Finder tab switching very slow

I just noticed in the Activity Monitor that Finder (with one window open, and 5 tabs within the window) was taking a lot of Memory -- on the order of 1.5 or 2.0GB. I did a Forced Quit and relaunch of Finder, and now it's using 75MB with the same tabs open in a single Finder window... and now moving from tab to tab is zippy... no delay at all.

So maybe this helps shed some light on what might be happening? Why would finder be taking so much memory -- perhaps the answer to this question might help us figure out why tab switching becomes slow?

Thanks kerouacjack. Restarting Finder works for me too. If 'force quit' feels a bit extreme, another way to relaunch Finder is to hold Option while right-clicking on Finder icon in the Dock, and clicking 'Relaunch'.

If a restart does not sort the issue, I suspect Relaunch the Finder will also have no effect?

Finder>Force Quit> Relaunch Finder

I see no bug reports on Finder Tabs —you can search yourself Open Radar

With your same Apple ID you can sign up for a free Developers Account and start a conversation with Apple engineers

Bug Reporter https://bugreport.apple.com/

I have this same issue on a new (2017) MacBook Pro with TouchBar, and after a clean wipe and fresh install of High Sierra. Seems to be less of an issue when I'm on faster wireless networks (spinning beach ball time is lower), but it still happens after several weeks since my fresh install. This is pretty unacceptable...

in my case, retina macbook pro 2012 16GB ram, the fnder's tab switch takes only 1 sec, but is far more slow than with Sierra.

you get to use it but sometimes you can think you didn't press the comand right when it takes 2 secs or so...

very annoying.

also navigating in columns view is slower than in Sierra, it usually takes 1 or 2 secs for folders with 20 or more items inside.

😟

I have this issue to, with an iMac 2015 SSD but slow internet (ADSL).

My guess is that Finder tries to check iCloud-status in a severely non-optimized way.

...reporting back that I am still experiencing the delay when switching tabs. not all the time, but frequently. so it seems that removing the CleanMyMac vestiges and the seagate files didn't do the trick.

I also have this problem. Although for me the problem pretty much happened after I stopped using Google Drive for all of my files and completely switched to iCloud for my files. The timing is not exact, but this started happening within a month or so of switching. I have a late 2016 15" MacBook Pro Touch Bar 2.9 GHz, Intel Core 7, 16GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3, 2TB SSD (with 1.35TB free) and Radeon Pro 460 4 GB & Intel HD Graphics 530 1536 MB. It is was the most expensive 15" MacBook Pro Touch Bar you could buy and so it is incredibly frustrating. I have Comcast and my internet is not symmetrical up and down, but my download tests out at 150 Mbps and upload at around 8 Mbps. It also happens on other wifi networks. I did a fresh install (instead of Time Machine backup). This is when I switched to iCloud. I don't even have Google Drive installed on the machine now. I have very little other software installed and the software that I do have all came from the official Apple Mac Store other than Microsoft Office. I don't use any cloud services other than iCloud. I don't watch online **** and go to only the most boring and common websites and am careful what I open and download. I can't imagine that anything I have done is causing this problem. Truthfully, this machine is probably over-built for what I use it for so this should not be happening. Been going on for a over a month now.

Download and run Etrecheck. Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.

com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2017-10-24)

Uninstall CMM3 according to the developer's instructions: How to uninstall CleanMyMac 3. Knowledge Base - MacPaw

It's considered akin to malware around here.

Also uninstall the Seagate drive software. it's not needed for High Sierra to use the external HDs.

Hi, ok I've run it and the results are below. At one point when I was getting the beachball every time I clicked a new tab, I ran spindump on the finder process while the beach balling was going... I have no clue what spindump is or if it is useful, but I mention it because I have the result as well.

EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)

Report generated 2017-12-15 00:18:12

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 2:34

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Beachballing

Hardware Information:ⓘ

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

iMac - model: iMac14,2

1 3.5 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4771) CPU: 4-core

24 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM1

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

iCloud Quota: 1.76 TB available

Video Information:ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M - VRAM: 2 GB

iMac 2560 x 1440

Disk Information:ⓘ

APPLE SSD SD0128F disk0: (121.33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted> [CoreStorage Container]: 120.99 GB

(disk0s3) <not mounted> [Boot]: 134 MB

APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 disk1: (1 TB) (Rotational)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk1s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

(disk1s2) <not mounted> [CoreStorage Container]: 999.35 GB

Recovery HD (disk1s3 - HFS+) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information:ⓘ

USB30Bus

Seagate Ultra Slim PL

Ultra Slim PL disk3: (2 TB)

EFI (disk3s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

TIM (disk3s2 - Case-sensitive Journaled HFS+) /Volumes/TIM : 2.00 TB (869.87 GB free)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. iPhone

Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

Apple Inc. Apple Keyboard

Thunderbolt Information:ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks:ⓘ

Macintosh HD (disk2 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 1.11 TB (58.02 GB free)

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.99 GB Online

Physical disk: disk1s2 999.35 GB Online

System Software:ⓘ

macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 (17C88) - Time since boot: about one day

Gatekeeper:ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:ⓘ

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions/Seagate Storage Driver.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.5) [Lookup]

[not loaded] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup]

Startup Items:ⓘ

ChmodBPF: Path: /Library/StartupItems/ChmodBPF

Startup items no longer function in OS X Yosemite or later

System Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] 8 Apple tasks

[loaded] 158 Apple tasks

[running] 124 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[not loaded] 34 Apple tasks

[loaded] 175 Apple tasks

[running] 122 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:ⓘ

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2015-05-15) [Lookup]

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-09-28) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-12-13) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 95f08e9c 72ac4dde - installed 2017-11-09) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.paragon-software.facebook.agent.plist (? 95fb0bd4 e9648c48 - installed 2016-08-06) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.paragon.updater.plist (Paragon Software GmbH - installed 2016-08-06) [Lookup]

[running] org.chromium.chromoting.plist (Shell Script 81572da9 - installed 2017-10-24) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons:ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist (? 68cad67 0 - installed 2014-11-29) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-11-28) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (? 7d7988a6 a676eca7 - installed 2013-10-05) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-10-13) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Agent.plist (MacPaw Inc. - installed 2017-10-24) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.malwarebytes.HelperTool.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed 2017-11-10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-12-13) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e cf9ce3fb - installed 2014-02-26) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (? 689758eb 56e8a673 - installed 2015-07-01) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (Shell Script e3fefdd2 - installed 2017-09-06) [Lookup]

[running] com.seagate.TBDecorator.plist (? 595582c 212092b1 - installed 2015-11-02) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.sharpcast.xfsmond.plist (? c1cc046b 0 - installed 2017-09-22) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.skype.skypeinstaller.plist (Skype - installed 2015-03-29) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents:ⓘ

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-08-10) [Lookup]

[running] com.lastpass.LastPassHelper.plist (? ? ? - installed 2017-11-04) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (Skype Communications S.a.r.l - installed 2017-11-04) [Lookup]

[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist (Spotify - installed 2016-01-31) [Lookup]

User Login Items:ⓘ

Flux Application

(/Applications/Flux.app)

BetterTouchTool Application

(/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

iTranslateHelper SMLoginItem - Hidden (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-11-25)

(/Applications/iTranslate.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/iTranslateHelper.app)

WunderlistHelper SMLoginItem - Hidden (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-06-30)

(/Applications/Wunderlist.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/WunderlistHelper.app)

EvernoteHelper SMLoginItem - Hidden (Evernote - installed 2017-12-03)

(/Applications/Evernote.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/EvernoteHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins:ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 28.0.0.126 (installed 2017-12-12) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-12-01)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (installed 2017-11-30) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 18.009.20050 (installed 2017-11-30) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 28.0.0.126 (installed 2017-12-12) [Lookup]

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2015-12-16) [Lookup]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.9 (installed 2016-10-14) [Lookup]

nplastpass: 4.1.2 (installed 2017-11-04) [Lookup]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2015-12-11) [Lookup]

Silverlight: 5.1.41212.0 (installed 2016-04-06) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 151 build 12 (installed 2017-11-09) Check version

Safari Extensions:ⓘ

[enabled] KeySearch - Matt Swain - http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/keysearch (installed 2016-10-17)

[enabled] Evernote Web Clipper - Evernote Corp. - http://evernote.com (installed 2017-11-08)

