I’m having a serious Finder issue after updating to macOS 26.2. Finder won’t open at all and stays “Not Responding”. If I force quit it, it relaunches automatically and becomes not responding again (loop). When I search for files (Spotlight), results show warnings like “file damaged” and the info shows “downloaded on unknown date”.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.2
yyyyyx wrote:
I’m having a serious Finder issue after updating to macOS 26.2. Finder won’t open at all and stays “Not Responding”. If I force quit it, it relaunches automatically and becomes not responding again (loop). When I search for files (Spotlight), results show warnings like “file damaged” and the info shows “downloaded on unknown date”.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies
Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.
Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.
I would be tempted to reinstall the macOS on top of your existing macOS
How to reinstall macOS Recovery (both M1/M2/M3/M4 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Have you run the Internet Recovery Disk Utility First AID...?
Disk Utility only reads the Directory area of the drive, and checks it for self-consistency. It does not read any data area blocks.
Boot into Internet Recovery (Option Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities> Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD, Container, (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.
ref: How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility - Apple Support
Disk Utility>View>Show All Devices
Parent drive —I would start here
Container level
Volume level
Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)
or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/
or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)
Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone
See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.
yyyyyx wrote:
I’m having a serious Finder issue after updating to macOS 26.2. Finder won’t open at all and stays “Not Responding”. If I force quit it, it relaunches automatically and becomes not responding again (loop). When I search for files (Spotlight), results show warnings like “file damaged” and the info shows “downloaded on unknown date”.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
A SafeBoot Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support will sort many anomalies
Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled temporarily.
Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.
I would be tempted to reinstall the macOS on top of your existing macOS
How to reinstall macOS Recovery (both M1/M2/M3/M4 and Intel) — How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Have you run the Internet Recovery Disk Utility First AID...?
Disk Utility only reads the Directory area of the drive, and checks it for self-consistency. It does not read any data area blocks.
Boot into Internet Recovery (Option Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities> Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD, Container, (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.
ref: How to repair a Mac storage device with Disk Utility - Apple Support
Disk Utility>View>Show All Devices
Parent drive —I would start here
Container level
Volume level
Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)
or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/
or call AppleCare Support at 1-800-APLCARE (800-275-2273)
Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone
See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.
Part 1 of 2
There could be something in the main User Account playing up.
To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.
Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.
If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.
Part 2 of 2
To Drill Down further and to avoid a session of Q&A, Q&A and Q&A
Download the Application Etrecheck ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.
The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet " and is only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer
This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer Hardware / Software used on this computer
The application is free or paid from added features.
The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.
Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then paste >>>> using the Additional Text Icon <<<<
From your report
There are numerous issues that bears you attention and not least of all a Battery Replacement
The other noteworthy issue is CleanMyMac aka BrickMyMac
Q - Runtime: 7:08
Performance: Below Average
A - Not a good sign of what to come
Q - Battery failure - Your battery is reporting that it needs to be serviced.
Q - Battery: Health = Service Battery - Cycle count = 992
Q - High battery cycle count - Your battery may be losing capacity.
A - Apple Batteries are consumable products that do need to be replaced. Apple Batteries are designed for 1000 full battery Cycles or 80 % of battery capacity before needing replacement
Q - More than one antivirus app - This computer has multiple antivirus apps installed.
Q - Antivirus software: Apple, CleanMyMac, and Malwarebytes
A - Neither of the two above Applications are needed
A - Read some of the posting and arrive at your own conclusions.
The Built in Security is all that is required.
A - Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions
Disk Cleaner
CleanMyMac , aka “ BrickMyMac “
A - There are two schools of thought when dealing with CleanMyMac aka “ BrickMyMac “
The steps in #1 below is predicated on the Offending Application has been Removed as per the Developers Specific Instruction
# 1 Some Contributors suggest restarting in Recovery Mode and choosing to Reinstall the Operating System over the existing installation.
This may or may not replace elements of the Home Folder ( User Account ) and replace any corrupted or removed elements and make things right.
#2 - Then there are Other Contributors ( like myself ) would suggest from this link
For Intel computer >> Use Disk Utility to erase an Intel-based Mac followed by How to reinstall macOS
Thereafter to start from scratch and install all Required Applications directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer.
If going this route - I suggest Not using Startup Assist to migrate things back as this will probably Re-Introduce the existing issue at the time TM Backup was made
Q - No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.
A - if you have used or are using Time Machine Backup Utility you maybe able to Restore the Deleted Files
For future purposes
To truly protect your non replaceable Data
Have a 3-2-1 Rescue Plan in place and always current
3 Backups using 2 methods and 1 off site incase of natural disaster or un-natural disaster.
Each of the above should be done to a Dedicated Single Purposed External Drive
Below link is intended to augment what TM Backup does
Q - Configuration profiles found - This computer may have configuration profiles installed.
A - Not sure how or why there are Profiles used on this computer so not sure just how to advise on this issue
Q - Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed.
A - More often than not, this is caused by Migrating from Older Computers running Older version of macOS. Older computer running older version of Third Party Application that have not be update for use on macOS 26 Tahoe can and will often cause issues
Q -Configuration Profiles:
com.apple.wifi.managed
SSID_STR
EAPClientConfiguration/EAPFASTUsePAC
EAPClientConfiguration/PayloadCertificateAnchorUUID[0]
HIDDEN_NETWORK
EAPClientConfiguration/EAPFASTProvisionPAC
EAPClientConfiguration/UserName
EAPClientConfiguration/EAPFASTProvisionPACAnonymously
AutoJoin
EAPClientConfiguration/TTLSInnerAuthentication
EAPClientConfiguration/TLSTrustedServerNames[0]
EncryptionType
EAPClientConfiguration/AcceptEAPTypes[0]
EAPClientConfiguration/UserPassword
A - Refer to earlier comments regarding Profiles
Thank you so much! The issue not exist in test user and here is the report:
Hi @leroydouglas,
Thank you for the detailed steps.
Quick update on what I’ve tried so far:
Booted into Safe Mode and tested (Finder still problematic).
Ran Disk Utility > View > Show All Devices > First Aid on the parent drive / container / Macintosh HD / Macintosh HD - Data — no errors reported.
Reinstalled macOS over the existing system (did not erase the disk).
Current symptom:
When I Force Quit Finder, macOS prompts “Do you want to reopen windows when logging back in?” (Reopen / Don’t Reopen). After I click either option, it often hangs on that dialog and Finder goes back into the “Not Responding” / auto-relaunch loop.
Do you have suggestions for next steps to isolate the cause?
Thanks again. I really appreciate any guidance.
You are welcome
We will have a look at the report and get back to you
Finder not working after updating
