Cannot access files after upgrade

Question

Level 1

0 points

Cannot access files after upgrade

Hello all,

I upgraded yesterday to Mountain Lion and I've been incredibly disappointed. My 2010 Macbook Pro is not nearly as glitchy as when the computer first restarted with the upgrade (I mean it sucked!). But it takes at least three-four minutes to turn the computer on and, much more worrying, I am having real difficulties accessing my files. I'll open up a folder in my finder and it will show the folder as being empty. The files are there, but it takes minutes for them to show up. Most of my files are pdfs and word documents. I'm not sure what the problem is. Similarly if I try to look up a file using spotlight, no dice. It can't find anything. Another file searching app I use, Alfred, seems to freeze my computer. What's going on?

I'm very disappointed. I backed up my computer (with snow leopard) with time machine right before upgrading and I'm tempted to just reboot and reload my older OS system. Ohh, what hubris! Why did I upgrade something that was not broken!

Before I ask for help on how to reload my back-up, should I try to reinstall Mountain Lion? Or does my computer just need 15 hours to reload some sort of program inventory? I would appreciate any and all help.

Best,

Sam

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 11, 2013 9:46 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 11, 2013 9:51 AM in response to srobinson.nc

I would suggest that you try booting into your recovery partition and running a disk verify/disk repair first. Based on your description, I would be concerned that you may have some sort of disk corruption going on if anything that accesses the disk is taking forever to process, and sometimes it doesn't let you access the files on the disk...

Reply

Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

May 11, 2013 10:03 AM in response to srobinson.nc

The startup time is longer because in an attempt to improve security, Apple has changed how programs work. The computer now has more tests to run before starting.

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

Safe Mode - About

General information.

Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Troubleshooting Permission Issues

Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

Things to try for Spotlight.

Spotlight – 5 things You Never Knew

Spotlight Adjustments

Spotlight Basics

Spotlight – Create Good Queries

Spotlight FAQ

Spotlight – Narrow Search Results

If you decide to go back to Snow Leopard.

Revert to Snow Leopard

Reply

Answer 3

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 10:49 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, Eric!

I think this is solving the issue. I believe I am in safe mode and can access everything no issue. I'm having some difficulty finding the uninstaller. I figured it would be in utilities. My spotlight still also seems to be offline.

Thanks again for your help!

Reply

Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

May 11, 2013 11:29 AM in response to srobinson.nc

You are welcome. What uninstaller? Try booting normally and see if things are still working okay.

Reply

Answer 5

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 1:56 PM in response to Eric Root

Well, that did not resolve things. Once I rebooted in regular mode, the problem persists unabated. I cannot open anything in Finder. All of my folders just open as if there is nothing in there.

So I spoke with a person at Apple support. They led me through the process of disk verification and disk repair that Geek Boy recommended. That also did not fix things though it found a lot of things to correct. They then suggested I upgrade my memory from 4gb to 8gb. However, Apple will not install this at their stores for liability reasons. What a cluster. So because I upgrade to M. Lion I have to throw down 200 bucks and then operate on my computer? I'm not convinced it's a RAM issue since my activity monitor shows plenty of space. So upon perusinga few other forums I tried fixing some problems with Finder.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4326785

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3570616

However, I had to work through Terminal (with help from techy friends) because I could not pull anything up in Finder because this is the big issue... it does not seem to work (the big issue I'm having). But this deleting these processes did not help at all. Man, this is awful. Yesterday, I had a smooth streamlined Macbook. Today I can't do any work at all!!

Reply

Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

May 11, 2013 2:04 PM in response to srobinson.nc

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.

These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.

Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.

Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then copy it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.

Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.

Step 1

Triple-click the line of text below to select it:

kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}' | open -f -a TextEdit

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Then click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Post the contents of that window, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. You can then close the TextEdit window. No typing is involved in this step.

Step 2

Repeat with this line:

sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}' | open -f -a TextEdit

This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which you do have to type. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. Type it carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. Heed that warning, but don't post it. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.

Step 3

launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}' | open -f -a TextEdit

Step 4

ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit

Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.

Step 5

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null | open -f -a TextEdit

Remember, steps 1-5 are all copy-and-paste — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.

You can then quit Terminal.

Reply

Answer 7

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 2:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

Ok. Thank you for your help!

After posting the first contents into terminal, a window entitled 'open_ezZXGpAW.txt' opened up. It contained no content.

