indigoblue69
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Finder freezes - needs 20 seconds to react

Hi I encountered a strange behaviour on my late 2013 iMac that appeared out of nowhere. I did not update or install a new version of something. From one day to the other my finder is slow and does not react for seconds. Whenever I open a finder window the mouse cursor turns into the rainbow-color spinning wheel and I can do nothing. Approx. after 20 seconds the mouse cursor is back again and everything works fine. I can browse through folders etc. But when I click outside the finder window or switch to another application and come back to the same - or a new finder window - the mouse again turns into the spinning wheel. The same happens when I press the space bar to preview a picture or word doc or pdf. The documents opens in the preview window, but I can not browse through the other docs in the folder with the arrow keys for again 20 seconds.

 

What I did to solve the problem is to delete the com.apple.finder.plist in the library/preferences folder. But it did not help.

 

I have a network connection via a Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter to a macpro. But this is my standard configuration and worked quite well for month.

The only thing that came to my mind is, that the finder is first trying to verify the network connection every time it is opened and after verification is OK, you can use it. But the problem remains whether the macpro or the network connection is on or off.

 

OSX version is 10.8.5

 

 

Any ideas???

Mac Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on May 28, 2014 6:42 AM

by dianeoforegon,Solvedanswer
dianeoforegon dianeoforegon
Level 5 (5,372 points)
Mac OS X
A:

See instructions I posted here to move to the new User. The only tricky part is the User's Library. I listed safe items but if you have any questions, I'll be happy to disucuss your files and what to move.

 

https://discussions.apple.com/message/25976211#25976211

Posted on Jun 6, 2014 11:29 AM

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indigoblue69

Q: Finder freezes - needs 20 seconds to react

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  • by indigoblue69,

    indigoblue69 indigoblue69 Jun 10, 2014 12:23 AM in response to harrypottuh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 10, 2014 12:23 AM in response to harrypottuh

    Hi harry,

     

    dianes link led to the following post. There is my info about the PLIST file from.

    After deleting the Plist file my Finder is still workling flawless.....

     

    _____________

    Morning All

     

    Sorry but had to crash last night as on UK time.

     

    First thanks Diane for the detailed solution, I will note this.

     

    And thanls Linc for your suggestion but sadly it did not work.

     

    In the end I found an ols thread and tried something else.  I binned the plists of

    Finder

    Dock

    Sidebars

    Desktop

    Recnt Items

     

    I dont know which one it was but the problem is solved!

     

    Only legacy I now have which I think is the reinstalltion of OSX10.9.3 via Lion, is that my speedy MPB with SSD now takes nearly 2 minutes to boot up!  Any ideas on this?

     

    Thanks again for your help. Cheers Phil.

    __________________

     


  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jun 10, 2014 12:28 PM in response to harrypottuh
    Level 5 (5,372 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 10, 2014 12:28 PM in response to harrypottuh

    Move your data to a new User or a new Mavericks partition

  • by harrypottuh,

    harrypottuh harrypottuh Jun 13, 2014 2:31 PM in response to indigoblue69
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2014 2:31 PM in response to indigoblue69

    I think I have it! Thanks indigo and Diane.

     

    In my Users Library, I trashed the plists of Desktop, Dock, Finder, Recent Items and Sidebars.

     

    Finder has been responding fine for 3 hours, without the annoying delays

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jun 13, 2014 3:16 PM in response to harrypottuh
    Level 5 (5,372 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2014 3:16 PM in response to harrypottuh

    Looks like persistence has paid off. Thanks for letting us know the files you deleted to solve the issue. Let us know if the problem returns.

  • by iam36,

    iam36 iam36 Jun 17, 2014 5:30 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 17, 2014 5:30 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    hey

     

    i am having the same issue - also i have a similar imac as the person here - can you please help me on what to do?

     

    my finder freezes / not responding for a few - and then comes back. i have no clue whats going on.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jun 17, 2014 5:37 PM in response to iam36
    Level 5 (5,372 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 17, 2014 5:37 PM in response to iam36

    Did you try all the suggestions in this post?

     

    Please provide all the details on your problem and what you have tried.

     

    For best results see this link on how to start your own post.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/ask.html

  • by iam36,

    iam36 iam36 Jun 17, 2014 8:21 PM in response to dianeoforegon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 17, 2014 8:21 PM in response to dianeoforegon

    I tried all the things except moving the user folder.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Jun 19, 2014 10:49 AM in response to iam36
    Level 5 (5,372 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2014 10:49 AM in response to iam36

    Did the problem go away when you tested in the new User?

  • by chopter1,

    chopter1 chopter1 Oct 8, 2014 8:58 AM in response to indigoblue69
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 8, 2014 8:58 AM in response to indigoblue69

    Thanks for the tips on getting rid of the plists.  I had the spinning wheel every time I switched back to a finder window from any application, and then every 3-4 clicks then on.  Any other app seemed unaffected.  Weirdest thing was that I didn't get the wheel inside my office firewall, but did outside the firewall every time and every where.  I thought it was related to my work Outlook server but uninstalling Office completely didn't get rid of the problem. 

     

    Deleting the com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist worked for me.  The trick to finding those two files is to hold down the ctrl-option keys while selecting the Go menu and selecting the Library on the pull down.  You will have to set up your preferences again of course, but pretty minor compared to some of the other things I have tried with no success.

     

    Finally got rid of that damned wheel after 2 months.  It is especially sweet since I also upgraded to an SSD on my 4 year old MacBook Pro and everything is FLYING!  Running on 10.8.5.

  • by rubenbinho,

    rubenbinho rubenbinho Feb 13, 2016 8:01 PM in response to chopter1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2016 8:01 PM in response to chopter1

    same with me!!! 100%%% THANKS!!!!!!

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