Finder stopped working after macOS 14 update

After SEVERAL hours back & forth with apple support & multiple escalations we figured out a solution.

Booted in safe mode > created a test user > logged in to test user > checked to see if error was still happening under test user. It was not.

SO logged back in to my user > System Settings > General > login items > removed ALL programs from open at login.

That fixed it.

I'm 100% sure the problem started/was occurring because of dropbox. I initially had issues with Dropbox not syncing after the first Sonoma update. Couple of hours with dropbox support & we got that figured out. But it involved uninstalling/unlinking my account then doing a fresh install.

There was a whole other issue that came up w/ documents/downloads/desktop disappearing. My suggestion, be very mindful about using dropbox & Sonoma for a while.

Turning off iCloud Drive solved the problem instantly. But it sure would nice to be able to access all the files I have there.

It wasn't easy getting the AppleID System Setting to respond, but eventually I got lucky. I had to do it fast, after a reboot, to get the AppleID setting to A) display and B) be responsive.

Along the way, I got a notice that iCloud would turn off after it finished updating. There was a progress bar with just a tiny blue dot at one end, like "1% done". I had an option to skip updating and turn off, so I took it. I got the notice on the attached pic, but then it went ahead and turned off, and all is "well", for now. Now we wait for the fix.

Once the Mac screen opens, can you check whether there's anything in System Settings > Login Items? If there are any apps mentioned there, disable or delete them all. If you have any 3rd party modifier apps, any VPNs, any antivirus apps, uninstall them, according to their uninstall instructions. If such instructions cannot be found, pull those apps to the Bin and then empty the Bin. After that, shut down the Mac, wait a while, reboot your Mac. Check, if the system would come to normal.

My Login Items look like this,

Nothing there.

Also, please read this, If your Mac runs slowly – Apple Support (UK)

Also, read about how to reinstall macOS, How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Try deleting the Finder preference File.

In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste this

~/Library/Preferences/

Delete: com.apple.finder.plist

Drag the file to the trash, then force-quit the Finder, or log out and back in.

Force Quit: Click Apple logo in upper left menu or key ‘option + command + esc’

Try turning off iCloud Drive in your AppleID System Setting (open System Settings and it's at the top, right under your name). That solved it for me.

I got a message saying iCloud would turn off after it finished updating, but there was an option to proceed without updating, which I selected. Apparently there's a horrendous delay, or outright error, in the new Sonoma updating process.

Is your home directory on an external volume, or internal?

Same issue, mine is the Intel-based Mac mini.

I found that the issue appears when I use Spotlight or Alfred, so I think it may be caused by the index. I rebuilt the index by running the following command in Terminal:

sudo mdutil -a -E

Finder will work, but the files in iCloud cannot be seen. So I logout my iCloud account and quit the VPN, then login again. Now it works normally.

I have a 2019 iMac and had similar issues. I even reformatted the MacHD, reinstalled Sonoma through the Recovery manager and restored from Time Machine - had the same issues (Finder, the entire system really, being unresponsive, not displaying wallpaper/black screen, etc.). IMO, all these issues are due to the system being busy with file reorganization & iCloud updates.

My advice would be to leave your Mac alone the rest of the day after updating and restart the next morning. Almost all of my issues were resolved. We are an impatient bunch and when the system is busy, continuous clicking hither and tither expecting something to happen makes things worse as you are just stacking/piling up commands to be executed. Sonoma has been running on my Mac since 9/30 and it's actually performing better and is faster than Ventura but I think most of this is due to the reformatting. Clean install is the way to go when major versions are released.

For the people who are not able to disable the iCloud Drive sync:

You need to go to Internet Accounts -> iCloud Drive -> turn off the toggle. It will ask if you want to keep a copy or not -> choose to keep a copy. It will start downloading, and you can just quit; you don't need to wait for it to finish. Boom, Finder will start working.

PS: If your iCloud page does not open, you may need to shut down your PC until it works. It worked for me on my third try.

Relaunching Finder has fixed this for me:

Option-click Finder in the Dock > Relaunch at the bottom

Same issue. After several restarts, Apple support and still no success the system caught up with reindexing and just began to be normal again. For me this was 569GB of drive on a 1Tb drive, so allow some time for the system to catch up is my suggestion.

Jonah

lisafromcanyonleigh wrote:

Hi Ciaranio I keep returning to this discussion hoping to hear a comment from apple to say it is fixed and updates to Sonoma 14.2.4 is ready. Crickets. We seem to be ignored even though this is the most significant problem I’ve seen in the 40 years since I started using Mac! So disappointing, I’m reverted to Ventura and will stay there as I rely heavily on Cloud for accessing all my calendar and contacts across several devices.

It appears that MOST (not necessarily all) of the problems reported in this thread seem to share certain common features: use of an external drive formatted as HFS+ that is utilized with iCloud Drive.

Some have reported that upon Apple's suggestion, converting the external drive to APFS resolved the issue.

In response to that, some have indicated they don't want to use APFS on an external spinning (mechanical) hard drive. This is a technical issue and in fact some research shows that external mechanical drives work fine with APFS as long as they are not the boot drive. See

https://eclecticlight.co/2022/05/16/should-you-continue-using-hfs/

The constant use and fragmentation for a boot drive can cause significant slowdowns with APFS on mechanical drives, but the cited article above found that external drives used for mostly static storage incurred little or no penalty under APFS.

I have anecdotal experience with this in use of several modern Macs with internal SSDs where external mechanical hard drives are used for Time Machine, clone type backups, and other miscellaneous storage. I see quite fast performance with those external mechanical drives, even though they are all APFS and most are the slower 5400 rpm type drives.

So if using APFS resolves the problem, why not try it?

For those whose problem still remains, more troubleshooting is required. But since there are scores (millions) of users of iCloud Drive without these freezes, it would be worth examining the specific configuration and audit what is currently installed on the problematic systems. Etrecheck provides such a (free) audit.

Finally, Apple won't comment here because this is solely a user to user forum. Contacting Apple Support or going to an Apple Authorized Service Provider (or Apple Store) is the only way to get a response from Apple. Responses here are from ordinary users, one posts a question here to get a "crowd sourced" answer. Scores of users see these queries and usually someone has a solution.

I’m really sorry to hear the problem still exists, which has been reported on this community stream since last year. I had the same issue and was forced to revert through a Time Machine backup of Ventura 13. I have had zero problems with Finder since reverting to Ventura. I think there are ways you can reinstall Ventura onto your Mac and if you follow the steps shown on the How To guides within Apple you should probably go back to Ventura too until it is announced Sonoma actually has fixed this.

Have you tried rebooting the system once again after the update? If you already did that, then try shutting down and starting in safemode:

Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support (English)

Force quit the MacBook. Wait for a while, and then restart.

Shut down or restart your Mac – Apple Support (UK)