Open With reads "Fetching..." for over a minute in Yosemite

Restart the computer in safe mode. Certain caches maintained by the system will be rebuilt.

Safe mode is much slower to start up than normal. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.

When the login screen appears, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and test. There's no need to log in while in safe mode.

Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t start in safe mode. In that case, ask for instructions.

I also have this problem, but I have FileVault enabled so I can't start in safe mode. Any solutions to this?

Google turned up this page: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/151201/fetching-behavior-in-finder-open -with-menu-in-yosemite the reset of LaunchServices worked for me, took a little while appears to have reset a number of things (I've had a message "This is the first time you've run app X" for example) but nothing major and the problem does seem to have cleared... I wondered if it was because I'm running on a 2009 MacBook Pro, it doesn't do it on my iMac? Either way, seems to be cleared now, hope this helps?

Robert...

I've been running Yosemite for a few weeks now without any issues. I have selected "Open With" many times. But I noticed the "Fetching" behavior this morning. Linc's suggestion to start in Safe Mode and then restart normally has resolved the issue for me. (FileVault is not enabled.)

It happened again a day or so ago. Displayed the dim "Fetching..." menu command for a very long time. I gave up and rebooted. That cured it. Something is causing this but I don't know what - yet.

I'm experiencing this same issue. I've tried both remedies mentioned in this post and none have solved the problem. This issue seems to persist and get worse the longer my machine is up. Worse meaning the longer the "Fetching" remains before listing other applications.

Apple - what information do you need to investigate this issue? It's quite annoying as I depend on the "Open with" capability, which frankly doesn't work in Yosemite. This has functioned flawlessly with prior versions of OS X.

I'm running version 10.10.1 (14B25) of OS X Yosemite

Could this be a combination of particular Mac's (older?) and/or drives? In my MacBookPro5,2 (early 2009) I have a Seagate 750GB Momentus XT SATA Solid State Hybrid Hard Drive, it was an upgrade a couple of years ago that I've always felt never quite lived up to expectation, and I wonder if this drive is a contributing factor?

I have noticed that once or twice it does take a brief moment to populate the menu, in my opinion, 10.10.1 has improved things significantly?

I'm running 10.10.1 on a 2013 MacBook Air with 128 GB solid state drive.

I don't think I can make the leap to it being related to SSD drives (or hardware of any kind). I do have SSD drives, but this worked flawlessly under Mavericks, Mountain Lion and Lion with the exact same hardware set up. Seems to be a change in Finder or an underlying service or resource that Finder uses. Actually it should very simply be a list (or file) of associations that the operating system loads at least at boot. Should be simple for Apple to debug and fix.

I've got a WD Blue 1tb hard drive (mechanical) and I get this behaviour too, so it's definitely not linked to SSDs. I did a clean install and haven't installed a bunch of 3rd party software. I wonder if this is happening more on older systems? My MacBook Pro is a Late 2011 13" model with 8gb of RAM in it. In theory it shouldn't have a speed issue. I'd be interested to know if people with the shiny new 5K iMac have this issue, too.

I'm pleased that I won't ever see duplicate entries in the "Open with…" menu, but it seems like they could have found a better way to fix the issue than populating the menu dynamically every time it's accessed. Love to have a fix for this, because it's bloody aggravating and I don't see why I should have to restart my system every other day to keep fixable defects at bay.

I just started seeing this today - but after I wirelessly connected an older iMac to finish transferring files off of it. When it opens the "Open With" menu contains applications from the other Mac as well. Maybe be sure you aren't connected to a network share (if possible) as Yosemite appears to scan those for applicable programs as well.

Same problem with me since upgrading to Yosemite.

MacBook Pro Retina mid-2012

16GB RAM

SSD Drive

Yosemite 10.10.1

Between this huge glitch and the external drives constantly ejecting themselves after my MacBook wakes up from "sleep mode", I'm beginning to realize how half-baked this OSX version really is. And still no details on workarounds or fixes from Apple.

Very annoying and frustrating.

I had the same problem, I tried the safe mode, still very slow, I then ejected all my usb drives and the fetching appeared for a short while and after that it has been pretty instant. Not a fix, but explains the issue, I use a few usb drives for backup since I cannot rely upon Time Machine.

I have the same problem since upgrading to Yosemite. I've got an eight core 2.93 Mac Pro with 24gb of ram. Open with often just freezes up and I have to try it multiple times before it eventually responds. I have done all the fixes and while it helps temporarily, the problem eventually returns. Is there a way to fix this? Is anyone at Apple even acknowledging this problem?

Is there a way to tell it to only open with certain apps? Is it spinning up the other drives? I am not sure what is going on. I am using WD NAS Red Drives.

rswift's solution from StackExchange worked for me, thanks!

i.e. this command line in a terminal window:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -r -f -v -domain local-domain user -domain system

I also see numerous errors in the terminal window as the command runs, but the results back in the Finder for Open With.... are super. The menu now immediately pops up fully populated, as expected.