Finder Freezes When Clicking into the Download Folder

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Finder Freezes When Clicking into the Download Folder

Hello.

Problem: As of Friday, whenever I click into the downloads area with finder it freezes and requires a force quit.

Troubleshooting: I have used CleanMyMac to logging out of iCloud and back in, nothing works to fix the issue. It's odd that finder freezes only on one particular folder, all others are completely normal. I'm thinking that the size of files within the folder might be causing the freeze - but I cannot transfer them if I can't click into the folder.

If anyone else has seen this issue and has a remedy, please let me know.

I'm running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 in an iMac Retina 5K 4Ghz intel Core i7, 32GB ram, AMD Radeon R9. 975/1TB

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Sep 17, 2018 9:20 AM

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Answer 1

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macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 17, 2018 9:32 AM in response to marshman

Uninstall CleanMyMac as per the developers instructions, it's practically malware.

After that boot into Safe Mode and see if that works as expected.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2018 10:08 AM in response to marshman

Your Mac has security built in. Third party so called Mac cleaning utilities will at some point slow your Mac down considerably. They are unnecessary on a Mac.

"As of Friday, whenever I click into the downloads area with finder it freezes and requires a force quit."

Open the Finder.

From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder

Then type or copy / paste the following:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Click Go then move the com.apple.finder.plist to the Trash. Then restart your Mac.

Then click Downloads on the Sidebar of a Finder window.

If for some reason you can’t use the Finder to remove the .plist file, a Safe Mode boot deletes system caches that can help.

To start up in safe mode:

Start or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key. The Apple logo appears on your display. If you don't see the Apple logo, learn what to do.
Release the Shift key when you see the login window. If your startup disk is encrypted with FileVault.

To leave safe mode, restart your Mac without pressing any keys during startup.

Then try the Finder.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support

CleanMyMac is the likely culprit for Finder issues.

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Answer 3

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2018 10:43 AM in response to marshman

unfortunately the deleting the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist did not work.

I did a test and copied the downloads folder onto a WD external drive to see if I could back it up and access it there and it has the exact same issue. Same data - so there must be something inside the downloads folder that is causing these issue - again all other folders work with no issues.

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Answer 4

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2018 10:57 AM in response to macjack

how can I delete them either one by one or the entire downloads folder without using finder? I'm sure terminal can delete the downloads folder and hopefully it will replace itself afterward - but would like a shot at deleting the newest files first to see if that clears whatever runtime issue is happening.

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Answer 5

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 17, 2018 12:51 PM in response to marshman

You can use Terminal to selectively delete from your Downloads folder.

At the prompt copy & paste this command:

cd ~/Downloads

Press Return

Then at the prompt enter:

ls

Press Return and you will see all your downloads:

Then enter the rm command followed by a space and the file name which you can copy & paste

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Answer 6

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2018 2:16 PM in response to marshman

I can finally view my downloads folder - the untouched folder that I archived on an external HDD would still freeze, so I deleted it. I think app zapper helped to delete any left over components from CleanMyMac. Definitely some odd folder structure error going on behind the scenes. Thanks for the assistance and options all very helpful.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

207,505 points

Sep 17, 2018 2:35 PM in response to marshman

Just do a search in the ASC forums for CleanMyMac and see what you find. There are reports after reports of it seriously compromising Macs and their system.

Just remember you've been forewarned.

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Answer 8

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2018 9:58 AM in response to macjack

As expected did nothing to remedy the issue 😐. Macjack - CleanMyMac has been around for eight years and I've never heard of anyone considering it malware?

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Answer 9

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 17, 2018 10:32 AM in response to marshman

If it doesn't work in Safe Mode and you've uninstalled CMM, then what Carolyn suggests is the next course of action, to rebuild your Finder preferences.

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Answer 10

marshman Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2018 10:50 AM in response to marshman

in addition - when accessing the downloads folder from my laptop - froze up the folder for that computer. CRAZY.

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Answer 11

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Sep 17, 2018 10:54 AM in response to marshman

Yes it sure sounds like one of the downloads is wonky. Depending on how attached you are to them, you could just delete them. Or, you could try moving one at a time until you found the culprit.

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