Finder unusable - flashing on and off

Question

Level 1

9 points

Finder unusable - flashing on and off

Hello all,

I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6 on an Intel Macbook, and Finder has become unusable. On start-up, the desktop Title bar and my desktop icons appear for a second or two, then disappear again, then appear, then disappear, and so on, and it never stops!

When I try to open a new Finder window, it's the same. Even after re-starting the problem persists. Even after trashing my Finder preferences, and re-starting, the problem persists.

My system has become completely un-usable. Can anyone help?

I haven't installed any software recently or made any changes to my system which could explain this - but my whole system is now completely useless because, like anybody else, I need to be able to access the File system.

thanks in advance.

Ewan

MacBook Pro

Posted on Jul 13, 2015 4:58 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 13, 2015 8:18 AM in response to tea_cozy

Go to your user library in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.

Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.

If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

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Answer 2

tea_cozy Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 13, 2015 11:22 AM in response to Eric Root

Hi Eric,

thanks for taking the time to try to help. Unfortunately, it didn't work. This is driving me insane. I had to use Terminal to try it, because Finder is completely unusable. Any other suggestions would be most welcome.

Ewan

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Jul 14, 2015 7:27 AM in response to tea_cozy

Try a restart.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode

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