Strange Finder Glitch

[IJ Reilly]

This is a new one for me -- I wonder if anyone else has seen this very weird Finder issue.

The other day the Finder behaved like it was stuck in molasses. Clicking on a folder in column view resulted in the spinning search icon in the lower right-hand corner of the file browser window. It took several seconds at least for the list of files to appear. A log-out log-in did not cure the problem, but a restart did. I also did an fsck on the disk. The Activity Monitor didn't indicate any unusual processes, as nearly as I can tell.

10.3.3 on a G4/450 Cube, if that matters.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

This is a new one for me -- I wonder if anyone else has seen this very weird Finder issue.

The other day the Finder behaved like it was stuck in molasses. Clicking on a folder in column view resulted in the spinning search icon in the lower right-hand corner of the file browser window. It took several seconds at least for the list of files to appear. A log-out log-in did not cure the problem, but a restart did. I also did an fsck on the disk. The Activity Monitor didn't indicate any unusual processes, as nearly as I can tell.

10.3.3 on a G4/450 Cube, if that matters.

The Finder did this to me several times when I had local iDisk synching enabled and I opened an "Open File" dialog box (which uses column view). I haven't tested column view navigation from withing the Finder to see if it beachballs on me, but judging by your report, I'd expect to get the spinning beachball. Also, just like what you experienced, it only does it sometimes, not all the time. Do you have a local copy of your iDisk? If you do, have you changed it, so it needs to be synchronized? If so, (which I suspect are the conditions required for this to occur) do you get a spinning beachball?

 

[IJ Reilly]

It wasn't the beach ball, it was the rotating activity indicator icon on the lower right hand corner of the Finder window, the same one you see after entering criteria into the search field. I suspect some sort of disk directory issues. When I ran fsck on the disk before restarting, it fixed several disk issues. It might have been that instead of the reboot itself that corrected the problem, which thankfully I haven't seen again.

 

[kylos]

I've experienced similar behavior. The progress indicator would not stop spinning. I found that clicking the back button and then the forward button loaded the contents of the file immediately. Shouldn't have to do it in the first place, but it works.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I've experienced similar behavior. The progress indicator would not stop spinning. I found that clicking the back button and then the forward button loaded the contents of the file immediately. Shouldn't have to do it in the first place, but it works.

And doesn't come back? I fiddled around quite a bit and could not make it stop until I rebooted and ran fsck on the drive.

I suspect a bug in the Finder, but it might be deeper in the OS where the file system is handled. I also wonder if journaling couldn't be implicated somehow, since this is a major change recently introduced in OSX.

 

[kylos]

It sounds like you're dealing with a more serious issue with the same symptoms. I'm running journaled as well so it might have something to do with that. But, yeah, all I had to do was to click the back and then the forward buttons to view the folder contents.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Here's my theory: The way I understand it, a backup of the disk directory is maintained by journaling. So if the directory gets damaged somehow, the OS falls back onto the journaled directory, access to which might be slower. Just a theory. I don't claim to fully comprehend file journaling.