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Finder freezes and is not responding? Try this fix

2021 October 15
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The Finder on a Mac is the first thing to appear after booting, and it lets you access files, folders, applications, and more. Sometimes, after an update, or due to other reasons, the Finder can freeze or not respond. This can be very frustrating as you need the Finder to function properly if you want to get any work done.

In this article, we’ve listed some fixes that can help you when the Finder freezes and isn’t responding on your Mac.

Also see: 7 useful Mac Finder preferences and settings to check out

Troubleshooting Finder freezing and not responding

There are several reasons that can cause Finder to freeze on your Mac. And since the Finder can do a lot of things, it can be annoying when it doesn’t respond or freezes, especially while you’re looking for files. Below are a few fixes that can potentially help solve the Finder freezing issue. Try them out and thank us later.

Force quit Finder and Relaunch

The first thing you want to do is to Force Quit and Relaunch the Finder. In most cases, a simple relaunch fixes the Finder freezing or not-responding issues. Here’s how to do it.

reset the SMC or System Management Controller on your Mac and check if it solves the Finder issue. The SMC can solve a wide variety of issues, and is therefore something to try. Here’s how to reset SMC on your Mac.

On an older Mac with a removable battery

1) Shut down the Mac.

2) Open the rear panel and remove the battery.

3) Press and hold the Power button for 5 seconds.

4) Connect the battery again and press the Power button to turn on the Mac.

On a Mac with a non-removable battery

1) Turn off your mac

2) Hold Shift + Control + Option and press the Power button for 10 seconds and then release them.

3) Turn on your Mac by pressing the Power button.

This will reset the SMC and hopefully should fix the Finder freezing issues. Here’s a full tutorial on how to reset the SMC across various Mac models.

Delete Corrupted Finder files

It’s also possible that the Finder .plist files is corrupted, which is what maybe causing the issues. Here’s how you can delete this file and reset Finder.

reinstall macOS.

Source link: https://www.idownloadblog.com/2021/10/15/fix-finder-freeze-not-responding/

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