System Preferences > Extensions > Finder Extensions keeps opening on its own

Question

System Preferences > Extensions > Finder Extensions keeps opening on its own

About once a day, I find System Preferences > Extensions > Finder Extensions has opened on its own, in the background. There's no error messages, not indication of anything wrong. Just my list of Finder extensions, some checked, some not.

Before I go through the hassle of unchecking them all and adding them back one-by-one, over the course of several days — and therefore having to do without many cloud-drive features, etc. — I thought I'd ask here if anyone has any theories as to what might cause this behavior.

Cheers!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Oct 4, 2022 5:08 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

WinsC1

Community Specialist

Oct 6, 2022 11:07 AM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

Hey 100 Watt Walrus,

We'd recommend starting your Mac up into safe mode to see if your able to reproduce the issue there. That will help determine if a login time or another application is interacting with Finder Extensions.

This article explains how: Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

"Start up your Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
Select a volume.
Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.
The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.

Start up your Intel-based Mac in safe mode

Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.
Log in to your Mac.
You might be asked to log in again.
On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar."

Thanks!

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Answer 2

Oct 11, 2022 2:49 PM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

UPDATE: Both these issues are definitely related to Google Drive.

In an attempt to narrow down the processes that might be related (in Activity Monitor), I completely quit Google Drive, and when I relaunched it, System Prefs > Extensions > Finder Extensions spontaneously popped open again.

So with that information, I'm guessing the only answer I'll be getting on this forum from here on out is "contact Google."

That's what I'm going to do (as time permits), and will post an update when I have one.

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Answer 3

Oct 10, 2022 2:03 PM in response to WinsC1

I've tried this. The problem did not occur in the few hours I ran in Safe Mode. But of course, it wouldn't because in Safe Mode Finder extensions aren't loaded, so the chances of a Finder-extension-related issue occurring in Safe Mode are pretty much nil.

One new bit of info: Twice in the last few days, I've also had another Finder-related bugaboo that I can't find any mention of online: A square alert popping up spontaneously saying, "Finder is downloading a file from com.google.drivefs. The file won't open until the download completes," and giving me two options: Stop Downloading or Continue Waiting. (screenshot below)

Since Google Drive is something these two issues have in common (Finder extension), I suppose they could be related, although the spontaneous popping of these two windows don't seem otherwise connected.

A few bullet points:

FYI "drivefs" refers to Google Drive File Stream
I have Google Drive set up to mirror files, not to stream
Google Drive app shows nothing amiss — files are up to date, there are no notifications
I have quit and relaunched Google Drive
I have rebooted the computer in Safe Mode (where, of course, the problems didn't occur because no Finder extensions are loaded)

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Answer 4

Nov 19, 2022 11:31 PM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

Thanks for posting, I have the exact same problem. Have you tried completely removing (all prefs, caches, etc) and then reinstalling the Google Drive app? I was thinking whether it matters if you have set Google Drive to file streaming first (I have) before switching to file mirroring.

Due to ongoing work project I'm not comfortable trying this myself at the moment, so unfortunately I need to live with the System Prefs popping up every day for now.

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Answer 5

K Shaffer

Level 8

35,962 points

Oct 16, 2022 8:20 PM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

100 Watt Walrus:

Perhaps a minor [or major] detour into Google land, may be of some help..

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=google+drive+help+for+file+system+macOS&ia=web

More than two sticks in this search, might be rubbed together for heat/light?

..A few show some promise; without more explicit detail of those issues.

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Answer 6

Nov 20, 2022 2:16 AM in response to Niko Nyman

Niko, I'm in the same boat — living with Sys Prefs popping up since I posted this thread because I can't currently can't afford the time & risk of doing a clear/uninstall/reinstall of Google Drive. But at some point, that's exactly what I plan to do.

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