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Finder window closing when opening applications

AcesHigh87

AcesHigh87

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 11, 2009
986
326
New Brunswick, Canada
I've had my macbook for probably a year and a half now and have never seen this before but it's creeping me out.

Today, suddenly, my finder has started quitting whenever I go to the "applications" tab. Every other part of the finder works but the applications refuse to open. It's worrying me because I think it could be one of those few mac viruses. I'm running a virus scan at the moment to see.

Also on the possible virus front. I had cleaned my HDD the other day and gotten it to 58 gigs left of free space. A few days later it came up as 78 free though which confused me.

I had downloaded a program called macaroni to run some stuff on my computer and I'm worried it might have done something to it, does anyone know if my hunch is right?

Also, I deleted the preferences already and restarted, as well as straight re-starts several times but no luck. Does anyone have an ideas of what to do? I'm running on Snow Leopard, if that helps.
 
AcesHigh87 said:
I've had my macbook for probably a year and a half now and have never seen this before but it's creeping me out.

Today, suddenly, my finder has started quitting whenever I go to the "applications" tab. Every other part of the finder works but the applications refuse to open. It's worrying me because I think it could be one of those few mac viruses. I'm running a virus scan at the moment to see.

Also on the possible virus front. I had cleaned my HDD the other day and gotten it to 58 gigs left of free space. A few days later it came up as 78 free though which confused me.

I had downloaded a program called macaroni to run some stuff on my computer and I'm worried it might have done something to it, does anyone know if my hunch is right?

Also, I deleted the preferences already and restarted, as well as straight re-starts several times but no luck. Does anyone have an ideas of what to do? I'm running on Snow Leopard, if that helps.
Click to expand...
First, there ARE no Mac viruses: Mac Virus/Malware Info

Second, try repairing permissions.
 
GGJstudios said:
Read the malware info I posted a link to, then come back and name ONE... just ONE Mac virus that runs on current Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

Does it really matter? I'm just saying what I've heard. It really doesn't matter if you're right or if I am, I just want to fix this issue because clearly it's not working right.
 
AcesHigh87 said:
Does it really matter? I'm just saying what I've heard. It really doesn't matter if you're right or if I am,
Click to expand...

It does matter, because those who are new to Macs or to this forum could be mislead by your false statement. Just because you've "heard it", doesn't make it accurate.

This isn't Windows. With Mac OS X, viruses or other malware are generally the last possible source of problems; not the first.

Have you repaired permissions, as suggested? Have you tried uninstalling Macaroni, to see if you get the same results?
 
GGJstudios said:
It does matter, because those who are new to Macs or to this forum could be mislead by your false statement. Just because you've "heard it", doesn't make it accurate.

This isn't Windows. With Mac OS X, viruses or other malware are generally the last possible source of problems; not the first.

Have you repaired permissions, as suggested? Have you tried uninstalling Macaroni, to see if you get the same results?
Click to expand...

Well, regardless of what you're telling me, the virus scan has been running for awhile so I'd rather let it finish then make it a waste, I can't do anything until then.

As far as Macaroni goes, I'm not sure. It seemed to only have installed a thing in the system preferences and I got rid of that and can't find it anywhere else but it never actually installed an application.

I'll be doing a disk repair later tonight. In the meantime, as a last resort backup, is there anyway to do a complete re-install of the OS but save everything on it? I have a time machine backup if it helps.
 
AcesHigh87 said:
As far as Macaroni goes, I'm not sure. It seemed to only have installed a thing in the system preferences and I got rid of that and can't find it anywhere else but it never actually installed an application.
Click to expand...

How to uninstall MACARONI????? - Macworld Forums

From http://www.atomicbird.com/macaroni/faq
How do I uninstall ?

If you are using Macaroni 2.1: Macaroni has an "uninstall" button near the bottom of its window. Click this button to uninstall Macaroni.

If you are using Macaroni 2.0.8 (or older): The Macaroni disk image includes both an install package and an uninstall application. Run the uninstall application to remove Macaroni. If you don't have the Macaroni disk image, you can download a new copy and use the uninstaller included with it.
Click to expand...
 
AcesHigh87 said:
Today, suddenly, my finder has started quitting whenever I go to the "applications" tab. Every other part of the finder works but the applications refuse to open. It's worrying me because I think it could be one of those few mac viruses. I'm running a virus scan at the moment to see.
Click to expand...

Ditto No Viruses. When you say Applications tab do you mean the Applications folder that is listed in the sidebar? By Finder quitting do you mean that the Finder window is closing or the entire Finder is quitting (this would include the Dock as well and they would automatically relaunch)? Can you launch Applications from the Dock?
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Ditto No Viruses. When you say Applications tab do you mean the Applications folder that is listed in the sidebar? By Finder quitting do you mean that the Finder window is closing or the entire Finder is quitting (this would include the Dock as well and they would automatically relaunch)? Can you launch Applications from the Dock?
Click to expand...

I can run things off the dock and yes, I do mean the one listed in the sidebar, where all my apps actually are. It basically opens but none of the images do and then freezes before closing and relaunching itself
 
AcesHigh87 said:
I can run things off the dock and yes, I do mean the one listed in the sidebar, where all my apps actually are. It basically opens but none of the images do and then freezes before closing and relaunching itself
Click to expand...

