Spotlight (& Find) window keeps refreshing

When I search in Spotlight or open a Finder window and put something in the Search box, the windows will start to get populated, then clear out and refresh instead of just resorting. Does this about every 5-10 seconds.
I don't believe it used to do this.
Any way to keep it from doing this?

Not answered...

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Difficult to Rename Files (Finder windows keep Refreshing)

Has anyone else noticed how difficult it is to rename files in a folder? It is almost as if Leopard's Finder keeps refreshing (or building thumbnails) or something. Here is my scenario:
- Browse to a folder (in my case a folder with large files)
- Hit enter on a file and start renaming the file
- After 1-2 seconds, finder jumps out of edit mode by itself (as if the page somehow refreshed)
- Hit enter again and keep on editing
- 1-2 seconds later, jumps out of edit mode again.
- Leave the window for 20-30 seconds
- Then hit enter, then it is easy to rename the file.
- Thereupon, immediately try to edit the next file, and bam, it exits edit mode after 1-2 seconds (almost as if the previous file rename triggered a 'refresh this entire view' event)
It is incredibly annoying to attempt to rename a bunch of files with Leopard.

Ah - I cant seem to get into the habit of "get info" to rename my files. It seems counter productive.
Is there any other workaround / fix to make the finder stop jumping me out of renaming a file?
It is incredibly annoying. I will get a few characters typed in, and it will jump out of editing... and then to add insult to injury, the folders is updated and the file jumps to its new alphabetical location in the list - So I have to go find the partially named file to finish the job.
People ask me if I like Windows or Mac. I say both have benefits and weaknesses. Renaming files is one of my Mac's weaknesses - it seems. It shouldn't be - it is a basic part of an operating system.
Help!

Spotlight Find Window has incorrect arrangement

Lately, whenever I use Spotlight and then choose "Show All", the resulting window is displayed (in list view) with a very wide sidebar, and very narrow columns which must be expanded to read the fields. Normal new Finder windows open correctly, in column view, with the sidebar and columns all readable without adjustment. Under View Options, with the Search window as the foremost window, the checkbox "Always Open in List View" is not checked, however the window always opens in List View.
This problem with the Spotlight Find window has only occurred recently and no attempt to fix it has been successful. How and where do I specify the format of the Spotlight window so that I may specify it as it used to be?

If the problem doesn't exist in other accounts, then there's further corruption within the original one. While logged into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. If the problem's solved, open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving conflicts or identifying corrupt plist files is a laborious process. Good luck.

IOS 7 multitasking why do the app windows refresh, I can't copy and paste. If the associated app window keeps refreshing

iOS 7 multitasking why do the app windows refresh, I can't copy and paste. If the associated app window keeps refreshing

Try. Going to
Settings
General
Background App refresh and turn off the ones giving you problem.

Mac G5 10.4 connecting to Windows Server 2003 finder windows NOT refreshing

We are not seeing finder contents refresh when connecting to Windows 2003 servers. We are running 10.4.5. This was supposedly "fixed" in 10.4 but we haven't seen it work yet. Who do we contact for support on this? I've tried using "Contextual Menu" which didn't work, and also tried "Finder Sync" which also didn't work. The only thing that did work was Path Finder. Path Finder did provide an auto-refresh but I don't like Path Finder and we won't buy it.
Who do we contact at Apple about this? Or does anyone have any experience like this?
Thanks very much!
Dave
Mac G5 dual core 2.3ghz 1.5gb RAM blah blah blah Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I have the same problem and I did public it in another forum.
Someone told me to write an Applescript like this:
tell application "Finder"
tell front window
update every item with necessity
end tell
end tell
Copy it, open Script Editor and save it as an executable application in your Utilities folder. Now put shortcuts to it in your Dock or your Sidebar or whereever. When you run it, the front most windows in the Finder will be refreshed to its most current state from disk.
I tried it but it doesn't help so much. I have no problem at all when I work with Windows Server 2000.
Thinh
Mac Mini 1,4 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Spotlight Finder window

Hello. In Leopard, when you do a Spotlight search and you click Show All Results, a finder window comes up with the results. Is there anyway to change the columns that appear. The ones that currently appear are Name and Last Opened and something else. I want to change the Lasted Opened column to Creation Date so I can see results that way. Thanks.

AFAIK, that's hard-wired into Spotlight. If you want to report this to Apple, send a bug report or enhancement request via its Bug Reporter system. Join the Apple Developer Connection (ADC)—it's free and available for all Mac users and gets you a look at some development software. Since you already have an Apple username/ID, use that. Once a member, go to Apple BugReporter and file your bug report/enhancement request. You'll get a get a Bug ID number; thus, starting a dialog directly with engineering.

Leopard Spotlight Finder window... still problematic

I am amazed that there has been no improvement to the Leopard Spotlight window. It still doesn't remember the size or format... It always opens up as a small finder window, no matter the number of items it contains. For me, this is still the best reason to go back to Tiger. I find Spotlight almost unusable this way. I felt certain this would have been addressed in the Leopard update.
David

Report such things here. Complaining about bugs or desired enhancements on the forums is a waste of time unless all you want is sympathy.

The Spotlight finder window appearance is making me crazy!

Somewhere along the way, the appearance of the window I get when I click "show all" under Spotlight (which I do a dozen times a day) got set in a manner that is infuriating, so that I have to do about 5 adjustments to it to be able to really see the results. The sidebar is very wide, the title column is very narrow, the date column is too big, the size of the window itself is too small...
It has been like this for many months, and I have done all kinds of adjustments and sampled shareware that might help, and I am going crazy.
Help!

