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General discussion

Finder stuck in a loop

Mar 10, 2007 6:33AM PST

Hi

I dragged and dropped a folder from an email onto the desktop then dragged it into a folder in Finder. Now Finder is looping round and round. I still have use of the Dock and can open programs from there but cannot see any other items on the Desktop. If finder is the only program open it slides the tool bar on at the top of the screen then it disappears and repeats endlessly, sometimes a Finder window opens but disappears straight away. I have shut down and restarted with no change. I have tried to force quit Finder (option + apple + esc) and tried the Relaunch button that is available in the window that opens but nothing works.

Help!

Discussion is locked

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What version of OS X are you using?
Mar 10, 2007 11:17PM PST

What was in this folder that you dragged onto the desktop and where was the folder located? Technically the Finder does not have folders so this must have been some other place that you were dragging the original folder to.

First step will be to find that offending folder and put it into the trash. Seems like the Finder is having difficulty moving the folder around.
So, shut down your machine and, after a slight pause, restart it. You are not attempting a Restart here, you are going to actually shut the machine down and then boot it.
Immediately after hearing the Startup Chimes, hold down the SHIFT key until you see the spinning gear under the Apple logo.
This starts the machine in Safe Mode. Not everything will work for you but the essentials will be there. Hopefully the Finder will be in a stable enough state to allow you to locate and trash the folder that you dragged from that email.
If you have the ability to run Disk Utility, do so and repair the Permissions on that drive.

Let us know how you get on

Good Luck

P

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OS X Tiger 10.4.8
Mar 11, 2007 7:08AM PDT

Hi

Safe mode just speeds up the Finder flashing on and off and makes it harder to try and do anything.

The folder contained a font and I copied it from an email in Mail onto the Desktop then dragged it from there into a font folder in Documents in Finder.

I managed to use Spotlight to try and locate the folder using it's name but with no results. I then tried to find Trash in Spotlight but that turned up no results.

The only things that show on the Desktop are the Dock and the menu bar for the programs at the top. Trash appears empty in the Dock although I'm pretty sure there's stuff in it. There are none of the usual files and folders on the Desktop, just the empty background image.

When I first log in Finder slides in at the top and is stable, then Suitcase automatically loads, the suitcase window flashes gaining then losing focus. When I quit Suitcase so that the only program open is Finder, it's doing the slide in at the top then disappear routine endlessly.

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Finder Problems
Mar 11, 2007 9:55PM PDT

If you can get to the Accounts pane in System preferences, turn off Suitcase. Although, in Safe Mode, it should not have fired up anyway.
Reboot in SM and turn off anything extra that automatically launches at reboot or login

If nothing seems to fix this problem, I would suggest you do an Archive and Install.

Drastic but usually effective.

P

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Archive and install
Mar 12, 2007 5:51AM PDT

Will this save all our files?

It's full of work files and all our personal photos!

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Archive and Install
Mar 12, 2007 6:14AM PDT

Yes, this will preserve your data as long as that data is inside your "Home" folder. It usually is.

I take it that you had no success in turning off the suitcase program.

P

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Finder problem
Mar 12, 2007 7:24AM PDT

Suitcase doesn't open up in Safe Mode. When I was describing that I was referring to the original problem when I open up.

Opening up in Safe Mode goes straight to the flashing Finder but faster, presumably because there are fewer other programs getting in the way.

I have to re boot not in Safe Mode in order to have the time to use the Apple menu, otherwise it flashes too fast to use the dropdown menus.

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Finder stuck in a loop
Jun 3, 2007 10:01AM PDT

Very interesting, because I had almost the same problem, and still haveint fixed it. I got an email from a vendor which included a pdf file that I wanted. As soon as I dragged that folder to the desktop, the finder started cycling of an on. Looks like Apple has another bug in their OS Happy I am about to simply reinstall Tiger

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Not a bug, just
Jun 3, 2007 9:56PM PDT

a case of the OS software becoming slightly corrupted.
This can be caused by a number of factors, including power, and is not necessarily indicative of a "Bug" in the software.
If it was, there would certainly be more people having the same problem.

Once the OS becomes corrupt on the drive, no amount of restarting or Disk Repair will fix it and it will get progressively worse as time goes on.

An Archive and Install will fix the problem in 15 minutes.

P

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Flashing Finder - same problem
Apr 21, 2008 11:48AM PDT

I had this same problem. I normally don't do threads, but they have been so helpful to me when I've had problems - so I decided to chime in. I deleted some files and I believe some fonts before the flashing Finder started. I also got a message that said I was running out of disk space. I've spoken with two mac reps to no avail. I'm going to the Mac store tomorrow to archive and reinstall.

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(NT) Let us know how you get on
Apr 21, 2008 11:52AM PDT