[enabled] Tab Duplicator - Paul Kehrer - http://langui.sh/safari-extensions/ (installed 2017-03-28)

[enabled] LastPass - LastPass - https://lastpass.com/ (installed 2017-11-04)

[enabled] Buffer - Buffer - http://buffer.com (installed 2017-12-08)

3rd Party Preference Panes:ⓘ

Flash Player (installed 2017-11-28) [Lookup]

FUSE (installed 2017-09-21) [Lookup]

Java (installed 2017-11-09) [Lookup]

Seagate Dashboard for Mac OSX (installed 2017-10-29) [Lookup]

Time Machine:ⓘ

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 1.11 TB Disk used: 1.05 TB

Destinations:

TIM [Local]

Total size: 2.00 TB

Total number of backups: 32

Oldest backup: 7/12/17, 02:47

Last backup: 14/12/17, 23:46

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 2.00 TB < (Disk used 1.05 TB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU:ⓘ

30% Finder

21% WindowServer

8% kernel_task

3% quicklookd

2% iTunes

Top Processes by Memory:ⓘ

1.68 GB kernel_task

1.08 GB Finder

1.07 GB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

931 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

864 MB iTunes

Top Processes by Network Use:ⓘ

Input Output Process name

13 MB 1 MB mDNSResponder

7 MB 4 MB Dropbox

3 MB 3 MB com.apple.WebKit.Networking

2 MB 4 MB usbmuxd

4 MB 1 MB Mail

Top Processes by Energy Use:ⓘ

69.56 Finder

7.46 WindowServer

1.92 coreaudiod

1.46 iTunes

Virtual Memory Information:ⓘ

4.79 GB Available RAM

215 MB Free RAM

19.21 GB Used RAM

4.58 GB Cached files

582 MB Swap Used

Software installs (last 30 days):ⓘ

Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-11-15)

Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2017-11-15)

OneDrive: 17.3.7078 (installed 2017-11-17)

Slack: 2.9.0 (installed 2017-11-21)

iTranslate: 1.4.6 (installed 2017-11-25)

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (18.009.20050): (installed 2017-11-30)

Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-12-12)

Microsoft AutoUpdate: (installed 2017-12-13)

Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2017-12-13)

Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2017-12-13)

Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2017-12-13)

Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2017-12-13)

Slack: 3.0.0 (installed 2017-12-13)

OneDrive: 17.3.7131 (installed 2017-12-13)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events):ⓘ

2017-12-14 00:08:10 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent High CPU use [Open] [Details]

2017-12-13 08:03:17 Last shutdown cause: 3 - Hard shutdown

Ditto... iMac 27 late 2013 24GB Ram, 1TB fusion drive, running iCloud Drive with high sierra latest version. I've got a 300MB symmetric fiber line, so no issues whatsoever with bandwidth. My hypothesis (pure intuition) is that it's not iCloud/bandwidth issue, but fusion issue. As I understand it, the new file system has some issues with fusion drives... perhaps when clicking to new tab, file retrieval from fusion drive (in theory frequently accessed files are on the SSD) somehow has glitch and it take the 10 seconds to resolve???

Thank you for the suggestions, much appreciated. I've done both (note - uninstalling Seagate via it's own uninstaller found at System Prefs > Users & Groups > Seagate Dashboard). As this problem was intermittent (and frequent), but not all the time, I'll report back after a day of use to let everyone know if this worked.

Unfortunately, it's not exclusive to Fusion drives. I have a new MBP 15" and it is terribly unresponsive at times when switching between Finder windows and even some other file operations. Initially, after a fresh build with High Sierra and letting iCloud Drive restore my files, I figured it was just lagging due to the background downloads or whatever. Now it's been weeks and still the issue remains. Annoying, especially considering the high hopes for APFS/AFS and the speed of pretty much everything else...

An update: per my last post, the solution that works for me every time is this: when I notice that switching tabs in finder is running slow, I check Activity Monitor -- and every time Finder is taking huge % of memory, so I just use the Force Quit function to relaunch the Finder. Finder relaunches with regular memory consumption, and tab switching is zippy. I have no clue what leads to Finder eating memory over time, but this solution always works for me.