Reply

Answer 8

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 2:13 PM in response to srobinson.nc

Contents of window after Step 2:

com.wdc.WDSmartWareServer

com.wdc.WDDMservice

com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

com.adobe.fpsaud

Reply

Answer 9

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 2:14 PM in response to srobinson.nc

After Step 3:

com.mint.quickview-launcher

com.symantec.symsecondarylaunch.application

com.symantec.scannotification.application

com.symantec.savdiskmountnotify.application

com.symantec.quickmenusa.application

com.spotify.webhelper

com.google.keystone.user.agent

com.adobe.ARM.202f4087f2bbde52e3ac2df389f53a4f123223c9cc56a8fd83a6f7ae

Reply

Answer 10

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 2:16 PM in response to srobinson.nc

Step 4 (I anonymized my @me address with ###s):

/Library/Components:

/Library/Extensions:

/Library/Frameworks:

AEProfiling.framework

AERegistration.framework

Adobe AIR.framework

AudioMixEngine.framework

EWSMac.framework

NyxAudioAnalysis.framework

PluginManager.framework

iLifeFaceRecognition.framework

iLifeKit.framework

iLifePageLayout.framework

iLifeSQLAccess.framework

iLifeSlideshow.framework

iTunesLibrary.framework

/Library/Input Methods:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins:

AdobePDFViewer.plugin

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin

Quartz Composer.webplugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

SharePointWebKitPlugin.webplugin

Unity Web Player.plugin

Unused

flashplayer.xpt

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt

/Library/Keyboard Layouts:

/Library/LaunchAgents:

com.symantec.quickmenusa.application.plist

com.symantec.savdiskmountnotify.application.plist

com.symantec.scannotification.application.plist

com.symantec.symsecondarylaunch.application.plist

/Library/LaunchDaemons:

com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

com.wdc.WDDMservice.plist

com.wdc.WDSmartWareServer.plist

org.eyebeam.SelfControl.plist

/Library/PreferencePanes:

Box Sync.prefPane

Flash Player.prefPane

SymAutoProtect.prefPane

SymantecSAQuickMenu.prefPane

/Library/PrivateFrameworks:

SymAppKitAdditions.framework

SymBase.framework

SymIR.framework

SymScheduler.framework

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools:

com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

org.eyebeam.SelfControl

scheckup

/Library/QuickLook:

iBooksAuthor.qlgenerator

iWork.qlgenerator

/Library/QuickTime:

AppleIntermediateCodec.component

AppleMPEG2Codec.component

/Library/ScriptingAdditions:

Adobe Unit Types.osax

/Library/Services:

ScanService.service

/Library/Spotlight:

Microsoft Office.mdimporter

iBooksAuthor.mdimporter

iWork.mdimporter

/Library/StartupItems:

NortonMissedTasks

SMC

SymAutoProtect

/etc/mach_init.d:

/etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d:

/etc/mach_init_per_user.d:

Library/Address Book Plug-Ins:

SkypeABDialer.bundle

SkypeABSMS.bundle

Library/Fonts:

Library/Frameworks:

EWSMac.framework

Library/Input Methods:

.localized

Library/Internet Plug-Ins:

Library/Keyboard Layouts:

Library/LaunchAgents:

com.adobe.ARM.202f4087f2bbde52e3ac2df389f53a4f123223c9cc56a8fd83a6f7ae.plist

com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-#####@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

com.google.keystone.agent.plist

com.spotify.webhelper.plist

Library/PreferencePanes:

Reply

Answer 11

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 2:17 PM in response to srobinson.nc

And Step 5:

Alfred, Flux, Dropbox, WDQuickView

Reply

Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

May 11, 2013 2:23 PM in response to srobinson.nc

Boot in safe mode again. Back up all data, then uninstall the Western Digital software according to the developer's instructions. Reboot as usual and test.

Reply

Answer 13

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 3:01 PM in response to Linc Davis

Sorry for the delay. I'm trying to uninstall it, but the developer uninstaller software seems to be not working.

Reply

Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

May 11, 2013 3:25 PM in response to srobinson.nc

You also have a partial installation of Norton. I don't think it's functional, but it should be removed too. If all else fails, you'll have to erase the startup volume, reinstall OS X, and restore only your user data and settings from a backup. After that, reinstall all your third-party software from scratch, not including the unnecessary items.

Reply

Answer 15

srobinson.nc Author

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Linc Davis

Very good. I can't however seem to uninstall these programs using the developer software (at least for the wd smart ware) is there a way to simply delete these? I.e. tossing them into my trash?

Reply