Cannot drag and drop files in Finder on Yosemite 10.10

This problem has become less frequent in 10.10.2 compared to .1 however this only means it's all the more annoying when it finally happens again because my guard is down and I'm dropping files into wrong folders or onto open windows that process the files; it's so annoying! 😠 I'm also taking cmd+shift+4 screenshots that are only about 5 pixels.

I'm really looking forward to 10.10.3 because I've heard the beta has fixed some other broken things that have been getting to me. Here's hoping this is one of the issues they've addressed in the next update. 😀

All of sudden this problem started for me, too. I could not drag and drop any file at all. I started reading and researching and one thing popped out at me: my Mac is pretty new and I had only opened Google Chrome for the first time yesterday. That's when the problems started, but I had not made the connection yet. I have a Chromebook (which I love BTW) and so I added to Chrome all sorts of copy and paste functions there. Chrome automatically syncs all these extensions to all your copies of Chrome, but these extensions are totally unnecessary on a Mac. Long story short, I disabled all of the copy/paste extensions in Chrome, relaunched the Finder, and voilá, I now had drag and drop again. Chrome is the devil, for sure. It slows my Windows PC to a grinding halt and just wreaked havoc to my Mac. Google, what is wrong with you? In your search for world domination, you're making lots of errors.

Peter Deep1 wrote:

All of sudden this problem started for me, too. I could not drag and drop any file at all. I started reading and researching and one thing popped out at me: my Mac is pretty new and I had only opened Google Chrome for the first time yesterday. That's when the problems started, but I had not made the connection yet. I have a Chromebook (which I love BTW) and so I added to Chrome all sorts of copy and paste functions there. Chrome automatically syncs all these extensions to all your copies of Chrome, but these extensions are totally unnecessary on a Mac. Long story short, I disabled all of the copy/paste extensions in Chrome, relaunched the Finder, and voilá, I now had drag and drop again. Chrome is the devil, for sure. It slows my Windows PC to a grinding halt and just wreaked havoc to my Mac. Google, what is wrong with you? In your search for world domination, you're making lots of errors.

Please elaborate on these copy/paste functions. I have Chrome without any other extensions pretty much. Could this still be the cause? What things need disabled in Chrome? Also is Chrome still the culprit when it's not even open?

I only know what worked for me. I have my Chrome browsers synced across all my devices, as many do. This syncs up bookmarks, passwords, extensions, etc. One of the devices I use is a Chromebook, which does not run Windows or OS X, it's a strictly online computer where everything runs in the Chrome browser. To extend the copy functions, I installed a Chrome extension that records the clipboard. I forget what it's called but it was downloaded from the Google Play store. When I opened Chrome on my new Mac, all of the Chrome extensions were installed during the sync. That's when my drag and drop problems started on my Mac, and by disabling these Chrome extensions on my Mac, dragging in OS X was restored. And yes, Chrome was closed, but still these extensions were interfering in the operation of my Mac. Once I opened Chrome again and disabled them my Mac worked fine, even without a reboot.

Regarding my complaints about Chrome, it has caused a myriad of problems on my Windows 8 computer as well. If you close Chrome and then open the Task Manager, you'll see Chrome is still running many times - once for each tab you had open. I normally have at least a dozen tabs open, so that's how many times there will be an instance of Chrome running even when it's closed. I don't know of the corresponding tool to look at these running instances on a Mac, though I am sure there is one. All I know from experience is that Chrome is a memory hog and will cause my computer to slow down considerably. I try to avoid using it in Mac and Windows, but I wanted to record a web broadcast using Screencastify on my Mac. I gave up and just used the Chromebook to record instead.

I apparently do not have the apple..plst file in existence on my computer. I restarted and the problem persisted. However, the simple relaunch of finder helped me. This was the most helpful suggestion.

First of all, thanks to jay42k because, in fact, that file is the root of the problem. I know I'm some months late, but anyway I just wanted to add my two cents. There is no need to reboot nor to use a different user. In a Terminal.app (can be found in /Applications/Utilities folder) window, the following two commands should do the trick:

$ rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

$ killall -9 Finder

(Remark: The dollar signs are not part of the commands).

Everything should be working now.

I seem to be having more luck running OS X with my printer turned off. However, like all the other solutions I wonder if this is coincidence. My Canon printer/scan/fax that came with this iMac has many incidentally mischievous aspects, that I have found in Activity Monitor and my firewall from time to time.

I'm not sure if your issue is the same as mine, but I was used to force clicking a folder and dragging it it the Trash, etc from Mavericks and earlier OS's. When I got my new MacBook it had Yosemite and every time I clicked the folder it gave me a description of the folder.

I turned of Force Click and Haptic Feedback option within System Preferences>>Track Pad>>Point & Click>> and uncheck the box that says Force Click and Haptic Feedback

Hi from Caracas,

I had the same problem in MacMini 2012/Yosemite... I discovered the desktop was locked

1. Just open a window

2. Go to sidebar and select Desktop

3. Press command i (Info)

4. Unlock de desktop (uncheck)

And now my Mac its ok...

regards,

This worked for me. Thanks.

i did the Sleep too and voila! now it works

Apple support solved the problem for me. Went into my home folder and clicked onto desktop (original). Then got info (Command I) and clicked on wheel below window, after unlocking window, and clicked on 'apply to enclosed items.' This solved my problem.

I also had this problem, but finally have solved it. None of the solutions given here was really working for me. The problem in most cases started with iTunes, that wouldn't allow me to drag and drop songs anymore after a short time after log in into OS X, and after that I progressively lost drag and drop functionally in other apps, including Finder. Oftentimes after 20 or 30 minutes I had no drag and drop functionality whatsoever left (until the next restart of OS X).

The cause of the problem in my case turned out to be SIMBL. I had installed that to use Afloat. After:

1. removing components of Afloat (search Macintosh HD for "afloat")
2. removing SIMBL (search Macintosh HD for "SIMBL" and removing everything I found)
3. restarting my Mac

the problem completely vanished!