Incredibly Slow Finder

[Emiljabo]

Hi guys,

This has been an issue for me for a while now. Why is the finder so incredibly slow when opening folders with lots of image files in it. Moving small files around from folder to folder. It's as if the finder starts off ok, but then after scrolling down the files in a folder it grinds to a halt and it becomes really laggy and the spinning beachball shows it's face. I often have to just force quit the finder just to kick it up the backside and start again.

Surely a computer with the my specifications should be able to handle general finder operations like looking at files. This never used to be a problem before and the finder was a breeze to work with.

Does anyone know why this might be causing this and if there are any fixes out there on how to solve it.


iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014)
Yosemite 10.10.5
4 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB

Thanks.

 

[BrianBaughn]

There are many possible causes. Some have simple fixes.

What have you found out so far?

 

[DeltaMac]

You can often get a clue about what causes real slowdowns, by keeping your Activity Monitor open. When the finder seems slow, check in both the CPU and Memory tabs. You can change the sort so that you see the most activity at the top of the list. Make sure that the Activity Monitor window is set to show All Processes, and not just My Processes.

You also didn't say if there is improvement after your restart your Mac (not just force quit the Finder)

 

[Partron22]

Are you signed into every cloud service under the sun?
Those're going to want to know where you're moving your files from and to.

 

[Emiljabo]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

So far I have found no fixes as I didn't know what might be causing it. I'm not signed up to loads of cloud services. I haven't tried restarting the Mac yet as I know this will improve the situation. It's as if it runs out of memory whislt performing Finder tasks.

I checked the activity monitor whilst I was having slowing down, laggy, beachball issues and the following is a random selection of the highest culprits in the CPU tab:

• WindowServer - 90.5%
• Finder - 102.0 %?

In the memory tab it was:

• Kernal Task - 1.48 GB

They were the ones that shot to the top of the list as soon as I was looking through folders and using the up and down keyboard buttons to browse the files. Image files around 8mb in size each. The thing is it also does it with .jpg files that are really small too, like under 300k. Any ideas?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies.

So far I have found no fixes as I didn't know what might be causing it. I'm not signed up to loads of cloud services. I haven't tried restarting the Mac yet as I know this will improve the situation. It's as if it runs out of memory whislt performing Finder tasks.

I checked the activity monitor whilst I was having slowing down, laggy, beachball issues and the following is a random selection of the highest culprits in the CPU tab:

• WindowServer - 90.5%
• Finder - 102.0 %?

In the memory tab it was:

• Kernal Task - 1.48 GB

They were the ones that shot to the top of the list as soon as I was looking through folders and using the up and down keyboard buttons to browse the files. Image files around 8mb in size each. The thing is it also does it with .jpg files that are really small too, like under 300k. Any ideas?

Create a new user, reboot and login to the new user. Is finder slow in the new user account?

 

[DeltaMac]

Those few items that you show from your Activity Monitor are pretty normal, and are the main services that the Activity Monitor should show close to the top. Other services down the list may be more relevant.
When you are looking at the Activity Monitor, what does the Memory Pressure show? Green? Yellow? Red?
How about Swap Used - and Compressed memory?

I see the memory and CPU sometimes go a little wonky with Yosemite. It settles back down after an OS X reinstall. That's not something that I would have expected a few years ago as a relatively common (for me) troubleshooting step.
But, maybe about once a month, it DOES help, and takes less than 30 minutes to complete. I'm not sure if I would recommend it as a routine step, but it does work for me. I keep Yosemite installer in current version on a USB flash drive.
BTW, I see the need for a reinstall less often in El Capitan, so maybe that's something to look forward to.

 

[simonsi]

If it is only when you are looking through folders of images then I'll bet it is just building many thumbnails to show you?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote above:
"I checked the activity monitor whilst I was having slowing down, laggy, beachball issues and the following is a random selection of the highest culprits in the CPU tab:
WindowServer - 90.5%"

If it was me, I'd open up Activity Monitor, click the "CPU" tab, select the "WindowServer" process, and kill it.

And see what happens next...

 

[Partron22]

If it was me, I'd open up Activity Monitor, click the "CPU" tab... And see what happens next...

Console error logs are also often interesting to watch under laggy/beachbally conditions.

 

[Emiljabo]

Thanks for your replies guys.

I agree that it is likely slowing down due to the need to create previews of the image files, but surely it should not be that slow and difficult a process for the operating system to handle to the point whereby it becomes useless? It was never like this before. It even hangs when I then go to copy or move one of the files. The whole process just grinds to a halt which is quite frustrating seeing as all I am doing is doing seemingly easy tasks like looking at files and moving them.

OS re-installs seems like a bit of a drastic measure which surely can be solved by other means? I just hope that future updates to the OS rectify this issue.

I'm a bit disappointed having spec'd up the Mac that I wanted so that it would be the best that was offered only for it to not be able to handle seemingly mundane tasks like looking at files and moving them around.

