Finder window not showing files

Every time I try to attach or upload a file (in gmail, photobucket, etc.) my finder window will show the folders on the left sidebar and just a blank grey box where the files are supposed to be. I've tried in Google chrome and Safari, rebooted both and restarted my computer but the same thing is still happening. Any suggestions would be super helpful, thanks!

Finder is slow to update changes. Be patient or continue to close & reopen the window. Alternatively, relaunch the Finder: OPTION-click & hold the Finder's Dock icon and select Relaunch.

Similar Messages

Finder window not showing

After upgrading to Lion, I am no longer able to use cmd+Tab to go to the Finder windows. However, when I am shifting between spaces, I am able to see all the finder windows in the background. SImilarly, if I am using expose, I can see all the Finder windows, but am unable to click and navigate to them. Any thoughts? I am no Power user. So, pardon my ignorance.
Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem of invisible finder windows on a Mac Book Pro.
Shortly:
I cannot open any finder window (to access files and folders) in any way after a Mac Book reboot.
Tried by clicking a finder icon in a Dock
Tried by clicking a New Finder Window menu
Summary of other indicies of the problem
The problem of the invisible finder windows has appeared after an upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion 10.7.2
The problem still persists in the same manner after an upgrade to the latest Lion 10.7.3
The finder window shortly shows up when sliding between "desktops" when using the "three finger scroll gesture", but it is not manipulable, and disappears when the screen settles on the next "desktop".
But Finder knows about all its open windows even though they are not not visible on a desktop. All windows are listed as an items inside the Finder Window menu. But clicking and of that window items has no effect ..... the related window still does not appear.
This problem appears after a reboot of the Mac Book ..... when the Mac Book is powered up and Mac OS X is freshly launched.
But ..... in the Dock ..... When I change the Option state ("All Desktops", "This Desktop", "None" values) in any way, all invisible finder windows suddenly appear. After that action opening and closing all other finder windows works well ..... until the next reboot of the Mac Book.
The problem appeares only within my Standard User login account (Czech language). It does not appear within an Admin User login account (English language). Opening and closing finder window works well within an Admin User login account from the beginning without any problem. I do not know, whether it is related to languages or not
I have performed Disk Permission Verifications several times, but without any effect.
I have also deleted the "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist" file several time and also without any effect ..... I have been deleting from a Terminal of the Admin User login account when Standard User login account is logged off ..... and of course I have deleted the file related to the Standard User login account.
Thank you very much for some usefull hint.
With my best regards

Finder windows not opening, file transfer box not showing.

If I go to open Finder from the dock, or using Command + N a new window doesn't open, I have to open it using harddrive icon off my desktop. Also, when transferring files from drive to drive (either on my computer or across the network) the box showing how far the transfer has progressed doesn't turn up. These are causing me significant problems, so if anyone can help that would be hugely appreciated!
Oh, as I've been writing this about 30 finder windows opened at once, so it appears soemthing is delaying the response, although not regurlary, as they all opened at once. They do now open but the file transfer isn't showing still. My computer has been on an hour and a half for finder to sort itself out, it's ridiculous!

Hi MLansdell, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Create a new account, name it "test" and see how your Finder works in that User acct? (That will tell if your problem is systemwide or limited to your User acct.) This account is just for test, do nothing further with it.
Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" make it an admin account.
Let us know and we'll troubleshoot this further.
-mj
[email protected]

Lion finder window not displaying file info

I have a MacPro which I've updated to Lion. I have four hard drives installed. When I open a finder window from three of the drives, I get the expected (from Snow Leopard) behavior: in icon view, images display pixel dimensions, movies or audio files display run time. This is assuming I have Show Item Info clicked in the View Options. But if I open a finder window on my start-up drive the file info is not displayed. If I open the View Info panel and click/unclick the Show Item Info ckeck box, I can see space expand or contract beneath the file, but no info is displayed. Is this a bug or a "feature"?

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a test, not a solution. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Step 1
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account.
Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”
While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.
Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?
After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.
*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.
Step 2
The purpose of this step is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login, or by a peripheral device.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain iMacs. The next normal boot may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of steps 1 and 2.

Finder Window not showing sidebar favorites

Try moving to trash in Library/preferences:- com.apple.sidebarlists.plist, than restart computer.
To find this:- go to Finder than hold the Option key whilst selecting Go in the upper menu of finder to show Library.

Assuming of course you have Favorites selected in Preferences of Finder, if it is still not showing try the above, Worked for me.

Finder stalling, not showing files

I have been having trouble with Finder and file dialog boxes ever since I installed Mavericks last month. When I select Desktop, Documents or the like in finder or a file dialog box, the system stalls, as though it's searching some ancient & slow drive. I'm on a MBP retina with a 768GB SSD. When I was using Mtn Lion, that thing always snapped files up instantly.
I tried deleting Finder preferences and such but no luck. Eventually my files show up, but it's almost like the system SBOD for quite some time. Does anyone have a fix for this yet? I've read of other with the same issue and no one has a clear solution. This is dissapointing considering we're on the 10.9.1 revision.
Thanks!

