When Chrome is open, my Macbook Pro's Finder becomes unusable: I can no longer see the folders and files in Finder anymore (the viewing area freezes). However, Finder is not frozen because if I start clicking randomly on the Finder area, then files open. This only started happening in the last 24 hours after Chrome updated. I am running Mac X 10.9.5 and Chrome Version 52.0.2743.116 (64-bit).
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
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.
If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.
Before downloading the update did you check for what changed?
Warning to users with Firefox running Snow Leopard -- their latest release no longer runs with it & when I read whats new - seemed it would also not run with some versions after Snow Leopard - possibly up to Maverick.
Yosemite and onward changed the way Ram is used -- so Chrome may have changed handling of same.
You can reload the finder even with open items on the desktop -- if you can't open the apple menu - you may be able to relaunch from the dock.
Thanks for the advice! I tried a few things without success and then decided to just update to El Capitan, which solved the problem.
That's unusual. You may have accidentally downloaded something you shouldn't have.
Run http://www.etrecheck.com/ and copy/paste the results. It will tell us if anything is amiss.
Problem between Chrome and Finder
