After the latest update, 'finder quit unexpectedly' straight away on startup

It could be the com.apple.finder.plist that is corrupt. Delete it from the Users > your name >Library > Preferences folder.

Not stupid at all! I thought you got a bit further.

Start your computer on the DVD you got when you bought it. You hold down the Opt/ Alt key when starting. Choose the dvd when the options shows. When you've got a meny bar at the top find the disc utility option.

Repair permissions.

Restart the computer and and hold down the Shift key while booting the computer. See if it does work. If so delete the finder plist and restart again without the hift key pressed down.

I don't garanti this will work but I would try this if it was my computer.

I had the same thing occur updating to OS X Server 10.6.8 on 1 out of 5 Xserves. I've removed com.apple.finder.plist with no change. I've rebooted via DVD, get message saying I can't install OS X on the machine and can not access Disk Utility. So I'm pretty much stuck until I get further suggestions.

I've got this same problem. Can't even start in safe mode without finder crashing. I started by booting from the OS disc and using terminal to delete the com.apple.finder.plist file, but it didn't change a thing. Any other ideas?

Hi frog3d,

I had a similar, but not exactly the same behavior (see: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3139042?answerId=15481340022#15481340022), though the deinstallation of Sophos Antivirus solved my problem!

Good luck!

Well my installation froze, after waiting 2 hours i restarted the computer... but then got this finder message, even in safe mode. Tried deleting the finder.plist, didnt help. Found another forum saying to delete spotlight.plist. After that, everything was broken, even when i created a new admin user, it would bring me back to the login screen no matter what i did.

Had to re-install the OS. I would recommend skipping 10.6.8 to anyone reading, there's a lot of people having issues with this freezing, and if it freezes at the wrong point, you could be screwed.

This morning I was installing the update on my 25" iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (was at 10.6.7) and after almost 15 minutes of the installer claiming to be moving files around, the screen went blank except for being backlit. A few minutes of pondering what to do, I restarted the computer and the "Finder quit unexpectedly." message started and all my iMac wants to do is have me send thousands of reports to Apple. I tried the safe restart and nothing changed expect the process number in the reports restarts in the low hundreds.

One thing that is different with my situation is I have LOTS of applications on my dock and while almost all the Apple applications crash upon launching (Firefox takes a few minutes to crash while Chrome seems okay enough for me to send this report) a few applications don't. The "About this Mac" claims that 10.6.8 is installed, so Software Update claims there are no updates, so I can't use that to reinstall the update (I'm not sure I should).

One thing I cannot do is relaunch the Finder from either the Dock or via the "Force Quit" command. I can open a terminal window but I'm not sure what to do with that to get me out of this situation. Any suggestions welcomed.

TIA.

I've got my Mac back!

Even though the Finder wasn't running, because I had populated my Dock with dozens of applications, I was able to launch the Terminal app and open a window. From there I was eventually able to launch the Installer, point it at the 10.6.8 Combo Update (for some reason, fortunately, I had downloaded it rather than letting Software Update do it), and wait at least 30 minutes when the installer claimed that there was less than 1 minute left to complete the install. After it was done and I restarted the Mac, it no longer insisted that I needed to send/ignore thousands of "Finder quit unexpectedly." messages and the Finder was running.

BTW, towards the end of the installation (or re-installation), the Finder began to function (my desktop icons appeared and I could open folders) and now the only remaining issue is the Menu Bar won't appear unless I click the Finder in the Dock.

Thanks to those who helped me by providing the instructions needed to use the Terminal window correctly.

You mean Snow Leopard, right?

I hope it'll work. My next suggestion would have been reinstall Snow Leopard from the DVD and do the latest update but make sure using the Combo update. The only time I have had any problem with updating the system was when I did it through the software update check.

I am happy to say that usually you don't have to format the HD do start over with the installing. Just do it on top of what you have, but in your case it might be wise though.

After an uneventful day or two of using my Mac, post-update to 10.6.8, I turned on the Mac today to experience this same Finder Quit Unexpectedly message. I control-clicked on the desktop as a blind attempt to do anything at all to see what was wrong...and the Finder came back... Really hoping this never happens again.

I have a finder throwing a crash log at me in console ONLY when burning a dvd. As soon as the dvd finishes, I see the resulting dvd image AND I see the old folder that existed while the CD/DVD is being burned. I see this on TWO MBP's now..