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Gamoe · Feb 20, 2007, 03:30 AM

I'm trying to clean up/organize my mess o' files, but I keep running into strange and counter-productive Finder behavior, mainly windows closing by themselves and folder refusing to show their content, which they usually eventually do after a second or third try, but then sometimes its window closes, as do all/most of the Finder windows making me have to go through the process again which frequently produces the same result.

What might be causing this instability and screwy Finder behavior and, more importantly, how do I fix it? Anyone have any clues?

Big Mac · Feb 20, 2007, 03:32 AM

I don't know, Gabriel. Sounds strange. Have you deleted the Finder's preferences? I know when I had a problem with the Finder that wouldn't go away, an Archive and Install fixed things.

Gamoe · Feb 20, 2007, 04:03 AM

Originally Posted by Big Mac

I don't know, Gabriel. Sounds strange. Have you deleted the Finder's preferences? I know when I had a problem with the Finder that wouldn't go away, an Archive and Install fixed things.

I suppose that would be com.apple.finder.plist, right? I did just that right now. I'll let you know if I have any more problems. Just a minute before that my desktop icons disappeared and several folders full of files refused to show me their files. Hopefully it was just a corrupt preferences file. I really don't feel like reinstalling the whole system again.

JKT · Feb 20, 2007, 04:16 AM

Do you have any Contextual Menu Items installed in ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items or /Library/Contextual Menu Items? Try moving them to the desktop and restarting to see if that solves the problem.

TETENAL · Feb 20, 2007, 05:59 AM

As JKT noted this sounds like the Finder crashing often. It could be a contextual menu item, another plug-in incompatibility like with a QuickTime component, or a problem with your hard drive or so. Have a look at ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Finder.crash.log and see whether that gives a hint at what goes wrong. Maybe post it here so that we can look at it as well.

Also, boot from the system DVD, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu of the Installer and Repair the volume (not the volume permissions) until it says the drive appears to be OK.

brschetgen · Feb 21, 2007, 11:48 PM

Are you running Parallels with a Shared Folder enabled? I have found this to mess with the Finder on occasion.

THE MAC GOD · Mar 1, 2007, 01:05 PM

The only way I've found to bring down the Finder is to have over 200 items on the desktop... no problem with any other folder, but when the Finder has to display all that jazz on the desktop... Ugh... not exactly your problem, but just a 'bug' i've found.

Gamoe · Mar 1, 2007, 08:56 PM

Thanks guys. It seems like it was the preferences file which was corrupted. I deleted it as Big Mac suggested and I've not had a re-occurrence since. I'll be on the look out the next time I use the Finder heavily, though. Silly of me to overlook such a simple remedy.

Cadaver · Mar 1, 2007, 10:19 PM

Am I the only one who read the title of this thread as, "Finger acting screwy?"