Dock gone & other Finder issues

Just updated my MacMini to the latest Safari & for MobileMe last night. This morning I turn on my computer and find - no dock, the yellow minimize button does not work, system preference pane is acting strange.
I pulled out of the library and dropped onto the desktop the com.apple.systempreferences.plist and the same file for the dock. Rebooted. No change.
Ran Disk Utility - Verify Disk - off of a firewire backup drive and it stated there were no problems.
Most of the application work except for printing and Firefox keeps crashing. Funny when I use Safari I keep getting errors when trying to enter this specific discussion forum.
Thanks
Steve

Glad you got it working. But remember to leave enough space for the system as I mentioned.
As for cleaning up perhaps the following articale may help:
Where did my Disk Space go?
And you might want to use OmniDiskSweeper to get a display of how much space the verious files are taking.

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Dock finder issue

Hello everyone
Hoping I could get some help here recently I have noticed this happening more frequently.
Using Dock to launch my applications will work fine but after a while I go to click the application to get back into the program and clicking the app on the dock will launch finder and this will happen to any application weather it's open or closed and the only way to relaunch the application is from finder itself. At this point I will reboot and the issue will fix itself I want to say that it sounds like a process is freezing but I'm unsure and hoping someone could shed so light on my issue thanks in advanced.
Oh yeah using OSx snow leopard 10.6 latest update

mantunes wrote:
might I add this has been an ongoing issue since the install of snow leopard
I would suggest reinstalling snow leopard. Sometimes, things go wrong when installing the operating system. I remember one time dashboard wasn't working. A fresh install fixed that. I think it was java applets that weren't working in safari. A clean install fixed that as well. You don't need to wipe the drive, but just reinstall (as in select the option that allows you to keep your data). It may fix the problem. Another thing that was suggested is that you are option clicking. When the finder opens, does it go to the applications folder with the application you clicked on selected? If this is the case the option key may be getting stuck or malfunctioning.

Extremely difficult to toggle switches on and off in settings in iOS6, on multiple devices, iP5, 4S, 4 and new iPad. Are others finding the same issue?

Extremely difficult now to toggle switches on and off in settings in iOS6, on multiple devices, iP5, 4S, 4 and new iPad. Are others finding the same issue?

I solved this by reset of the Wifi (unplug cable and power to both modem and wifi ... wait 60 sec ... plug in modem cable and power ... plug in wifi power and LAN to modem ... restart AppleTV and Mac ... Turn Home Share 'OFF' in iTunes then back "ON" ... it took ~60 sec for the AppleTV to pick up my Mac in computers.

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of it.

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of this message. When I login to my husband's account, this message does not appear.

Hey sunnyday7!
Here is an article that can help you address this issue:
OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3411
Additional Information
OS X automatically relaunches the Finder when it is quit. If the Finder is unresponsive, use Force Quit to relaunch it. Select Finder in the Force Quit Window or Dock, then click Relaunch.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
-Braden

Dock Icon Grapics Rendering Issue

I just started having this icon rendering issue on my dock. The finder icon has disappeared and my folders have this strange static grapic instead of the folder icon. Initially all icons were like this, but opening refreshes the icon and it loads properly.
Has anybody encountered this issue before? Any advice as to the source of this problem would be much appreciated.

Ol.,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Do you have any duplicate fonts?
;~)

HUGE 10.4.10 UPDATE FINDER ISSUE!!!

Hello,
After updating from 10.4.9 to 10.4.10, the Finder has been acting up in very strange ways:
1) The Finder icon has been completely removed from my Dock and is now stuck in the bottom left corner. The icon stays in the front of every window, but not when I resize the dock.
2) Finder does not show up when I go to switch between applications using the apple and tab keys.
3) If I click on my desktop, I can access Finder perfectly fine.
4) Finder does show up in the "Force Quit Applications" window.
I believe that this is truly not normal. Thank you for your input and I hope there is a solution to this issue.
Jason

Some things which could have prevented this issue in the first place which may or may not have applied in your case:
1. A repair permissions before and after applying the update.
2. Ensuring your hard disk is not more than 85% full. This number is arbitrary, but has been found to start causing problems for many when it is exceeded.
3. Backing up, and verifying the directory is in good shape before applying the update.
4. Avoiding multitasking while applying the update, and interruption from Energy Saver as well as other third party background applications.
All of these and more are covered in my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/upgradefaq.html
Glad you found how to solve your problem, but you may want to consider these steps in the future to avoid it happening then.
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

When I bootup the icon for Elements shows up in orange. It changes to green only when I've gone to Finder and clicked on Elelments under the Devices list. This is a recent development. The icon used to be green upon bootup. Does anyone know why ?