Try going to Finder Preferences, Sidebar tab, uncheck Applications, close Preferences. Go back to Finder Preferences, Sidebar tab, check Applications, close Preferences. Now open a Finder window and try your Applications in the Sidebar. Any change?
 
Delete this:
Picture 2.jpg​
Then restart Finder ( > Force Quit > Finder > Relaunch)
 
Did you try my above suggestion with Finder Preferences? Here's another ides, drag the Applications folder out of the Finder Sidebar, it should disappear in a poof of smoke, now locate the Applications folder on your hard drive and drag it to the Finder Sidebar and release it, it should now be back in the Sidebar. Will it work properly now?
 
DewGuy1999 said:
Did you try my above suggestion with Finder Preferences? Here's another ides, drag the Applications folder out of the Finder Sidebar, it should disappear in a poof of smoke, now locate the Applications folder on your hard drive and drag it to the Finder Sidebar and release it, it should now be back in the Sidebar. Will it work properly now?
Click to expand...

The preferences one didn't work and I'm avoiding the 2nd suggestion because, for some reason, the folder "applications" under my user is empty. I don't know if it should have things in it but it doesn't so I'd rather not use it and lose everything.
 
AcesHigh87 said:
The preferences one didn't work and I'm avoiding the 2nd suggestion because, for some reason, the folder "applications" under my user is empty. I don't know if it should have things in it but it doesn't so I'd rather not use it and lose everything.
Click to expand...

The Applications folder shouldn't be under your user. It should be Macintosh HD/Applications.
 
.... And if you find the Applications Folder where it's supposed to be, with all your applications intact, you can delete the empty one in your UserName Folder. No hare will be done.

I mean no hair will be done, er I use the same finger for the 'e' and the 'm' .... :p
 
AcesHigh87 said:
The preferences one didn't work and I'm avoiding the 2nd suggestion because, for some reason, the folder "applications" under my user is empty. I don't know if it should have things in it but it doesn't so I'd rather not use it and lose everything.
Click to expand...

If by 2nd suggestion you're referring to my suggestion of dragging the Applications folder out of the Finder Sidebar, that won't harm anything, those are only Aliases to the actual folders on the hard drive.

The Applications folder in a User's folder is there for Apps that are only available to that particular user, normally there won't even be a Apps folder in the user folder unless a app was installed that was only for that user. I believe the User apps folder is also used when Parental Controls are activated on a User's account to restrict app use to that user. In that case the Apps they have access to are put in the User's Apps folder.
 
DewGuy1999 said:
If by 2nd suggestion you're referring to my suggestion of dragging the Applications folder out of the Finder Sidebar, that won't harm anything, those are only Aliases to the actual folders on the hard drive.

The Applications folder in a User's folder is there for Apps that are only available to that particular user, normally there won't even be a Apps folder in the user folder unless a app was installed that was only for that user. I believe the User apps folder is also used when Parental Controls are activated on a User's account to restrict app use to that user. In that case the Apps they have access to are put in the User's Apps folder.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I noticed that after. Anyway, I tried it and it seems to work, for a bit. I can go into the applications sidebar without it crashing immediately but most of the images, still, aren't loading and it still stops responding after a bit.

I can still access everything if I do it through spotlight so my guess, is that something is corrupt. If I could understand the log it would likely say what but I don't know what any of it means. Any way of figuring it out or is my guess likely wrong?
 
AcesHigh87 said:
Yeah, I noticed that after. Anyway, I tried it and it seems to work, for a bit. I can go into the applications sidebar without it crashing immediately but most of the images, still, aren't loading and it still stops responding after a bit.

I can still access everything if I do it through spotlight so my guess, is that something is corrupt. If I could understand the log it would likely say what but I don't know what any of it means. Any way of figuring it out or is my guess likely wrong?
Click to expand...

If you want to post the log, I'll take a look at it, but I've never had much luck deciphering what they mean, but you never know...
 
I have a time machine backup from before this started happening so I could just restore from that and hope it doesn't happen again...

Anyway, this is the top of the log. I don't know how much would actually be needed but the whole thing is too long to post.

Code: 
Process:         Finder [1851]
Path:            /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Identifier:      com.apple.finder
Version:         10.6.4 (10.6.4)
Build Info:      Finder_FE-6650404~13
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [153]

Date/Time:       2010-06-12 22:36:39.583 -0300
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.3 (10D573)
Report Version:  6

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x00000001211ed004
Crashed Thread:  8
 
AcesHigh87 said:
I have a time machine backup from before this started happening so I could just restore from that and hope it doesn't happen again...

Anyway, this is the top of the log. I don't know how much would actually be needed but the whole thing is too long to post.

Code: 
Process:         Finder [1851]
Path:            /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Identifier:      com.apple.finder
Version:         10.6.4 (10.6.4)
Build Info:      Finder_FE-6650404~13
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [153]

Date/Time:       2010-06-12 22:36:39.583 -0300
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.3 (10D573)
Report Version:  6

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x00000001211ed004
Crashed Thread:  8
Click to expand...

Nothing there that means anything to me.

Have you tried running something like OnyX to clear caches, etc. that might help.

Another thing you could try is to create another user account and see if it happens in that one also. If it doesn't then it means it related to something in your user account. If it does do it in the new account then that would mean it's something system wide.
 
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