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Finder is suddenly acting wierd...

E

eyeon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 7, 2004
161
0
Montana, USA
This is wierd...

All of a sudden, my Finder seems to not want to cooperate... for instance, when I click on a file twice slowly to rename it, it highlights normally, but when I type, nothing happens... the arrow keys do not move the cursor, the keyboard basically does not respond until I click somewhere else to make the filename go back to normal. So basically I cannot rename files through the Finder anymore. Also, keyboard shortcuts, such as Cmd+N (to open a new finder window) or Shift+Cmd+N (to create a new folder) simply do not work anymore. Manually going up to File > New Finder Window, etc. still works, but the keyboard shortcuts just decided not to work anymore... These are a couple Finder problems that I have found in the last day or two, and I am nervous to possibly find more in the near future. It just seems strange that all of a sudden I'm having Finder troubles when I have never had any issues in the past.

I also repaired permissions, and restarted, to no avail.

Any suggestions???
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Try dragging a file named com.apple.finder.plist to the Desktop and then restarting. If that doesn't work, then create a new account and see if problems persist there. :)
 
annk

annk

Administrator
Staff member
Apr 18, 2004
15,140
9,351
Somewhere over the rainbow
I´ve often read about trashing plist files, and have done it myself now and then to resolve issues.

I assume you suggest moving the file to the desktop because if that´s not the problem, it can just be put back. But I´ve never noticed any downside to trashing the plist. I can´t remember ever losing prefs in an app that way. But it seems to me that that´s just what should happen - I should lose some prefs when I get rid of the plist file.

Am I just painfully unaware of my own prefs?? :eek: :rolleyes:
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
Moving the preference file out of the Preferences folder reverts the app's preferences to their defaults.

For Finder there are very few preferences to start with so reverting to defaults isn't usually a problem however it's a good idea to keep them just in case. It's a good habit to get into considering there are some apps that can be a pain to reconfigure (such as Mail).

annk, you may not have changed many of the preferences from their defaults which would be why you wouldn't miss them when they revert back. I don't generally customise many of my apps so I'm in the same boat and actually rarely ever keep PLIST (or preference) files. :)
 
mad jew

mad jew

Moderator emeritus
Apr 3, 2004
32,191
9
Adelaide, Australia
No problems. Removing relevant preference files is a pretty quick, safe and easy method of fixing small app idiosyncrasies and corruptions. :)
 
E

ETZepplin

macrumors newbie
Jun 11, 2008
7
0
how do I find that file?

So I'm having all the same issues the original poster had, but I'm having trouble locating that file... particularly when I can't type into many of the Finder fields, like spotlight. Anyone know the path to that file?

Thank you
Erik
 
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