When I bootup the icon for Elements shows up in orange. It changes to green only when I've gone to Finder and clicked on Elelments under the Devices list. This is a recent development. The icon used to be green upon bootup. Does anyone know why ?

I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm not affiliated w/ the developer, just a happy user that gave up fighting the apple podcast app a while ago. I used to have a bunch of smart playlists in itunes for my podcasts, and come home every day and pathologically synced my phone as soon as I walked in the door, and again before I walked out the door in the morning.
Since my wife was doing this too, we were fighting over who's turn it was to sync their phone.
Since I've switched to Downcast, I no longer worry about syncing my phone to itunes at all. I can go weeks between syncs.
Setup a "playlist" in downcast (ex., "Commute") and add podcasts to that playlist. Add another playlist ("walk" or "workout") and add different podcasts to that one.
Set podcast priorities on a per-feed basis (ex., high priority for some daily news feeds, medium priority for some favorite podcasts, lower priority for other stuff). Downcast will play the things in the priority you specify, and within that priority, it will play in date order (oldest to newest).
Allegedly, it will also sync your play status to other devices, although that is not a feature I currently use and can't vouch for. It uses apple's iCloud APIs, so to some extent may be limited by what Apple's APIs can do.

I have downloaded mountain lion from the app store on another computer. I have then gone to find it in "purchases" in the app store on my own macbook pro and it just comes up as "you have not purchased any apps" how to I get my mountain lion?

I have downloaded mountain lion from the app store on another computer. I have then gone to find it in "purchases" in the app store on my own macbook pro and it just comes up as "you have not purchased any apps" how to I get my mountain lion?

Mac App Store: Hiding and unhiding purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928

My macbook screen doesn't work so I have connected it to the TV and now nothing works, I can't see the dock or the finder bar, no folders on desktop either. I don't know what to do!

My macbook screen doesn't work so I have connected it to the TV and now nothing works, I can't see the dock or the finder bar, no folders on desktop either. I don't know what to do!

Do you see anything on the TV?
If you just see your desktop, then your MacBook is defaulting to extended display mode. Try pressing the Command + F1 keys to see if you get the menu bar and other icons.
~Lyssa

Finder issues and Get Info refusing to show the number of files on items on the main hard drive.

I am having finder issues. Mostly on the main hard drive. It takes ages to find things and I get the spinning wheel every time I open a folder.
So I moved all of my files to a external drive. When I had finished transfering I hit get info on the files on the external drive and on the same folder on the main drive. To ensure that it has copied over all the files. Because it was acting up and not copying all the files.
Get Info refuses to show the number of files within the folders on the main hard drive. It hasppily tells me everything on any of the external drives.
I have reset, the imac. I have re indexed 3 times. I have deleted the finder plist files. I have reset finder using terminal commands. I have moved nearly everything off the main hard drive. But nothing is working.
Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what could be causing my finder and get info issues.
Any help wpuld be appreciated.
Running Mountain Lion on a late 2009 Imac

Some of your user files (not system files) have incorrect permissions or are locked. This procedure will unlock those files and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.
Back up all data.
Step 1
If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.
Enter the following command in the Terminal window in the same way as before (triple-click, copy, and paste):
sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags nouchg,nouappnd,noschg,nosappnd {} + -exec chown $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -N {} + -type d -exec chmod +x {} + 2>&-
This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.
Step 2 (optional)
Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.
Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select
Utilities ▹ Terminal
from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:
res
Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:
resetpassword
Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.
Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.
Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.
Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button
Select
 ▹ Restart
from the menu bar.

Finder Issue

After iMac (10.6.8) has been running for a few hours, sometimes less than that Garageband and iTunes won't open.
I have been keeping track of different scenarios when this happens and every time it happens I have noticed that the Finder won't allow me to save any file to the HD or the external drive because the item could not be found.
It will allow me to save files to the Desktop however.
I have no idea if Garageband and iTunes and the Finder acting up are related but just putting it out there.
When I click on any location via the side bar icons all I get is the respective icon appearing and .
However, when I click on the Devices icon in the sidebar I can path my way to my user and it allows me to save it anywhere I want.
Rebooting only fixes these issues temporarily. I have run Disk Utilty from the Start Up Disc as well and everything came back with no problems found.
Also I am having to Force Quit all Apple based programs such as iWork 08 during this period of the Finder Issue and I cannot access the About This Mac function.
I can however activate the Software Updater.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Robert

