[m021478]

Here is a screenshot of the typical spotlight window on a 10.5.2 machine (Intel Mac Pro):



Here is a screenshot of the same window after I click the '+' sign to add an additional search criteria value:



In the second screenshot, that extra blank space at the bottom is where is supposed to say Name: or Kind: etc...but its just not there and I have no idea why??

I have tried creating a new user account on my machine to see if the same issue occurred their as well, and sure enough, it does not.

I have tried all sorts of maintenance and repair tactics to resolve the issue (such as repairing permissions, running DIsk Warrior, Cocktail, Onyx, Leopard Cache Cleaner, etc...) but nothing seems to resolve the issue??

Anyone have any thoughts as to what the issue might be, and how I can go about fixing it?


FYI - In case any does know of any third-party apps that might cause this issue, below are a few screenshots showing some of the apps, system preferences, and processes running on my machine:

Applications Folder:
http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8...sfolderuj1.png

System Preferences:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9493/sysprefsiq9.png

My Processes:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/1...ocesseseq3.png

[Cold Warrior]

If, like you said, it isn't an issue with a fresh user account, then just migrate your stuff to a new account. It'll take 10 minutes max, and your old account will still be there in case you've missed anything.

[TETENAL]

Try trashing the Finder preferences.

[CharlesS]

Check the Console. Often times it logs errors that can help track down problems such as this.

[m021478]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

Try trashing the Finder preferences.

What Finder preference file would I trash exactly? Is there one called com.finder.plist?

regarding searching the Console, what should I be looking for (i.e. if I were to search it for something relevant, what keywords would you suggest searching for?)

[Art Vandelay]

com.apple.finder.plist

The easiest way to use the Console is to open it first then perform the action that you're trying to troubleshoot. Then you just need to look that the messages that appeared during that action.

[m021478]

Good tip...I didn't think that simply having the spotlight search criteria window expand would result in any console messages, but sure enough, here is what it say:

Sender[PID]:
Finder [242]

Message:
HIToolbox: ignoring exception 'Delete returned nil for call to ruleEditor:0x1c1247d0 displayValueForCriterion:0x51c760 inRow:0' that raised inside Carbon event dispatch

Anyone have any idea what this means?

[Art Vandelay]

I don't but since it's the Finder, try removing its pref file. Then relaunch the Finder from the Force Quit window and try again.

[m021478]

again, which specific Finder .plist file should I remove? Also, from which of the various 'Library' folders should it be removed from?

~/Library/Preferences/ I assume...is this correct?

[Art Vandelay]

Yes, in that location. It's the one I said above.

[m021478]

OK, so this is a weird one...I found this link in searching the net for a solution to my problem, in which some other guy who was having the exact same issue managed to resolve his problem by...get this...trashing his com.apple.finder.plist file, then instead of just restarting (which didn't work for him, or for me to resolve the issue) instead, immediately after trashing the com.apple.finder.plist file, holding down the power button for 5 seconds to force-shutdown

Low and behold, I tried it and it worked!! The issue is not an issue anymore!

[CharlesS]

Well, force-quitting the Finder would probably have worked just as well as rebooting the whole system, but good to know your problem is cleared up.

[turtle777]

Don't you guys love when OS X behaves like Windows ?

-t

[CharlesS]

How do you figure? Windows doesn't have preference files for you to delete. You either have to know how to do registry surgery or you have to reformat and reinstall for a problem like this.

[Art Vandelay]

The likely reason rebooting didn't work for you is that you took too long between removing the pref and rebooting. Rebooting, logging out, or force quitting the Finder all would have worked if you do it immediately after removing the pref. If you take too long, the Finder will recreate it from memory with the same corrupt settings.

[m021478]

I trashed the preferences file and within 1 second of doing so, I pressed Ctrl+Cmd+Eject to promptly restart...no wait time in between! That didn't work...The holding down of the power button did. Who knows!

Thanks to all for their help...hope this thread helps out others with a similar issue in the future!

[CharlesS]

For any other people that come across this thread with the same problem - using Force Quit to relaunch the Finder (command-option-escape) will do pretty much the same thing as holding down the power button as far as the Finder is concerned, while avoiding the possibility of damaging your hard disk's catalog as could theoeretically happen with the power-key method.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

How do you figure? Windows doesn't have preference files for you to delete. You either have to know how to do registry surgery or you have to reformat and reinstall for a problem like this.

Well, duh, I wasn't referring to the way of *fixing* it, I meant the general problem that things get borked or show really weird behavior, and there is no easy way to fix it.

90% of the Mac users would be stuck with that problem, since they don't even know where to start looking for help.

-t

[Hal Itosis]

One alternative I didn't see mentioned is to: delete the com.apple.finder.plist
while logged into some other user account... or even from single-user mode.
[as opposed to the undesirable forced shutdown.]