Finder Crash on Lion

Same problems here Finder crashes constantly on my iMac Core i3.

Had the same issue. The following did NOT work:

Reboot in Safe Mode

Remove Finder preferences file

Remove .DS_Store

Repair disk and permission

What did work, however, is described here:

http://www.statusq.org/archives/2011/08/16/3495/

Since I had a severe case of the crashes (can't even launch a program), I had to use Terminal in the Recovery partition. Interestingly, one does not need sudo to get root access to the file system in Terminal in the Recovery partition, so proceed carefully.

Hope this helps.

It hurts to read this thread and find issues same as I have been experiencing. For the few of us who have posted problems with freezes, crashes, spinning balls and unresponsive Mac Apps and Windows Apps with Lion we honestly have problems we neither created nor gave impulse to create the stalling/crash/freeze occurances. This is the slowest OS since 7, 10/X first release had gargantuan bugs which had me close to going Windows, in fact I have a PC laptop as a result; I rarely use it, but it is there just in case, same for keeping an old 8 gig iMac around with OS 9 on it, for when new OS crashes.

Does anyone know is there is a fix coming soon from Apple for the stalling/freeze/spinning ball/finder crashes that have become epic since Lion release date?

Please no 12 step programs and reinstall, rebuild back up to Time Machine which has proven ineffective when building after a major crash. I have 1.5 terrabyte between two back up drives hooked up to the Mac at all times. 28 gigs free space. Snow Leopard did not freeze and hang the way Lion is. I know quite well that each new OS will have a few bumps and curve balls along the way, but this time there is an uncertain sense of pending doom to the always guaranteed spinning ball and sluggish behavior in any and all applications mac, windows and third party. I have shut down the computer several times in the past month simply because nothing was responding or that the ball would not find resolution.

Help?

Insights?

Patience?

Hi Saxophile

Although I know quite a bit about Macs, using the GUI, I have no clue what I am doing when using code in Terminal. So I have no idea what your sudo thing does. But it appears to have worked for me.

Thanks so much for posting.

Ken

same here I am on 10.7.1, my finder crashes all the time when I drag a file/folder from a windows share, to itunes or anyplace else.

i have the latest version yet still have odd problems with icons getting stuck on my desktop or Lion completely freezing without a spinning ball and the only solution being a hard restart.

This fix worked instantly! I tried first repairing disk permissions and repairing disk, restarting in safe-boot, perforiming finder maintenance scripts, but noting worked. I opened terminal and from my home folder typed "rm .DS_Store" and magically my finder opened up! This fix should be tried first by most.

Yes!

d-a_v_i-d had the solution.

(be careful with this, type it wrong and you could delete stuff you need)

open a terminal:

cd Desktop/

rm -Rf .DS_Store

cd ..

rm -Rf .DS_Store

In my case it was something on the desktop. Any time I tried to have any file on the desktop, Finder would crash.

I intialy got it to stop crashing by moving all my desktop file to some other directory, however any file added to the desktop (including an alias) would cause Finder to start loop-crashing again.

Removing the .DS_Store fromt hose two places seems to have stopped it, and I can use my desktop again.

I can only assume that it somehow got corrupted and adding a file would attempt to modify (or otherwise use it). When I deleted it, I forced the OS to create a new one.

Worked for me!

Other than pulling them out (unmounting doesn't hellp), what would I use so that it ignores my other internal drives in my Mac Pro? Before it finishes removing the .DS_Store files on my root drive, it gets hung up on permissions on the internal drives and asks me to quit or skip for every single file (there are tens of thousands, and I ain't clicking "skip" for all of them). So, my only option is to quit, but that prevents it from removing the files I need.

My finder was repeatedly crashing, asking to restore windows. And I couldnt stop it from crashing. But i found an article, and all you have to do is open Terminal and type the following: sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash

It cleans out your trash. And it will fix your crashing.

I just solve this problem. So tired, man!

After talking with couple of apple senior advisors, I figure out one of convenient ways to deal with this bug and save all my files. I think I havebecome an advisor to solver this problem…lol This problem may have some different reasons causing it. In a word,there is something wrong in the desktop file or preference file, soreinstalling the system doesn’t help. Don’t waste the time to do that. Let’sget start.

