Finder stopped working after macOS 14 update

Got the same problem. Waited for a while, and nothing happened, so i pressed "stop Updating and Turn Off". It took me 2 Times to work. After deleting the icloud drive from finder i activated the sync, and then it worked just fine.

Hi!

I am also encountering problems here, on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro. I have the 14.1.2 macOS Sonoma installed. Last week my laptop was unusable for like an hour or so due to finder not working properly and freezing my whole OS.

I was on the verge to going to an Apple Store to ask for help. However, I still do not know how I tricked the system to jump over the "Finder has stopped working. Would you like to send a report to Apple?" step, which seemed like the point where everything started to collapse.

Now it seems like Finder stopped working when I selected some photos to be uploaded to Photos, from an iCloud directory. Not only it did not work, but I cannot use Finder anymore :).

Come on Apple, do something...

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.

I have a Mac mini M2 Pro. I’m on the latest Sonoma as of December 25. I go to Force Quit and select Relaunch Finder. After that Finder is screwed up totally. It’s like frozen. I start bash Alt + Command + Esc to trigger the Force Quit window, use arrows, select Finder, and relaunch it. Only then it starts working. The next Relaunch Finder and it will be frozen again until I use the shortcut on the keyboard. WTF? Really, it’s just one of many fundamental features. Why do you even screw these up?

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.

Is there any reason why one cannot print this thread (the actual Q&A content)? I am getting ready to buy a new iMac which comes with Sonoma. This thread started in September with no apparent fix from Apple. I wanted to print parts of this thread and take it with me to teh Apple store but I cannot print it....

Suzy2014 If you cannot print out and do not have a portable device, try doing screen grabs and print the screen grabs: SCREEN GRAB Press Shift ⇧ + Command ⌘ + 5 on your keyboard, then choose to capture your entire screen, an app window or a specific area.

If you have a portable device, copy the discussion link to your iphone and open the link when you arrive at apple store, so you can share it via AirDrop with your apple consultant.

I called Apple sales, as I am coerced into buying a new computer; the one I have works like a charm but cannot support Sonoma and with the many releases of the OS I am many versions behind... I wish this wouldn't happen as new versions come with new bugs and new headaches and most people do not use lots of the new features.

I did ask the question about the reported issues with Finder. The staff looked up an internal database and said that she sees a few related items pending but she has no ETA for when they will be worked on/fixed. She suggested that maybe I downgrade in the meantime the new computer to Ventura and wait.

Is your iMac still working OK? And when you say you searched for “applications” as a folder and clicked on the folder, did the finder and wallpaper start working? Did you have to repeat this every time you started up your iMac?

Tercourt, you should read the entire discussion, there are 8 pages. Use the page forward and back buttons at the bottom of the page to go back to the start. It seems like the main solution is to disable iCloud, but other people have suggested different methods. It is worth reading everything in this discussion.

I`ve got same issue and I can confirm, that go out for dinner and wait was right way. Sonoma has more mistakes like this or even worse connected to iCloud (loosing files from local mashine etc). But for now this can be called "solution" as I don`t have to switch off iCloud and it starts working itselfs...

Are we ever going to hear from someone from Apple on this issue? Its pretty massive, since many of us you Finder Open and Save panel on a daily basis. I bought the M2 Max for superior performance but I'm being held back massively by this oversight with Finder and Sonoma 14. So much time and effort is waster trying solve this Finder issue. Disabling iCloud isn't a responsible solution and also is only a band aid.

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.

Suzy2014 One would think that Sonoma UPDATES such as 14.2.4 etc would prioritise the Finder error, although maybe they can’t fix it without releasing a complete NEW version eg 15.1. I too find the discussion replies difficult to find without tapping on the like button within the email I get, which effectively takes me straight to the comment. The content of this particular conversation is now over 9 pages long and so it is indeed difficult to find a specific comment! Perhaps when they invented this community chat they never anticipated such a lengthy discourse.

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.