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Blank white finder windows

Help!

My finder windows (3 currently open from what I can tell) are blank.

At first they were responding and would open files where I randomly clicked as if the window was white, but the interface was still working. Now they're totally unresponsive.

Here's what I've tried so far:

  • I've closed them a couple times on the top bar (File>Close Window) but now they won't respond to that either.
  • It might be unrelated, but the weird behavior started when I moved a .png file that I made in R (using quartz) to the bin. The png was from old code and kept re-appearing every time I made a new .png with updated code. I tried emptying the bin, but it's unresponsive.
  • I also tried going to Finder>Empty Bin. No dice.
  • Finder>Preferences, but this, too, is unresponsive.
  • I took a screenshot of my desktop and a normal finder window opened, but the photo can't be added to this post. I don't know if this is related either.

Please help!

My next step is to try to navigate to the Bin through the Terminal to pitch the weird file, but I'm not very good at commands and I really don't want to mess up anything important.

Thank you!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 4:56 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 2, 2023 5:35 PM

It sounds like something may be confusing the OS.


If simply 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 disables loading third-party drivers, forces the OS to do disk repair, clear certain caches and logs and 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 expected.


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.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 2, 2023 5:35 PM in response to weevilknievel

It sounds like something may be confusing the OS.


If simply 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 disables loading third-party drivers, forces the OS to do disk repair, clear certain caches and logs and 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 expected.


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.

Blank white finder windows

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