Idon’t remember the workflow clearly but I can offer some important tips forthis solution.

1. Click command and R when turning on the computerto get into a gray
2. Screen to is create a new user which isadministration (root) so that you can edit and delete the files.
3. log in the administration user to find thedesktop and preference files in your username files and copy them to yourexternal hard drive. Now, try to see whether you can open both folders or not.Be sure, you can open the preference folder. If the desktop folder cannot beopened, leave it in your external hard drive and check the desktop folder sizeto make sure there are your items in it. We can deal with the desktop folderlatter. Now, put the original desktop and preference files into the trash andempty trash. Then, restart your computer.
4. log in your users’ desktop to see whether thefinder becomes normal. If so, get back to the administration user. And go tousers to find your username folder and copy the reference folder from yourexternal hard drive to replace the original one. Then, you will have all thesame settings when you log in your users desktop.
5. The last step is to get back the desktop files.Find a computer which is Windows 7 system. I think it can open the desktopfolders normally. the system is under windows 7, try to google“read mac files on windows” and find the software can read it.

It is not the workflow including all the detail. Maybe there are some mistakes here and not so clearly. I think this it the best way to solve thisproblem and save all your files and setting now.

LION has crashed 3 times on me already... about to abandon it entirely. I also don't use TIME MACHINE, i prefer selecting only needed files to back up on my 3 back up drives etc. LION crashed on me exactly the same all 3 times, just browsing via Safari, then massive finder lag, system lag... rainbow pinwheel of doom, forced restart... the first crash I had a corrupt start up disc that couldn't even boot up at all, the second crash after clean install would get to the start up screen... take forever to log in then stay lagging for hours on the desktop not launching a **** thing. THE 3rd time I could at least use the recovery utility with Lion but recently almost had it repeat the first crash all over again.... so i backed up all my needed files to one of my back up drives and repaired disc permissions, verified, etc, etc... and it slowy came back to life.

BUT, i don't trust this operating system and i use Logic to record music, so I'm probably going back to using Snow Leopard which i also have installed via partition.

Add me to the list of people with this problem. It seems to occur mostly when I try to access my NAS, and is driving me to distraction. Am trying the "delete .DS_Store" and ".Trash" steps, and will send feedback to Apple since it seems to be a wider problem.

I must agree that I'm not sure anymore Lion is worth the hassle. I have two other Macs in my care that I am going to leave on SL for as long as possible -- there is just too much wrong with Lion.

Hey guys - don't despair. I also had the same problems, and thought I'd pull my hair out, and revert to SL. I managed to fix things, and I haven't had a crash since. I agree though; Lion was pretty frustrating for awhile.

In my case, there were incompatibilities. It seemed random for the most part (it often hung at the startup screen, but it could happen at any time), but Safari was often involved.

My recommendation: go to the Apple menu, and select About This Mac > More Info > System Report. Go down to Software, and click through each of the subheadings, looking at the "Kind" column. Look for any leftover PowerPC or Classic apps - they're trouble.

To fix things for myself, I used terminal to rename the Library folder in my home directory, and in the global directory (just to LibraryOLD), and immediately rebooted. This will make things look pretty strange and may cause some apps to not work properly...but it will also help you to discover what's causing you grief. Try using the system for awhile and see if there are any crashes. If things run smoothly, you can begin adding back in. Lion will create new Library folders, and from there you can decide what to return. Use common sense and put back folders that couldn't possibly be responsible first. Chuck the cache folders. Folders that are often naughty include fonts, startup items (startupitems, launchagents, and launchdaemons), internet plugins, contextual menu items, screen savers, quicktime, and preferences. Each time you replace a folder, reboot and check the solidity of the system.

I know this is a long tedious process, but it's worth it. It will rule out hardware issues, too. To save a little time, you can restore several folders at a time. For example, put half of the folders back where they belong and restart. See if the issues remain. That way you can narrow it down a bit faster. I would however, recommend doing the folders I listed above individually.

Hope this helps.