finder sluggish

spinning_vertex wrote:

What are possible reasons for a sluggish or frozen finder? The problem started after I was cleaning out files from the downloads directory and an external hard disk.

cleaning out how... manually like always are you used some third party cleaning app...(?)

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

To trouble shoot further you can:

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

—SafeBoot How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Takes a bit longer to get to the login screen, does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, font cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files