Hi Robert!
It sounds like there may be some sort of an issue in your operating system causing this to happen. You will probably want to create a Time Machine backup of your computer and reinstall the operating system to see if that affects the issue. An article about Time Machine backups can be found right here:
Mac Basics: Time Machine
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
While an article about reinstalling Snow Leopard can be found here:
Mac OS X 10.6: Reinstalling Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6606
Thanks for coming to the Apple Support Communities!
Regards,
Braden

Finder issue with Spaces

I found a Finder issue when using spaces. I performed an upgrade installation on my Intel Core Duo iMac. Finder worked as expected. Then, I turned on Spaces. After a few minutes the finder hung. I tried using activity monitor several times to force quit it. Finder quit, then relaunched and hung. Then, I turned off Spaces and the Finder stopped hanging and functioned as expected. I turned Spaces back on, and the Finder is still working currently. I am not sure if this bug will reproduce itself at this point.

Ok, got it!
Please refer to the original post and the third post in the following thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10122332
Turns out I was having the same two problems as the original poster. It also turns out the solution to his first problem, which he outlined in the third post, happened to solve both problems on my machine.
In your Spaces prefs (Expose & Spaces in the System Preferences), make sure "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application" is checked!
Seems to have worked for me!
Here's hoping this solution helps others with the same problem. =)

Finder Issue with Alphabetizing

Hi everybody,
I'm having an issue after installing Lion in that Cover Flow/List/Icon in Finder is not alphabetizing (yet every other option is). Does any body know how to fix this? I've made sure that English is the correct text/language, but nothing else has changed.
Thanks

I've had similar issues recently. I saw them first on an SMB share. Here are slightly different steps for repro:
All in the Finder:
* On a network share, create a new folder, e.g., "test"
* Within "test", create two new folders, "test1" and "test2", renaming them as you create them
* Select the "test1" directory you just created
Result:
* After selecting "test1", it visually changes to "test2" such that there are two "test2"'s listed there
* After a short delay, the display is rendered correctly, showing "test1" and "test2", but "test2" is now selected.
* If you select "test1" again it then displays as "test2" (i.e. two "test2"'s) and "test1" from there on out is inaccessible
Note that "ls" from the terminal shows these correctly; this is a Finder issue.
Unmounting and remounting the share fixes the problem.
This also happens on a USB card reader. It does not happen on the internal drive, nor on a PPC Mac running 10.4.9.

Two FINDER issues

taking a stab at trying to solve two finder issues.
1. is it possible to keep finder from automatically sorting a re-named folder or file when i am in the middle of re-organizing things? say to wait until i have actively clicked a sort button or otherwise clicked out of the finder view? i am always running around trying to find a re-named file or folder in a list of one hundred files when all i really want to do is rename some things and then move them. having this newly named entity automatically do the skeedaddle out of my view in the finder window is a real pita.
2. is there a realiable method that will let folders sort alphabetically with folders and files to sort alphabetically with files? i find it very annoying to have all this mixed up together when i will look for a file with files and for a folder with folders. i tried some terminal editing based upon a posted url that described a solution to this at one point but it does not appear to have taken.
TIA!

1) No.
2) Why not sort by Kind?

Missing sidebar/sidebar will not open, finder issues

Hi, i no longer have sidebars on my finder windows, and clicking the button in upper right corner just toggles the toolbar, does not bring up sidebar. I trashed the Finder and sidebar .plists for this user, repaired permissions... no change. Very occasionally the sidebar appears out of nowhere on one window, then won't open on the next. I am noticing other Finder strangeness, such as the battery indicator always says "calculating", and i'm having trouble opening any .dmgs (Stuffit also hangs when it tries to open anything), and response is very sluggish. This doesn't seem to be occurring in the other user on the iBook. Given that i've already trashed the Finder and Sidebar prefs for this user, twice, with no result, what can i try now?

Yes, thanks, i just discovered i can drag it back out from the separator dimple. But i hadn't reduced it, and new windows are still sometimes randomly showing up without one, without me doing anything.
Now the Finder suddenly hung completely and i had to command-key restart. Seems to be working fine in the other user account. Unfortunately the user account in which i have the problem is the one i use all day!
These issues seemed to start when newly-installed Stuffit 11 hung and had to be force-quit while expanding something (yeah, i tried trashing its prefs too).

Dock gone & other Finder issues

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