finder won't open

[chris curran]

Hi can any one help? on start up finder appears at the top near the apple icon, the dock appears, nothing appears on the desktop & the beachball appears. I can open up things in the dock, except finder. Any ideas? :confused:

[Nermal]

Edit: Not a good idea.

[chris curran]

I can't delete any preference files as when I click on finder the beachball is there. I'll try holding s down on start up but I won't really know what I am doing.
thanks for the suggestion

[Nermal]

I actually just came back to delete that post because it wasn't a very good idea.

Do you have Disk Utility in your Dock? What about System Preferences?

[chris curran]

I can get into system preferences but I can't see disk utility

[Nermal]

OK, in Sys Prefs, make a new account, then log into it and see whether the problem persists.

[chris curran]

ican get into another user already so do i still need to start up a new account. If i switch to another existing account this interent connection will cut out. if i create a new one from my log in wil i stay connected?
sorry to be a pain

i forgot to mention that previously i tried another user and the problem didn't happen there just with my account

[Nermal]

Right, seems like the problem is specific to your account. Log into the second account, then go into /Users/Account 1/Library/Preferences and delete (or rename) the file called com.apple.finder.plist (you probably need to be using an admin account to do this), then log back into your normal account and see whether it works.

[chris curran]

i'm not having much luck the library/ pref folder in my user ac doesn't highlight the finder plist
if i open up a an application i am able to get to the hard drive but some things aren't highlighted. i read something about creating a root ac as this is more powerful than admin i'll give this a go as the beacvhball is beginning to bug me.
chris

[Diatribe]

Do it as Nermal said. Create an admin acc, log in, go to your user library/preference fodler(the one that doesn't work) and delete the finder.plist. That should work.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You don't have Terminal.app (or the Applications folder/Utilities folder) in your Dock?

Cause with Terminal it's very easy. Just type:

rm /Users/<your short user name>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.

Also. No need for a new account. Just boot into Single User Mode (cmd-S on start-up, isn't it?), then type the command above, enter, then just type reboot, and again enter.

(Remember you can auto-complete with TAB, e.g. Type / U TAB and you get /Users/ and can type the first letter in your name or even just TAB directly if you're the only user.)

[iMeowbot]

You don't have Terminal.app (or the Applications folder/Utilities folder) in your Dock?
If those are missing from the dock but Safari is there, telnet://foo (then open a new window in Terminal) is a quick & dirty way to get in.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

If those are missing from the dock but Safari is there, telnet://foo (then open a new window in Terminal) is a quick & dirty way to get in.Cool... didn't know that... :)

[chris curran]

I'm still not having much luck. this is what I got when I got into terminal via safari. (I've now placed it into my dock)


rm /Users/<chriscurran>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
-bash: chriscurran: No such file or directory

Yet when I open up Word I can see that file greyed out. This is how I get around the applications via Word & file open as I can get into the hard drive etc as none of these are on the desktop its just a blue screen.

ps does it matter if my user ac ( the problematic ac) is an admin should I change to standard?
Did I mention that I can't get into the my utilities folder when I log in to another admin ac as it has a red negative icon is this because im logged in or that its an admin ac?


:confused: :confused:

[iMeowbot]

rm /Users/<chriscurran>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
-bash: chriscurran: No such file or directory

If you are actually typing in those angle brackets, don't.
ps does it matter if my user ac ( the problematic ac) is an admin should I change to standard?
That shouldn't matter for this. The Finder is supposed to work for everyone :)
Did I mention that I can't get into the my utilities folder when I log in to another admin ac as it has a red negative icon is this because im logged in or that its an admin ac?
Which utilities folder? The one in Applications, or inside a user folder?

[cu8sfan]

I had the exact same problem with Leopard after downloading the newest updates. Here's what helped for me:

Rename /Library/Application Support/DivXNetworks to /Library/Application Support/DivXNetworks.prev. I found the solution here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5650727&#5650727.

Good luck!