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.
3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to gather information about the state of your computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it on this page. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) at the request of a stranger on a public message board. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them.
Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait for the script to run. It usually takes a couple of minutes. Then paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.
4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.
5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply.
6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in your browser, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -lq XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; Pm "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed '/^ *$/d; s/^ */ /' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; R () { o=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id | grep -qw '80(admin)'; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; SP Software | sed '8!d;s/^ *//'; o=`SP Hardware | awk '/Mem/{print $2}'`; o=$((o<4?o:0)); Ps "Total RAM (GB)"; o=`SP Memory | sed '1,5d; /[my].*:/d'`; [[ "$o" =~ s:\ [^O]|x([^08]||0[^2]8[^0]) ]] && printf "$Fr" "$o"; o=`SP Diagnostics | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm "POST"; for b in Thunderbolt USB; do o=`SP $b | sed -n '1d; /:$/{s/ *:$//;x;s/\n//p;}; /^ *V.* [0N].* /{s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/$.*: $$.*$/ $\2$/;H;}; /Apple/{s/.//g;h;}'`; Pm $b; done; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*C/C/'`; [[ "$o" =~ No\ th|pms ]] && o=; Pm "Thermal conditions"; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; [[ "$o" =~ =\ [^GO] ]] || o=; Pm "System load advisory"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; d=(/ ""); D=(System User); E=; for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${d[$i]}L*/L*/Dia* || continue; ls | while read f; do [[ "$f" =~ h$ ]] && grep -lq "^Thread c" "$f" && e=" *" || e=; awk -F_ '!/ag$/{$NF=a[split($NF,a,".")]; print $0 "'"$e"'"}' <<< "$f"; done | tail`; Pm "${D[$i]} diagnostics"; done; [[ "$o" =~ \*$ ]] && printf $'\n* Code injection\n'; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|SATA W|ssert|timed? ?o' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""};1'`; Pm "Kernel messages"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); [[ s[4] -lt 85 ]] && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); o=${s[2]}%; Ps "CPU usage by process \"$s\" with UID ${s[1]}"; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); s[2]=${s[2]%[+-]}; o=$((s[2]>=25000?s[2]:0)); Ps "Mach ports used by process \"$s\" with UID ${s[1]}"; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; R && o=`sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic system jobs"; o=`launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic agents"; o=`for d in {/,}L*/Lau*; do M; done | grep -v com\.apple\.CSConfig | while read f; do ID=$($PB\ :Label "$f") || ID="No job label"; printf "$Fb" "$f" "$ID"; done`; Pm "launchd items"; o=`for d in /{S*/,}L*/Star*; do M; done`; Pm "Startup items"; o=`find -L /S*/L*/E* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$d/Info.plist") || ID="No bundle ID"; [[ "$ID" =~ ^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|\.hpio|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID ]] || printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; o=`find -L /u*/{,*/}lib -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$f" && echo $f; done`; Pm "Unsigned shared libraries"; o=`for e in DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH; do launchctl getenv $e; done`; Pm "Environment"; o=`find -L {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d`; Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=`scutil --proxy | grep Prox`; Pm "Proxies"; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; Ps "DNS"; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep : | wc -l`; Ps "Profiles"; f=auto_master; [[ `md5 -q /etc/$f` =~ ^b166 ]] || Pc $f /etc/$f; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; Pc "hosts" <(grep -v 'host *$' /etc/hosts); Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd*; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed 's/\..*$//;s/-[1-9]$//'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. $ -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 $ | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`SP Fonts | egrep "Valid: N|Duplicate: Y" | wc -l`; Ps "Font problems"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist | while read f; do plutil -s "$f" >&- || echo $f; done`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} file count"; done; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
7. Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign ($) or a percent sign (%). If you get the percent sign, enter
exec sh
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Click anywhere in the Terminal window and paste (command-V). The text you pasted should vanish immediately. If it doesn't, press the return key.
If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know your password, or if you prefer not to enter it, just press return three times at the password prompt.
If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.
The test may take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line "[Process completed]" to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report your results. No harm will be done.
8. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.
If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.
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Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.
Copyright © 2014 Linc Davis. As the sole author of this work, I reserve all rights to it except as provided in the Terms of Use of Apple Support Communities ("ASC"). Readers of ASC may copy it for their own personal use. Neither the whole nor any part may be redistributed.

The finder will not show files on my hard drive but will show files on my usb drives

when I click on my Main iMac hard drive the window doesn't open but when I click on my one of my USB drives the widow opens and I can see the files.Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Win

Might try this...
Safe Boot , (holding Shift key down at bootup), use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, test if things work OK in Safe Mode.
Then move these files to the Desktop for now...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.recentitems.plist
Reboot & test.
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.

