Finder dead?

[jamesjingyi]

Help! Finder does not work at all!

Hi, I shut down my MacBook Air last night and when I restarted it this morning, the desktop was gone and now I can't open up Finder or use Spotlight at all. I have tried reinstalling OS X but it hasn't seemed to do anything, still stuck with it. The only way I can launch or use Apps is using Alfred (so glad I installed it) or using the ones in the dock. The Spotlight search has even disappeared from the menu bar. Apps seem to run fine apart from this. I have attached what it looks like to me. Help? Argh



Thanks

James

 

[jamesjingyi]

Oh and I can see all my files if I click upload on this website, however there's no way to access them otherwise (that I have found anyway)

 

[Lakshmi1922]

I cant guarantee anything, but I would do a complete reinstall. Meaning, removing Yosemite COMPLETELY and then making a bootable Yosemite USB (2.0). But this is very risky, and as a first opinion, I would never recommend this.

--What I did was, my Bootcamp destroyed my Macintosh HD, so I made a bootable Yosemite, and did a complete reinstall.

But then again, I am a "noob."

 

[jamesjingyi]

I cant guarantee anything, but I would do a complete reinstall. Meaning, removing Yosemite COMPLETELY and then making a bootable Yosemite USB (2.0). But this is very risky, and as a first opinion, I would never recommend this.

--What I did was, my Bootcamp destroyed my Macintosh HD, so I made a bootable Yosemite, and did a complete reinstall.

But then again, I am a "noob."

Haha I get what you mean, I have done it before. I just would prefer to not have to reinstall all the Applications etc

 

[fisherking]

get some more advice here before doing a full reinstall. you could try trashing the finder preferences, or installing the combo update (not at home, but google "yosemite combo update")... am sure others will step up with ideas. BACK UP FIRST!

 

[jamesjingyi]

get some more advice here before doing a full reinstall. you could try trashing the finder preferences, or installing the combo update (not at home, but google "yosemite combo update")... am sure others will step up with ideas. BACK UP FIRST!

Thanks, wish I had got this message before I just did a full reinstall... Had to do it twice because the first time, the Time Machine backup restored the original problem. Therefore I just reinstalled and copied things over manually.. 20GB+ of Download later, its back.

Annoying -_-

 

[fisherking]

Thanks, wish I had got this message before I just did a full reinstall... Had to do it twice because the first time, the Time Machine backup restored the original problem. Therefore I just reinstalled and copied things over manually.. 20GB+ of Download later, its back.

Annoying -_-

...but resolved, glad to hear it...

 

[jamesjingyi]

...but resolved, glad to hear it...

Yep Thanks for the help Just in case it happens again, how would I reset the Finder settings? Which .plist do I delete?

 

[fisherking]

you could try moving com.apple.finder.plist to the desktop, then rebooting (it's in Home>Library>Preferences). then you can delete that file from the desktop. or try the combo update, good for fixing buggy OS stuff sometimes...