Slow file open dialogue box

Interesting. Are these really clean installs with no migration of any kind? Simply format hard drive and install Mavericks with no migration by Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant, and no network connections active - a pure install on a standalone system? And these are stock Macs with no third party hardware?

If so, then check the Console for any messages which would indicate I/O issues to the hard drive, and Activity Monitor for unusual memory usage (e.g. memory pressure in yellow). Also verify the drive in stand alone mode or booted from the recovery partition.

If there is no hardware issue, and a true clean install really does show an issue, then from the Terminal run

sudo sysdiagnose -t Finder

while duplicating the problem and submit the resulting diagnostic file and a System Report in a bug report to Apple with as complete a description of the symptoms as you can. Note that the resulting diagnostic file will be large, and will take some time to collect.

Just adding a "me too" here. Experiencing a 15-20 second delay in Open and Save dialog boxes before file listings show up in the Open/Save window. System information: OS X 10.9.1, MacBook Pro 15" Retina (2013) with a 512 GB SSD.

From Apple-Merry Christmas-out of the box-day 1, clean systems. On an older one, I took it down to the metal and started over twice. I certainly have no hardware problems. I can agree that I don't think it is a bug. It is too pervasive, too obvious, and nothing unique or odd about our setups, so intuitions says it's half built or "surreptitious" feature that is still being tweaked. I'm now at 10.9.1 also and prefer NOT to tweak system files to work-around it. Just hoping Apple will change the behavior in the next patch.

Used Windows exclusively for about 15 years, and got desensitized to a daily barrage of "security" patches and bug fixes. When I switched to using OS X about 5 years ago, I was amazed with the quality and stability and usability. So I feel like I can say from experience that in the last year to two, from my perspective, Apple has lost some integrity or quality or talent... whatever magic they had is going away FAST and they don't seem to be making an effort to correct or even acknowledge it.

Eric, Sorry, I'm back to 10.8.5 but to answer your question:

Yes, this issue was indeed happening on a newly formatted system drive with no migration whatsover, just a pure virgin install of Mavericks! Yes, I for one am running on a stock Late 2009 27" iMac 2.66Mhz Quad Core that suffers the symptom. We have a real issue here that many of us are experiencing with this Mavericks upgrade that did not exist in the previous releases of the OS! You folks seriously need to address this issue!

Eric Hildum wrote:

If so, then check the Console for any messages which would indicate I/O issues to the hard drive, and Activity Monitor for unusual memory usage (e.g. memory pressure in yellow). Also verify the drive in stand alone mode or booted from the recovery partition.

sudo sysdiagnose -t Finder

I filed a rdar( 15437435 ) with Apple on 11-Nov-2013 including console messages showing failures in the Open/Save panel code( failed assertions - not necessarily causing the problem but they show up when the problem does ) and error message from Preview.app( because I use Preview.app to test it ). The report includes a code snippet to reproduce the problem ( although it can be reproduced at will using Apple's Preview.app ), the workaround commenting out the auto_master file 'net' line and basic environment information.

I've attached the sysdiagnose( btw: for folks who don't know, this is a driver program that runs other unix programs --like lsof etc.---and collects the output ) output to the rdar

I think it is a defect in Mac OS. The symptom occurs in both Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

I had Parallels desktop running with Windows 8.1 and browsing or traversing through the directories are instant, while on Mac listing files in a directory is very slow, sometimes take up to over a minute!

Apple should treat this issue seriously. Apparenlty Windows 8 or 8.1 has a better scheme in caching without any obvious impact on initial perfomance.

This issue bugs me since Mountain Lion and still not fixed. I am using mid 2012 MacBook Pro Retinal with 750 GB SSD, 16 GB.

Is it just me, or is anyone else perplexed that Apple hasn't fixed this yet? I've been all over the web and its universal in mavericks, & our IT people have been on the horn to Apple and they plain & simple don't know why this is happening. Very unusual and surprised there isn't more outcry in the IT press and by Mavericks users. OH how I wish I hadn't upgraded to Mavericks. Photoshop CS apps open quicker than I can bring up a file open dialogue. Gads!

This issue has singlehandedly submarined my effort to get more Mac's into the workplace as NO ONE wants to wait 10-20 seconds for a file dialogue box to open during a busy day of multi-tasking. Kills efficiency & creates a serious multi-tasking hiccup. Our head of IT works for me, but I honestly can't push the MAC issue with this serious bug.

APPLE ARE YOU LISTENING?

It may be all over the web, but that does not mean a lot of people are experiencing the problem. I have five Mac systems of various vintages, and none show this problem. The issue may be confined to just a single system type, or, more likely, some sort of odd configuration issue (and yes, this could occur on a new install). Further, the number of people complaining in discussions like these dwarfs the number that actually take the time to file a proper bug report with a reasonably complete description of the problem, logs, and diagnostic traces. It would not surprise me if Apple has only one or two reports of the problem in their database.

