Q: Cannot drag and drop files in Finder on Yosemite 10.10

Had the same problem and this worked for me.  Thanks!

For the un-tech savvy like me, there was no Library folder under User/USERNAME.  Instead I went to Macintosh HD (or whatever you named your hard drive)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist then restarted.  I've been able to drag and drop to my heart's content.

Hope it helps.

Backgorund:

Drag-drop suddenly stops working.

Temporary solutions:

4-5 reboots

Removing com.apple.finder.plist file

Have not tried:

Reinstall Yosemite

What I found out:

Just like you, I found out that it's not only about drag/drop - it's about the clipboard. As far as copy/paste went, "nothing" would work anymore. Not drag and drop, not cmd+c, not Edit > Copy. I started experience the issue just yesterday I think - it came out of the blue.

However, a week ago I created an Automator workflow that review folder X for extension Y and then moves the file(s) with said extension into a separate folder. Essentially, it's a cut and paste job that Automator does all the time.

Soluton:

Removed the Automator workflow i created from /users/username/library/workflows. Rebooted computer. Drag/drop and copy/paste has been working for over an hour. If the situation changes, I'll let you know.

Is anyone with this problem using XtraFinder? I'm wondering if this app might be causing the trouble.

Have not tried:

Reinstall Yosemite

 

What I found out:

Just like you, I found out that it's not only about drag/drop - it's about the clipboard. As far as copy/paste went, "nothing" would work anymore. Not drag and drop, not cmd+c, not Edit > Copy. I started experience the issue just yesterday I think - it came out of the blue.

I did a clean reinstall of Yosemite after running into this problem and it did not solve the problem.

I just noticed I too am having the clipboard problem. Not only does highlighting text become a struggle because it's constantly turning my drag into a double click, then it won't copy the highlighted text... cmd+c or right-click>copy.

I googled the mouse  / clipboard problem and came up with this.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/31866/copy-and-cut-sometimes-dont-work

Apparently the system process pboard is crashing and interferes with dragging and messes up the copying.  When this problem arises, I launch activity monitor and search for pboard, and force quit it. It launches again when I copy.

However this is no solution, as pboard still continues to crash. I have no idea whats crashing it.

I'm finding that restarts and software fixes are not working, so I think it could be my Magic Mouse. It seems there must be gunk on the battery stems; when my batteries are pushed up too high the problem gets worse and no software fixes help. After adjusting the batteries it seems to stop. I'm going to clean the batteries and the slots, and report back if this finishes the problem while some trial.

kkaland wrote:

 

But why would that affect copy/paste, fugnug? I have a wired mouse that doesn't use batteries and still encounter this. I think the pboard process was closer to the truth.

 

You said a clean reinstall. Do you mean a recovery install or did you actually start totally fresh and still encounter the problem? Because that would be useful information for me. Little point clean installing if the problem will recur...

I'm sure the mouse drag signal has something to do with the pboard system process, because drag and drop is essentially cut and paste. A mouse sending hay-wire drag signals might be making it crash.

Also, I wiped the hard drive volume with disk utility and installed Yosemite onto the blank volume.

All you need to do is be sure you have Spring-Loaded Folders is turned on in Finder>Preferences

Hey guys!

I suffered from this problem for months and finally got rid of it, so here's my (simple) solution. Maybe someone can use it.

As the dragndrop bug first appeared in Dock or iTunes, I tried everything from relogin, multiple reboots, resetting PRAM etc., nothing worked. So I called Apple. After been putting through to their 3rd-Lvl-Support, the support-guy figured out it has something to do with Google products. So we erased everything from Google and the problem was gone. I reinstalled Chrome and everything worked fine for weeks, until I decided to reinstall also Google Drive. Shortly after this, the bug appeared again. So I uninstalled Google Drive again (which caused other problems with Finder in the past) and haven't suffered from dragndrop issues ever since. I'm happy.

So, I hope this will be a solution or at least an approach to someone else. Much success!

Do you happen to have the "Pushbullet" extension installed for chrome?  pboard was crashing for me as well whenever I had the "Universal copy and paste" setting enabled. I now have it disabled which resolved the issue for me. I've posted the solution http://bit.ly/1CuVD3M

All I have is Google Chrome. No Google Drive and I don't have the Pushbullet addon. Also this happens when Google Chrome is not running. Would this be caused by some kind of Google Chrome helper process that needs to be removed?

Thanks Jay24K, yours was a great solution... Some notes though:

I tried doing this from my own account, no deal because it was still using Finder of course. Created a new account because I needed to have appropriate privileges to delete another Users Library file.  Even then, it was easier and faster to do it via a Sudo command line etc etc.

Really Apple, this is a bad bug. You need to fix it. Stating the bleeding obvious there.

Cheers

Gee

Restarting pboard worked for me.  For those who don't know how to do this, go to Terminal and enter (or copy & paste) these two lines:

launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.pboard.plist
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.pboard.plist

(probably best to wait 2-3 seconds between them)