Infinite Beachball when Open/Place File Dialog is Called

Question

(Apologies on the novel below. If it helps a soul out there from a descent into madness, well, at least one of us got out okay.)
I am having a heck of a morning that is bleeding over from last night (and it has nothing to do with Mardi Gras time in New Orleans). I have recently set up my laptop (a new MBP) with Yosemite and AICS 5.1 and 6 (haven't yet made the move to subscription CC). I use the laptop at my office, where we have a simple network (one router, a switch, and several NAS drives). All day yesterday I worked on the system and had no issues. I took the computer home (another simple network with router, switch, nas drive) and whenever I attempted to either Place a file into an existing document or Open a file from within Illustrator the file dialog window would open. However, even though the window would indicate the Desktop directory was being accessed, the list of files would not populate and, after a couple seconds, the cursor would beachball forever. Uncertain to its reason, I attempted several remedies (cleaning font cache, uninstalling a couple system preference panes, paring down font menu, removing sidebar items, deleting all preferences, making changes to Dropbox settings). The only thing that worked in getting the dialogs not to beachball was to install a temporary user account and load AI from there (not a practical solution, ultimately). Also, it is important to note, this Open/Place problem occurs in AICS5.1 as well as AICS6. Things that do work regarding file access: if I Save a file from within AI the file dialog comes up and no problem. If I double-click or otherwise open a file from the Finder or a search utility the document will open.
This morning I brought my computer to work and attempted the Place command. The window opened and paused, and then a curious thing happened. I heard my NAS awaken. After several seconds, the dialog window populated, and all was righted. I could Open and Place files with no issue. The three network shares that I have at the office all reconnected (I had disconnected from all of them before quitting the network last night).
At this point, my hypothesis is that AI was having some trouble with network shares and even though I had unmounted the shares AI was still remembering them (and having trouble letting go). To test this, I loaded AI with the shares mounted, quit AI, and then unmounted the shares. I then disconnected from the network and loaded AI. Attempting the Place command in a new document brought up the dialog window and directory file list (!). I then pressed [CMD] + D to get to the desktop files/shortcut folders and wham -- infinite beachball!
My desktop has a bunch of helpful aliases for navigating local and network shares. There are links to my Dropbox folder, my client art folder, a screenshot folder, and four links to network shares. I made these shortcuts by mounting the share, going up a level in the root directory, and option-commanding the share over to the desktop. I don't know if this is a good or holy way to do it, but it's the way I've been doing it on 10.6.8. In any case, I took all of the icons on the desktop and threw them in a temp holding folder. I then loaded AI, new document, Place, go to Desktop directory -- no beachball. Open the temp folder, infinite beachball, force quit. Create a subfolder within the temp folder. Put all the network share aliases in there. AI, New, Place, Desktop directory (ok), temp directory (ok), subfolder (beachball party), force quit.
Mind you, this is all with the network disconnected. When I get info any of the aliases the Finder beachballs!! After a few seconds, though, the Finder begrudgingly allows me to see the file information.
So, there's something screwy with the way those aliases are behaving. When they are 'looked at' by the AI file dialog (or the Finder) the system wants to reach out and touch them, say hello. The Finder, although flummoxed, eventually regains composure and shakes off the hang. AI, however, can't break free.
The temporary way forward, I suppose, is to remove those aliases from the Desktop and put them in a safe, out of the way place. I will probably create a few AppleScripts or Automator apps in their stead for mounting NAS shares, and assign to function keys. Hopefully someone out there with bigger lightbulbs over their head can shed some light on the problem and offer other suggestions for a more robust fix. In any case, it's probably a Yosemite problem, given the Finder's odd behavior.
Cheers!
-g-

Answer 1

Open Finder, press Option key, select Go > Library, open Preferences and delete com.apple.desktop.plist