Finder shows NEW files only after long delay

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Level 1

8 points

Finder shows NEW files only after long delay

Finder windows show new files only after long delay or lag on my new Mountain Lion install. The delay can be several minutes.

For instance, when I create and save a new file using Word, it will not appear instantly in the Finder for that directory as it did in Lion. Saving the file again and closing Word does not help.

However, spotlight finds the file immediately, and the file will show up in a spotlight-launched finder window.

Same thing happens inside dropbox folders since Mountain Lion. Dropbox downloads a file and it can be seen in dropbox recent files list. But it wont appear in the Finder window. Again, spotlight finds the file immediately and it appears on a spotlight-launched "show all in Finder"-window --- but will not appeaer in a stand alone Finder window, even after closing and re-opening the folder in Finder.

The phenomenon started immediately after installing Mountai Lion (from Lion) on my 1 month old June 2012 MacBook Air 13" 8GB/512GB.

I have not found similar cases reported on Mountain Lion, but finder lags and delays are reported here in the forums on versions such as 10.4 (2006/2007 years) ... but no solutions or cnclusions reported even then.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 5, 2012 11:30 AM

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Answer 1

May 17, 2013 7:48 AM in response to rafflesplace

I'm having similar problems, Mountain Lion 10.8.3, Mid-2010 MacBook Pro. The files were created with custom software, but are plain text files written using standard C APIs. I encourage you to report the issue here:

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

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

May 17, 2013 11:17 AM in response to Brian Miles

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application unistaller. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

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