finder crash when clicking on any web link located inside the folder

Maybe of use to all of the people concerned. I just did my monthly automatic run of Onyx 3.3.1 (a tool, to clean up caches and rebuild a lot of things), and suddenly I have no problems with the finder crashing on web links anymore... I do not know what solved it, but clearly something was repaired of the automatic list, except for spotlight index, mail email folders and the appearance of folders (if I translate the text correctly)...

I did not update anything else since the problem started to appear.

Good luck to everyone, and I hope it will last for a while without crashing finder here, will report back if it starts again!

Iwert

Well, it lasted exactly 20 minutes, back to before again with the finder crashing. A second run of Onyx didn't help either, however clicking links on the desktop still works for now. Puzzled. Anyway, the happiness didn't last long:)!

actually clicking on links on the desktop always worked, there's just no window for the finder to crash, when you click a link on the desktop. but try pressing cmd-space to call spotlight ... you will notice it crashes almost instantly, as long as "search history and weblocs" is enabled.

I hoped too, ol' Onyx would help, but Apple f***** up weblocs for good this time (on OS < High Sierra).

Yes, that I discovered as well lately. Funny that all worked well just after the first run of Onyx, I really experimented in a few windows and the finder did not crash, it worked fine (I was really surprised). And after a few minutes the crashes again, so it must be something under the hood.

I just saw the 005 update pop up and was hoping against hope Apple would FINALLY address this glaring bug they've created for Sierra, but I also figured it was going to be fixed in the Safari 12.0.1 update, but nope. This is starting to feel as if Apple is either inept or purposefully hobbling perfectly good systems that just have to stay at Sierra for now. Either way, it's making Windows 10 look better as it's working great on older systems right now. Apple needs to stop dragging feet on this. This unaddressed, glaring bug makes them look trite and very anti-consumer. Perhaps Apple is getting too big and anti-trust needs to look at their business practices?

Just did the Safari 12.0.2 update in my Sierra system (hoping this would FINALLY be fixed!!!!) - nada.

PLEASE Apple FIX THIS .webloc 'preview' bug that's been introduced since Safari 12 on macOS Sierra...??

Thought I phone AppleCare and use my support there, after all I paid for it.  In short no success.  The ‘Issue is under investigation” is the answer of level two agent.  After a lengthy back and forth I conclude this means; we know about it and will do nothing about it.  

He claimed several things that contradict what is being said in these forums, so an other disappointing moment in the life of Apple owner. 

For my information, anybody found a solution? 

Thanks for this tip ! It's at least a workaround to get Spotlight decently running again. It has never been one of my favourite search tools, but last months I noticed how much I've been using (and missing) that good-old golden retriever dog...

On a side note: I tested another user account on my machine (which I use regularly for demos and giving courses), but that account doesn't have the problem ! I can safely preview web links. So there must be something fishy in the User Library, maybe in combination with a System component...

I never use Spotlicht, find it counter intuitive. So if it crashed on you use EasyFind (is what I always use) https://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html. The advantage is that it can also search in the parts of the System that Spotlight does not.

Thanks for the referral :-)

I used it long time ago, until Spotlight shed its light on search. The super quick response of Spotlight (because of its pre-indexed volumes) is a big advantage on a system with a couple of million files (and their scannable content). But I'll give it another try, it sure beats Spotlight when it comes to boolean searches, wildcards.

Now, back to the main problem – crashing Finder on web previews...

Petertje: "I tested another user account on my machine (which I use regularly for demos and giving courses), but that account doesn't have the problem ! I can safely preview web links. So there must be something fishy in the User Library, maybe in combination with a System component...".

Thanks - I didn't try this. Glad it's related to something user-library specific. I'm going to start looking at my ~/Library folder items related to: preview, safari, spotlight, quicklook, etc. (the things that might affect generating a live preview of a .webloc file - which is where the crash occurs) to see if I can isolate it. Maybe I'll hunt for old cruft, or missing new stuff...

But I think that it's related to conflicts with Safari 12+updates, and older User Library files in use/conflict might be a key reason/explanation why Apple might not be seeing this bug/crashing to fix it? You'd think it would be part of Sarai 12 update regression testing on still-supported older macOS.

This webloc finder crash occured with the latest safari update (12).

Spotlight also crashes when showing webloc entries ...maybe an issue with QuickLook?

Couldn't find any workaround for this...

Now it's Appel's job to fix this. Hopefully soon!

you wrote: Now it's Appel's job to fix this. Hopefully soon!

Not much hope I think.

Here is what I posted earlier:

Thought I phone AppleCare and use my support there, after all I paid for it.  In short no success.  The ‘Issue is under investigation” is the answer of level two agent.  After a lengthy back and forth I conclude this means; we know about it and will do nothing about it.  

He claimed several things that contradict what is being said in these forums, so an other disappointing moment in the life of Apple owner. 

I'm sorry, but your words are too scarce ("it still crashes" - what is "it") to verify what you've done. Previewing a webloc file will indeed still crash. But does Spotlight still crash immediately when you have set your preference not to search your browser history and favourites and search for anything which might involve a webloc file ?