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Andrej · 10:52 AM

Every now and then, I need to drag folders from one to another, or even files from a Finder window into Cyberduck (FTP client). But for 1 out of every 50 or so drags, when I release the click on my mouse to signal to OS X to "drop" the file or folder (doesn't matter) wherever I want it to go, the file/folder hangs on the screen for a few seconds before the "drop" action actually takes place. This is not a spring-loaded folder issue, since I am not using spring-loaded folders to reproduce these problems. The hanging time ranges roughly between 1 second and 8 seconds, and sometimes longer.

Now during the intermittent delay between releasing the mouse button and having the release of the mouse button to signal the "drop" register in Finder, if I move my on-screen cursor out of the way (say, to another window) while the icon hangs there, then instead of having the file/folder "drop" to where I need it to go, the icon swifts back over to the folder that it came from.

Notes:

When I'm in Finder, I use multicolumn view so that I can just use arrow keys to navigate in and out of folders super fast, no clicks. (Trust me, it's very fast and addicting.)

I have no items on my desktop (zero), so there shouldn't be any Finder delays.

My Dock is kept fairly simple, rarely (if ever) more than 20 icons of any kind, including the Trash and open applications, are in it.

I've used all sorts of cleaning apps, including iceClean, run various cron scripts, repaired permissions, and even did the whole Erase and Install (full start from fresh) install of OS X.

10.5 - iMac G5 PPC

I've been searching on and off for months for posts related to this issue, but no one seems to know the problem even exists, but it has ever since 10.5.0, at least for me.

Is this a well-known bug in Leopard or not? Is the problem with OS X or with a setting that I have somewhere?

By the way, this issue could be somewhat related to the same bug as above... but after 1 out of every 50 or so Finder window switches or drags/drops, my arrow keys don't work in navigating Finder windows, and I have to Relaunch the Finder to get them to work again.

Andrej · May 17, 2009, 12:55 PM

[One month later]

K, so... has anyone ever noticed any of these problems with Finder? I am convinced that this is one of Apple's missed Finder bugs, but maybe it's not, and someone knows how to fix it.

seanc · May 17, 2009, 01:04 PM

Have you updated to 10.5.7? Has it helped at all? What point update were you on when you wrote your post, 10.5.6 I'm assuming?

JKT · May 17, 2009, 02:40 PM

I occasionally experience this and yes, I believe it is very likely to be yet another FTFF issue that will not be resolved by Apple until they rip up the current implementation and start over... hopefully, starting with Snow Leopard.

JKT · May 17, 2009, 02:42 PM

Btw, it is very occasional, so I don't find it too much of a problem.

Andrej · May 20, 2009, 08:16 PM

That's what I figured, I wasn't sure if anyone else had experienced this. It's most evident in the Finder Multi-Column View.

Originally Posted by seanc

Have you updated to 10.5.7? Has it helped at all? What point update were you on when you wrote your post, 10.5.6 I'm assuming?

Any of 10.5.0, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, 10.5.4, 10.5.5, and 10.5.6.

Upgrading to 10.5.7 looks like a 1 GB download project that needs to wait for me.

P.S. I used to have only dial-up a few years back. Downloading that update would take me 1 week straight of uninterrupted download time.