The more reports that are submitted, with complete sysdiagnose traces and system configuration reports, the sooner Apple will be able to identify and fix the problem. So if you have the problem, do not post a complaint here about Apple not fixing things until you have taken 30 minutes to file as complete a bug report as you can, then given Apple time to make an update release to fix the issue. In some rare cases, Apple will reach out to issue reporters with additional questions and diagnostic procedures.

I have filed many bug reports over the years; to date, every major bug I reported has been fixed. I even sometimes see issues reported on the web, reproduce them myself, and submit a bug report since it is clear that many people would rather complain than take the steps to help Apple identify and fix the issue. I would do so for this one, but I do not have this problem.

By the way, if an issue does not get fixed in the next release, update the bug report with additional diagnostics on the new release - sometimes fixes are only partially successful.

Thanks for the good PR effort, Eric. If you have joined this thread only to minimize the effects of what has been reported, I think you can consider your work done.

If you had bothered to read through this entire thread, you would see that bugs have been reported and updated, feedback has been provided, and Apple Care has been contacted. I am not too sure what more can be done unless, like you, we have a direct line to Apple development and can get all of the "major" bugs we find fixed in the next release like you have been able to do in the past. I do not see what your posts have contributed to the conversation other than telling the rest of us that our issue needs to be reported (it has been - multiple times) and that it does not affect that many users (you are incorrect).

Yes Eric - thank you for the detailed comments. I'm glad you don't have the issue. I did file a bug report. My frustration is better explained below. In my limited experience the issue is obvious on 5 of 6 machines to which I have been exposed. As long as the true experts are pressing the issue thru the right channels, little more can be done.

I respect your remarks superjones and your partly right. I did read the entire thread AND several others dating back to the original release of 10.9.1. Couldn't find any Apple acknoledgement of the issue and confirmation its being worked on. I may have missed the Apple feedback you mention. Your correct that all you can ask is confirmation they are working on the obvious problem. I also raised the issue at the genius bar locally and the comment was that they had never heard of the problem. I found that odd, particularly when 3 others at this particualr session chimed in with the same stalling open/save file dialogue box. I also filed a bug report on the issue a few weeks back.

Apple says they don't monitor the Support Communities and that may be so. I regret if nothing was contributed by my frustrated post. My organization is small (63 employees) Having convinced my partners to simply try out only 3 new iMac's the last quarter of 2013 to blend in with the sea of Windows machines, the issue worked against my efforts. And before you say it, I realize an iMac is not a great biz machine but its baby steps for non power users. I also agreed to let one of my partners replace a Windows laptop with a MacBook Pro. When he asked me if he should upgrade to Mavericks I said "sure". He has the same problem. As does my daughter on her MacBook pro post upgrade.

I'm glad you don't have the problem superjones. Don't diminish the issue to those that deal with it constantly.

- hutch

In my experience, Apple never acknowledges bugs in forums such as this. Further, it is rare that they make any statement about bug resolution efforts in any forum at all. About the only way I have known when Apple is working on a bug I reported is if a) they contact me asking for more information, or (less reliable) b) I see my report has been closed as a duplicate of some other report. Unfortunately with the design of the bug reporting system, in the latter case I cannot see the original bug report.

While posting in forums such as this may allow others to make suggestions to help work around issues (as has been the case here), such postings will not help Apple identify or fix bugs.

By the way, I do think there is a serious problem that needs to be fixed. Clearly, it is one of the hardest type to fix as it is intermittant in appearance, affecting some and not others. This makes clear, detailed reporting by those affected even more important, as they are likely the only source of information for finding and resolving the issue.

superjones - what makes you think I have a direct line to Apple? I use the same bug reporting system as everyone else. I have just been doing it for twenty years, so perhaps have filed and seen resolved a few more bugs than average.

I suppose bugreports.apple.com could be considered a direct line….

Eric: Maybe because you came on so authoritative. I myself was under the impression you worked for Apple! However, on closer examination of your responses in this thread I concluded it was more of a bull in a china closet scenario!

Well said.

I had this issue on my iMac Mid 2007, MacBook 2008 and MacBook Pro 2012 Retina.

This issue actually long existed in Mountain Lion version for me. I was surprised that it is still not yet fixed in Mavericks.

Can you try move a file from one directory to another? Even this operation take more than 10 seconds. Ridiculous.

I will report to Apple Care this week. It is a serious bug and can cost Apple billion of dollars! How can Apple ignore it?

SUCCESS!
(at least apparent, temporary success...)

Here is what worked for me:

1) Open Finder and navigate to this location:

HD > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration

2) Find the file named preferences.plist

3) Rename the file to preferences.plist.old (this preserves the data in case you need to restore the file for some reason)

4) Your system will then rebuild the preferences.plist file (not sure whether that happenes immediately or upon rebooting).

Let me know if this worked for you. This instantly solved my problem, and I'll keep an alias to that location on my desktop so I can repeat the process if the slow behavior reappears. Hopefully Apple will fix whatever is causing this problem with preferences.plist.

Have a great day!