 

[DeltaMac]

You can also try downloading and installing the current 10.10.5 combined updater.
That has been a good tip to try with OS X for a long time.
Here's the page for the combo updater:
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1832?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[Emiljabo]

Thanks DeltaMac, could you explain what the difference and benefit is of using the 10.10.5 combo updater if I already have 10.10.5 installed.

 

[!!!]

Thanks DeltaMac, could you explain what the difference and benefit is of using the 10.10.5 combo updater if I already have 10.10.5 installed.

The Combo update installs all modified files from 10.10 to 10.10.5. It's like reisntalling OS X, but just the updated files. The update from the App Store (called a "Delta Update") sometimes causes errors.

 

[Emiljabo]

Thanks for explaining. So even if I have 10.10.5 already installed it will allow me to complete the combo update?

 

[Taz Mangus]

Thanks for explaining. So even if I have 10.10.5 already installed it will allow me to complete the combo update?

yes

 

[Partron22]

Oh yes, I rebuild the Launch Services Database every once in a while.
You can see how manky your DB has gotten by using contextual menu "Open With" and seeing how many entries for, say "Preview", show up.
The AppleScript is:

-- Rebuild Launch Services DB
-- BP2013
-- Modified from:
-- Adam Bell 2013
-- http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=40534

say "begin"
set flushLaunchSvcDB to "/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user"
do shell script flushLaunchSvcDB
delay 1
do shell script "killall Finder"
say "done"

 

[Traverse]

I have a very slow Finder under 10.10.5 on a 2013 15" RMBP as well.

I can't wait to clean install El Capitan.

 

[Jennism]

Thanks for your replies guys.

I agree that it is likely slowing down due to the need to create previews of the image files, but surely it should not be that slow and difficult a process for the operating system to handle to the point whereby it becomes useless? It was never like this before. It even hangs when I then go to copy or move one of the files. The whole process just grinds to a halt which is quite frustrating seeing as all I am doing is doing seemingly easy tasks like looking at files and moving them.

OS re-installs seems like a bit of a drastic measure which surely can be solved by other means? I just hope that future updates to the OS rectify this issue.

I'm a bit disappointed having spec'd up the Mac that I wanted so that it would be the best that was offered only for it to not be able to handle seemingly mundane tasks like looking at files and moving them around.

I've noticed this too with Finder. If I was dealing with just photo files I'd understand it needing to load the previews, but it does this to me too with any file type. Even those with no previews at all. I thought it might have had something to do with having XtraFinder installed, but even when I turn it off and use Finder as is, it still functions slowly. I thought it would get better as I recently installed more ram. I didn't have these issues with Mavericks as a clean install with less RAM and it only became an issue since I updated to Yosemite. Let me know if installing a combo update helps. As I might try it too.

I've noticed if I have the Photos app open at the same time as Finder, it doesn't let me do any moving files around and I also am not able to empty the trash. As soon as I close Photos app it works fine.

Generally moving one or a few files it's fine for me. But moving around Finder it is incredibly slow to open folders much of the time. Even with no other apps open.

 

[redheeler]

@Emiljabo I've noticed this issue in Yosemite Finder as well, especially bad on slow network drives with lots of large image files as it attempts to display the thumbnails. El Capitan Finder on my 13" rMBP is much better.

 

[Jennism]

@Emiljabo I've noticed this issue in Yosemite Finder as well, especially bad on slow network drives with lots of large image files as it attempts to display the thumbnails. El Capitan Finder on my 13" rMBP is much better.

Is their a way to prevent certain file types from displaying thumbnails?

 

[redheeler]

Is their a way to prevent certain file types from displaying thumbnails?

Yes. Show View Options (Command-J) and uncheck Show icon preview.

 

[Jennism]

Yes. Show View Options (Command-J) and uncheck Show icon preview.

That's awesome and all but that is specific to an entire folder or folder system. Can't I set it to a specific file type? Such as just my CR2 files throughout the system?

 

[Emiljabo]

@Emiljabo I've noticed this issue in Yosemite Finder as well, especially bad on slow network drives with lots of large image files as it attempts to display the thumbnails. El Capitan Finder on my 13" rMBP is much better.

Thanks, IT's good to know that El Capitan is better, I'll wait and see if it rectifies the issue on my system. Sadly the image files I am mentioning are on my main HD.

 

[Ebenezum]

I noticed clear slow down in Finder after 10.10.4 update, 10.10.5 didn't help and it also happens in external hard drive with clean instal of 10.10.5. I suspect Apple broke something in 10.10.4, before Finder was much faster in Mac Mini 2014.

Thanks, IT's good to know that El Capitan is better, I'll wait and see if it rectifies the issue on my system. Sadly the image files I am mentioning are on my main HD.

While El Capitan is better I am going to wait several updates before I install it into Mini, after Yosemites bugs I am not taking any changes!

It means I have a dilemma, I absolutely detest Yosemite but based on my beta testing of El Capitan I dare not to install it into Mini because of bugs... I am considering selling the Mini and purchasing older model so I can use Mavericks which works much better.