Slow file dialog

Me too. Seems to happen when I first open an application or if it's been open but not used for a little. Wondering if it's to do with the disk spinning up or something. Energy saver is set to send HD to sleep where possible but this never interfered with the speed of accessing the open/save dialogue boxes under Leopard or Tiger.

There are some simple troubleshooting steps you can take.

Be sure you drive is not overly full. Rule of thumb would be over 85%.

Create a new User go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" (make it an admin acct) and test the apps in this new account, if they work the problem is isolated to your User and not systemwide.

If the issue is limited to your user account try starting up Safe Mode (It will take more time to startup in Safe Mode because it runs a directory check.)

If your apps functions correctly that way, go to System Preferences >> Accounts >> Login Items, and remove them. Boot normally and test. If not go to/Users/yourname/Library /Contextual Menu Items and move whatever is there to the desktop. Then do the same with /Library/ Contextual Menu Items. Lastly, try moving/Users/yourname/Library/ Fonts to your desktop and restarting.

Log out/in or restart, if that sorts it start putting items back one at a time until you find the culprit.

If the issue is systemwide then, you may be able to repair this with the The 10.6.4 Combo Update This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.



-mj

I would try a Safe Boot even if the problem is still present for a different user. One of the things it does is:
--------------------
Mac OS X v10.5.6 or later: A Safe Boot deletes the dynamic loader shared cache at (/var/db/dyld/).
------------------

See [this comment|http://www.shirt-pocket.com/blog/index.php/shadedgrey/comments/spinning round_andround> by the developer of SuperDuper.

That's an interesting tidbit 🙂



-mj

Dave Nanian's entire "Shirt Pocket Watch" blog is interesting reading. Most of it relates to SuperDuper issues, but it has a few other general "tidbits" as well. See:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/blog/index.php

I'm suffering this problem on an iMac 27", 3GHz with OSX 10.6.4. Cmd-O results in the rainbow wheel for 16-30 seconds before the dialog box opens. Same for Save As.
Machine has >500GB free disk space. Login/start objects are GrowlHelperApp, iTunesHelper and Dropbox.

I have done the following (with reboots between):
1. verified disk - no errors
2. installed the combo system update
3. repaired permissions
4. used Onyx to clear some caches
5. created new admin user, logged in as such - problem remains
6. used the terminal to "sudo update dyld_sharedcache -force"

Problem remains.

Åke

Thanks for the responses. The Shirtpocket solution of booting in safe mode then rebooting seems to have sorted this one for me, for now at least. As I run SuperDuper!, two problems solved in one go.

My problem has been solved. I discovered that the external hard disk (WD "My Book") which I use for Time Machine backup, had serious problems. Disk tools could not repair it. Turned off Time Machine, re-formatted the drive. Poff! Problem gone. Alleluia.

Åke

Message was edited by: Eldberg - corrected data about computer and OS version

I had this problem on a 2 x 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro with 12 GB of RAM and four internal 500 GB SATA drives. All the hardware is factory installed and after reading on another discussion about this problem indicating that it may be related to drives, I was able to fix the problem by un-mounting one of the four disks. I ran Disk Utility on the the problem disk and it found many problems. So it appears that was the problem in my case.