dozens of questions by submitting a report from this App for us to look at…

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

The important part of the above is...

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 13, 2022 1:49 PM in response to bloke99

OK, that's not the problem. EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

The important part of the above is...

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 18, 2022 1:05 PM in response to bloke99

That is the mystery we're trying to figure out, not many clues to go on!?

Boot from the external &....

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

The important part of the above is...

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 6

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 7, 2022 8:34 AM in response to bloke99

Oh dear. I spoke too soon. When I rebooted a second time several of the windows did not open again. So I reopened them and then did your whole procedure again. First, I did another safe boot and that did work again and restored all of the desired finder windows. But this time after that when I did a regular reboot some of the finder window did not reopen like they did with safe boot. It is odd that the first time I did your procedure it worked for both safe boot and regular boot. But the second time it did not.

As I really cannot work in safe boot, is there anything else I can do to find out why the regular reboot is now not working?

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Answer 7

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 8, 2022 6:30 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I did all that you said and even got rid of all symantec files. When I rebooted in safe mode I got all 22 finder windows. But when I then rebooted in regular mode I only got 18. The ones I really wanted were closed again. Any other suggestions on how to solve this problem? Thanks.

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Answer 8

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 9, 2022 9:04 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Yes I had emptied the trash prior to taking the actions you suggested. There is now 34.22 GB (394 MB purgeable) available. I think that should be sufficient. Let me know if you disagree. Any more suggestions? Would it help to have another updated EtreCheck report?

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Answer 9

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 10, 2022 7:58 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

This is the DriveDX report:

I could not see anything as a problem. Do you see something?

By the way, the drive did crash, so I did replace it with a new drive last year. Just in case, I bought an ssd drive and I have been booting off of it and using the internal drive as a back up. Could this be the problem causing finder windows to close?

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Answer 10

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 12, 2022 11:23 AM in response to bloke99

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

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Answer 11

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 12, 2022 1:08 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I created a new standard account. The first time I rebooted they all came back. The second time only a could came back. The ones coming back seem to be system related folders like desktop, downloads, main drive folders. What can I try next?

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Answer 12

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 12, 2022 9:26 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Remember that they all come back if I do a safe boot. But with that said, I have my disk partitioned into a boot disk and a storage disk. The folders that do not come back with regular reboot are subfolders within the storage disk. Now the entire storage disk folder itself will come back just not any of its subfolders. Is that clear?

Free disc space is 32Gb but not sure how to find out how much free ram there is. Can you tell me?

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Answer 13

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 16, 2022 5:57 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I am happy to send another etrecheck report. This is the current link: <script src="https://pastebin.com/embed_js/E8fRXxzE"></script>

I was just wondering if you think this problem can be solved or not. I would really like to solve it but I am starting to wonder. Do you think that my problem can be fixed?

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Answer 14

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Jan 17, 2022 10:42 AM in response to bloke99

This still worries me...

Failing hard drive - This computer has a hard drive that appears to be failing.

Delete these files & restart...

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.symantec.sharedsettings.MES.plist

/Library/Application Support/Symantec/Silo/MES/DomainSettings/SymSharedSettingsd

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avira.security.migratord.plist

/Library/Application Support/Avira/MigratorUIAgent.app/Contents/XPCServices/migratord.xpc/Contents/MacOS/migratord

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Answer 15

bloke99 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 17, 2022 9:12 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I did that but still had the problem. I may have discovered the problem. Because the internal disk can be flakey, I have been booting off of the external disk. I decided to unplug the external and boot from the internal and do the same experiments. As it turns out, when I boot from the internal disk all of the finder windows return. It is only when I boot from the external disk that only certain windows reopen.

Have you heard of this problem and is there a way to make booting off an external disk to open all of the finder windows or is this the nature of booting off an external disk?

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