Why can't I access my finder on Lion?

go to apple menu and restart finder, That will help to solve the issue.

The restarting of the finder is a workaround and not a permanent fix, at least on my machine.

Rgds

Unfortunately this does not work for all of us, see picture below

No OPTIONS here

For the German users, try to choose "Ausblenden" that did the job for me

I would just like to put in that I have the same issue.. In fact at one point it also did the same thing to the preferences and parallels amongst a few.. Deleteing all spaces and then reapplying spaces helped quite a bit. Sometimes I have a phantom finder still though.

I thought I was losing my mind. So glad to hear I'm not the only one with this problem, and thanks to all those who have offered fixes. Hope Apple hears enough complaints to fix this. On a related matter, why with OS X do I find that things I'm finished with and closed out of -- Web sites on Safari, saved documents in Microsoft Office -- reappear the next time I start the program. I through with them, have closed out of them and, in the case of Microsoft documents, saved and closed, but they pop open the next time I log on. Checking or unchecking the box about reopening windows the next time I log on makes no difference.

Is there a permanent solution? I've tried the de relaunching and it worked but it's anoying; the setting on the option menu, in finder's dock icon, also works but you have to repeat it every time you relaunch you're mac

Hi everyone. I had the same problem, but somehow I found the solution. I noticed that I wasn't able to open Finder windows, but for example if I tried to choose a file to add to my iTunes Library, the program showed me the Finder window from which I was able to choose the file I wanted. So I figured out the problem was connected with opening a new window. But, after I added a file in iTunes or I opened a file in MiroConverter (which can use the Finder as well), I clicked on "Restore Windows" from the popup the OS showed me and all the problems with Finder were solved. I honestly don't know if the problem is solved forever or what, but actually it works!

Dear TOffucirque - - -

OMG I was going crazy. That fixed it..... Thanks 1,000,000 times.

nice to see that my old post can still help people!! option + "none" or "this desktop" do solve each time ...

I don't even see options when I right-click finder.

However, I opened finder preferences under finder->preferences, and changed the setting for "New finder windows show:"

and this has fixed the problem. For now at least.

I am having exactly the same problem. Since there are so many complaining, why is apple not addressing the issue???

FlofromNH wrote:

I am having exactly the same problem. Since there are so many complaining, why is apple not addressing the issue???

There are only a handful complaining here, given that Lion has been downloaded over six million times. But if you would like to inform Apple of your cancerns, then let them know at

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Cheers

This was driving me crazy, but today find a solution here:

http://www.brandonmartinez.com/2011/11/26/resolve-a-frozen-finder-in-os-x-lion/

Firts alternative, shift during start, is working to me.

Toffucirque wrote:

i did right clic the finder icon in the Dock to see the option..

i change the "option / assign to: NONE

and all the finder windows came back.

Bingo, that dit it for me, too.