Finder is not showing files. How do I get it to show files?

How do I see files on the finder?

Trash the finder plist file from /Library/Preferences, repair permissions, restart your computer, empty the trash. Another plist file will be recreated.

Finder does not show new files with older creation dates

Short story: when I somehow create new files or folders with older dates, Finder does not show them.
This happens e.g. when I unrar archives created some time ago: the files or folders coming out of the archive get their original date, which is earlier than today.
I can see those files and folders without problems in a terminal (using ls). But they don't show up in Finder when I visit the same directory.
When I use terminal to go into some directory that is not yet visible in Finder, and I open a new Finder window for that directory from within terminal (using "open ."), the new directory and its contents will show up in Finder.
My best guess is that some things have changed in the way Finder and the indexing of my flle system co-operate. In any case, this is higly annoying.
Does anyone know how to fix this?
OS X Yosemite 10.10 (14A389)
Macbook Air - 13 Inch - Mid 2013

I have the same problem. I create files and they do not show up in their respective Finder window. I know the files are there because I created them and I can see them using Terminal and applications can open them. If I refresh the window by going to the parent directory and back again, the files do not show up. If I close all windows and open that specific window again, the files still do not show up. If I leave the computer overnight, the new files still do not show up. As brdsutte stated, after rebooting the computer, the files show up in the Finder window. Anyone have any suggestions?
iMac 27 inch, mid 2011
Yosemite 10.10.1

Finder is not showing correct file in cover flow mode. The files shown in the top panel are one file off.

finder is not showing correct file in cover flow mode. The files shown in the top panel are one file off.

This problem occurs after I move a file or files to trash. If I remove one file, then the sequence is one file off, if I move two files to trash then the sequence istwo file off. For example, if I delete file 1 and highlight (click on) file 3, then the cover flow panel shows file 2, when it should show file 3.

Finder dose not show all files

finder dose not show all files and is not open.
nothing is shown on the desktop.
how is it fixed?

Could be disk corruption or bad perference file (s).
You may want to run these "standard" fixes if the problem persists.
1) Check the amount of free space on your harddrive. You should have a several gigs free.
2) You should run disk utility
     Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility
     a) verify the disk
     b) update your permissions.
3) Try a safe boot.
    Shutdown your machine. Hold down the shift key. Poweron. Wait awhile Wait awhile while you harddrive
      is being checked.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
4) Define a new account & see if the problem occurs on that account.

Xquartz finder not showing files

Hello there,
I have a problem, as soon as I install xquartz, Finder has troubles showing files in SOME folders.
With terminal, all files are there and the permissions also look ok!
As soon as I remove xquartz, it seems to work fine again, but I need it as I want to play around with SPINE.
As it is a problem with finder, not with xquartz I wanted to ask around for help here.
I tried the following:
- kill and relaunch Finder
- disk utility > repair permissions
- moved com.apple.finder.plist
Thanks for any advice, greatly appreciated!

Hello there,
I have a problem, as soon as I install xquartz, Finder has troubles showing files in SOME folders.
With terminal, all files are there and the permissions also look ok!
As soon as I remove xquartz, it seems to work fine again, but I need it as I want to play around with SPINE.
As it is a problem with finder, not with xquartz I wanted to ask around for help here.
I tried the following:
- kill and relaunch Finder
- disk utility > repair permissions
- moved com.apple.finder.plist
Thanks for any advice, greatly appreciated!

How do I locate harddisk content like I do in explorer. Finder does not show the hardisk

How do I locate harddisk content (Files/folders) like I do in windows explorer. Finder does not show the hardisk?? Please suggest.
Thanks

Open Finder preferences, select General icon in the toolbar, check the boxes for what to display on the Desktop. Click on the Sidebar icon where you can configure what's displayed on the sidebar.

Finder does not show all colors from selected color Labels

Since a view days finder does not show all Color Label colors. When I select either yellow or green it is selected, but it does not show in the file list with details, I can see it in icon and 3 pane view, but not in the detail list view.
does anybody know why or how? Or what plist files I might need to delete to get this reset?

Create a new account, name it "test" and see how your labels work in that User acct in list view? (That will tell if your problem is systemwide or limited to your User acct.) This account is just for test, do nothing further with it.
Open System Preferences >> Accounts >> "+" make it an admin account.
Let us know and we'll troubleshoot this further.
-mj
[email protected]

After updating to Yosemite Finder does not show anymore office docs in recent history. Everything else ist displayed properly. Any idea? Thanks :=)

Hi there,
after updating to Yosemite the Finder does not show anymore office docs in recent history. Everything else ist displayed properly. I can see recent used apps or files but not the word files (which i use mostly) Any idea? Thanks :=)

Hi there,
after updating to Yosemite the Finder does not show anymore office docs in recent history. Everything else ist displayed properly. I can see recent used apps or files but not the word files (which i use mostly) Any idea? Thanks :=)

Finder window not showing files

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