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catalina - finder freezing on late 2015 iMac

Hi,

I've upgraded from Ei Captain to Catalina on a iMac 27 inch Late 2015.


Since then, the finder becomes unresponsive every few minutes. Sometimes force relaunch works, other times not.


I'd appreciate it if you could offer a remedy. I'm not a techie, so simple solution needed.


Thanks in advance

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on May 21, 2020 8:40 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 21, 2020 11:57 AM

Boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

If the problem still persists try downloading and applying the macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Combo Update. 



10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 21, 2020 11:57 AM in response to EOinB

Boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and check there to see if the problem persists.  Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

If the problem still persists try downloading and applying the macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Combo Update. 



Jul 4, 2020 8:44 AM in response to EOinB

Do you have another Mac you can use? If so connect the two Macs together in Target Disk Mode  with your current Mac the one in Target Disk Mode. Then you can access the Downloads folder from the other Mac and delete the contents.


Can you get the ownership and permissions of the Documents folder via the Info pane for it, i.e. Control (right) - click on the folder and select Get Info. If you can post a screenshot of the window.

May 21, 2020 1:49 PM in response to Old Toad

Hi Old Toad,

Thanks for your reply.

The problem still occurs in Safe mode.


I downloaded the update but the problem still exists.



Its the Download Folder that is the issue or at least triggers it.

When I open the Download folder - the Finder freezes.

When I try to delete from Download Folder - the finder freezes.


I don't know if I deleting the Download Folder will work - sort it out.

I also dont know how to delete it through terminal.





Jul 3, 2020 9:40 AM in response to Old Toad

No, I realize by the date I'm too late but don't hook up another Mac. I too have had this problem for quite sometime. I have a 21" late 2013 build I brought a machine home from work and now it's doing the same as my home machine has been doing for a long time and it is software causing it in my (uneducated) belief. I have completely erased the hard drive and reloaded the system and it still kept giving me unresponsive finder errors nothing I have tried has worked.

catalina - finder freezing on late 2015 iMac

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