Finder stopped working after macOS 14 update

Here's how I fixed it on my M2 Pro.

I disabled rotating through Dynamic Wallpapers/Screensavers, i.e. set both to a static image.

Disabling the dynamic wallpapers worked for me! Instant fix to a frustrating problem

Just shut off your iCloud Drive and Finder will be fine. Of course, then you won’t have iCloud.

If you turn off iCloud Drive, Finder will work.

Did you try disabling iCloud Drive? That’s worked for a lot of people.

Here is a "fix" (a bit of a stretch) that worked for me.

I had the same issue during the first launch after an update, so I tried many things, most of which are discussed in this thread. I couldn't revert to Ventura because I had no backup. As a last resort, I found the Ventura installer in the App Store, downloaded it (when you start the download, it automatically redirects you to Settings > Software Update, and you can monitor the progress there).

After downloading, my Mac announced that it couldn't install this particular OS version, so I sighed and clicked "Quit." Voilà, Finder got unstuck! For some reason, iCloud had become turned off in the settings, so I simply turned it back on, and all my files magically reappeared.

At first, I thought it was just a coincidence, but the same thing happened to me today after rebooting my Mac (I had to). Finder got stuck again, and there were no items on the desktop. So, once more, after a few standard procedures, I downloaded the Ventura installer, and it worked like clockwork.

It's strange, and I have no idea why it works. My best guess is that Sonoma gets intimidated in the presence of Ventura's greatness.

I hope this helps someone. Have a great day!

14.1.1 did not fix it on a 14" M2 Max ...

Turning off iCloud appears to let the finder work but is not a FIX, iCloud should work - come on Apple !!

ps- the finder seems less likely to freeze if you go thru the 'Internet Accounts' tab to turn off iCloud.

Ummmm...no. I don't think you quite understand, chdsl; turning off iCloud Drive is the only option we have if we want to use our Macs. We don't WANT to turn it off, but the Finder is unresponsive and the computer is unusable unless we do.

The update has not fixed the issue. Those of us who need to have our user folders on an external drive MUST change the file system on the external to APFS if we want to turn iCloud Drive back on. I haven't done this yet, but I'm assuming that wolfsk is correct.

I was really hoping Apple would fix the problem because I don't want my external formatted as APFS (which is wonderful for SSDs, but not ideal for HDD), and if I do change it there's no way to change it back. This issue should never have made it into the public release; I cannot believe it hasn't been fixed yet if Apple knows about it. There are a LOT of professionals who have far too much data to squeeze onto the internal SSD and instead use an external drive for their user folders - and those users would likely be using HDDs instead of SSDs for all that data (unless they're rolling in money and can afford RAID arrays of SSDs). My external is 14TB, and I want to keep the HFS+ formatting. I would be very surprised if there weren't a whole lot more users like me. I just can't believe this bug hasn't been squashed.

Not sure if its the solution : i disabled the icloud feature to save all documents on icloud ...

1. Deacitvate sync of icloud-Drive
2. I deleted all local copies of the icloud
3. I disabled the feature to save all my documents on icloud drive (only those files in the icloud drive will be synced)
4. enabled sync and downloaded all files from iCloud once manually

Now the finder is working normally for me. But I haven't installed the latest update. Not sure if I should do :D

By the way: I got a new Macbook and imported my files (inklusive iCloud) via a TimeMachine Backup. Is this the same for all of you?

OMG!!!!! This worked wow!!!! I tried LITERALLY everything to get my finder to work after updating to Sonoma, called apple support and they were no help. I've spent hours on this

The minute I started downloading Ventura all my files came back, visible on my desktop and finder popped open, also I could finally access my iCloud in settings.

You are the goat!!! PSA if you have this bug, go to App Store and search for Ventura. start downloading and hopefully it will fix this bug for you too

If you are using an external drive for your user folders, it has to be formatted as APFS. This solved the problem for me and lets me use iCloud drive

This happened to me late yesterday. My system slowed terribly, and I too, thought 'finder' problems, that didn't work. I did a search, came up with this thread.

I turned off iCloud after reading this, trying a number of other things, Safe Mode, etc.

Thanks for this, it worked for me.

My system it working fine. I'll check more tomorrow.

BTW-I use a Samsung 980 M.2 500G in a PCIe card for the System and Applications and a separate user drive for other files. This works great .2012 Mac Pr 5, with Sonoma

I looks like Apple Support has finally come through with a solution: If your user folder is stored on an external drive, the drive has to be formatted as APFS, if you want to use iCloud drive. Obviously making that change is a big deal (maybe you should just buy a new external drive), but once it's done, iCloud Drive works like it should...

Th3Cr0w wrote:

Ummmm...no. I don't think you quite understand, chdsl; turning off iCloud Drive is the only option we have if we want to use our Macs. We don't WANT to turn it off, but the Finder is unresponsive and the computer is unusable unless we do.

The update has not fixed the issue. Those of us who need to have our user folders on an external drive MUST change the file system on the external to APFS if we want to turn iCloud Drive back on. I haven't done this yet, but I'm assuming that wolfsk is correct.

An external drive will always be considered as an external drive, that is, a device that can be removed at any time. And, that's where your problem exists. It's always better to keep the user folder in the internal drive, but keep any important files/folders in an external drive. The external drive is just an additional storage.

OMG, I think I just fixed it. I was going crazy.

Strange things. I have a MAC MINI M2 connected to a DELL screen. I went into display settings... There I had 2 displays (even though I only own one screen. I never figured that one out). Anyway, I changed the "other" display to be Extended instead of mirroring the DELL screen, and voila! I got my finder back.