Here's what should happen, and it is annoying as all get out--no matter what you had set-up last time. Here's a list of what it should do:
1. Open in the middle of the screen, vertically aligned somewhat nearer the top than the bottom;
2. it will always be exactly the same size in deminsions, and clicking the + button will lengthen it slightly, but not make it expand all the way;
3. the sidebar will be always wide enough to accomodate the longest title in the items present there, no matter what size you have it set at in a regular window;
4. if you are in list view you will get three columns of exactly the same width, Name/Kind/Last Opened, and the results will be arranged by Last Opened (the most useless, non-standard column ever to appear in a quasi-Finder window).
You can adjust things by hand, thus you can shrink the sidebar to its minimum, manually drag the window size to max, move the window to the upper left corner of the monitor, click to have it arranged by name, drag the three columns to the width you want....and next time it will open not as you left it, but in exactly the same way it started with.
Kappy--there are no View Options for a search window. And macjack--I don't think getting rid of the plist will accomplish anything. I suspect what Hester is seeing is exactly what she ought to be seeing. The behavior is hard-coded into Spotlight. The behavior in these particular things, in a regular Finder window, is stored in the .DS_Store file for each folder, so you can adjust them and use the View Options as Kappy described to get them to apply to that folder everytime you open it (provided you open it "on its own" and don't get there by navigating in column view or via the Back button). But there is no .DS_Store file for a search window, because it isn't a folder, and the sorts of settings we are talking about are not stored in the Spotlight plist.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Finder window keeps opening up and popping up in front of all windows

Every minute or so a finder window opens and pops up in front of all open window - including the window I am working in (no matter which application). It does not even open to my regular finder - it opens to a sub folder that is on the sidebar as a shortcut. Might have started after security update that was not necessarily completed because after 6 hours I tried to cancel, then force quit, it wouldn't work, so I forced the computer to restart.

Hi Basie & welcome to the forums!
We should start with these...
Have you done these two lately...
Using Disk Utility in Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later to verify or repair disks...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
Reboot afterwards.

Finder window keeps popping out when booting up the computer

Lately I've noticed whenever I shut down the computer with the "Reopen windows when logging back in" uncheck, this Finder window will pop out the next time I startup the computer. Still new to Apple and am not sure any settings that I may have set before this.
I just want a clear desktop when I boot up the computer and not greeted by this system Finder window.

Finder does not obey the rules of the 'Reopen windows' dialogue box. It will reopen any Finder window that was not closed when you shutdown. This was also true in Snow Leopard and isn't part of the 'Resume' feature itself.
The only way to not see that window when you restart is to close it before you shutdown!

Can not refresh contents of finder windows

I can not get my finder windows to refresh their contents. My picture folder is the one that really bothers me. When I am trying to upload pictures to the internet, the picture folder is never accurate. I have tried the refresh finder apple script, restarting the computer, opening and closing the window, nothing seems to work.
The content is there, when I search for a specific picture file it is there, but it is not located in the right subfolder. I download and manage my pictures on kodak easyshare.

Hi there,
The content is there, when I search for a specific picture file it is there, but it is not located in the right subfolder.
Hmmm, are you saying something is moving them? Or the Finder isn't opening them to the right folder?
Have you tried this one...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10958253
Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), & use Disk Utility from there to Repair Permissions, reboot once more.
Then Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions...
Move this file to the desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
reboot when it completes.

Finder window won't refresh

I'm sure this is an old complaint, but I have found few resources that help me understand what is going on. I would like to use rsync to back up portions of my main HD to a second HD. It works fine. The first time I sync'd the directories, the Finder window for the destination showed all the new subdirectories and files as they were created. Subsequent incremental updates, however, did not appear in the Finder window. I actually had to force a Finder restart to refresh the window properly. What's weird is that if I created a file manually in the destination directory using 'touch foo', the Finder window would refresh and show me both 'foo' and the incremental rsync update! Is there no better way to get the Finder window to reflect the contents of the directory than to either bounce Finder or write some tedious (OK simple, but...) script?
Thanks,
Ron

You found the simplest way afaik, been a problem since 10.0.0

Why does my screen keep refreshing?

Yesterday I had to delete all of my caches and preference files. Not a big problem.
However today my desktop and file windows keep refreshing about every 30 seconds. Annoying when your screen (not apps) keeps blinking. Cannot find anything in Settings that my need to be reset.
What is happening?
Thank you.
Scott
iMac Intel
Mavericks 10.9.2

If that doesn't help, perhaps this is your cause:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5194100
Unfortunately, I haven't found the answer yet.

How do I reset my finder window preferences.

when i log into my administrator account my finder window keeps opening in "simple" mode. I have tried everything I can think of. I added a test user account with NO finder problems. I tried deleting finder preferences without luck. any ideas?

Weird. The Simple Finder option is part of the parental controls you can enable for regular (non-admin) accounts, but as you probably know, you can't enable it for admin user accounts. If you try you get this:
Unless somehow the checkbox for "Enable parental controls" is currently checked for your admin account & you can clear it by clicking on it, I'm not sure what you should do, aside from maybe creating a new admin account, logging into that, & trying to remove the parental controls from your normal admin account.

Finder window changes

This has been happening just lately - or maybe just since I got this G5. But, anyway, one of my finder windows keeps changing from the columns to icon view. I change it to columns everytime I open it, but if I go back later it is in the icon view. It only happens with one window that I have named "Connie's Stuff" and I keep it in my dock. Am I missing something or what? It never did this before just recently.
Connie

Thank you. I also went into the finder preferences and selected "open new windows in column view", so I'm not sure which one took care of it, but you could be correct. I always remove the icon from the dock when I upgrade something, just never thought about it with a finder window. However, it is resolved and I don't know how the preferences got "unselected" - strange things happen lately!
Connie
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Spotlight (& Find) window keeps refreshing

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