Just upgraded and now I get a pop up?

[hotkey]

Window Title reads "Get Specified Finder Items". I have no idea why it keeps popping up.

What is it and how do I stop it.

Googling kinda leads me to an Automator but I've never used/learned about it at al.

Thanks for helping - again!

 

[DeltaMac]

That popup may be part of your startup software, and EtreCheck might give you some information about why it happens.

Run EtreCheck, post the report here.

 

[hotkey]

EtreCheck version: 3.0.6 (315)

Report generated 2016-10-05 16:04:58

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 3:15

Performance: Good



Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.



Problem: Other problem

Description:

Getting a pop up of Get Specified Finder Items"



Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo (aluminum unibody) (Mid 2009)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,4

1 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Battery: Health = Check Battery - Cycle count = 53


Video Information: ⓘ

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900


System Software: ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (15G1004) - Time since boot: less than an hour


Disk Information: ⓘ

ST9320423ASG disk0 : (320.07 GB) (Rotational)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

MacbookHD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 169.21 GB (61.77 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP : 150.00 GB (87.79 GB free)


MATSHITADVD-R UJ-868 ()


USB Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Card Reader

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Microsoft Microsoft® Nano Transceiver v1.0

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers


Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Applications/InsomniaX.app

[not loaded] org.binaervarianz.driver.insomnia (1.0.0d1 - 2009-09-17) [Support]

[not loaded] org.binaervarianz.iokit.insomnia (1.0.0d1 - 2009-09-17) [Support]



/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.1 - 2016-09-28) [Support]

[not loaded] com.globaldelight.driver.BoomDevice (1.1 - 2016-09-28) [Support]



System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 7 Apple tasks

[loaded] 168 Apple tasks

[running] 64 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 46 Apple tasks

[loaded] 162 Apple tasks

[running] 82 Apple tasks


Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-08-14) [Support]


Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist (2016-09-12) [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (2010-10-12) [Support]


User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist (2009-12-21)

[loaded] com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent.plist (2012-01-20) [Support]

[failed] com.plexapp.helper.plist (2011-05-13) [Support]


User Login Items: ⓘ

Boom Application Hidden (/Applications/Boom.app)

Google Chrome Application Hidden (/Applications/Google Chrome.app)


Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 11.1.102.55 (2012-01-22) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-07-08)

Flash Player: 11.1.102.55 (2012-01-22) Outdated! Update

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-07-08)

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-26) [Support]

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.6.8 - SDK 10.6 (2016-09-14) [Support]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 - SDK 10.8 (2015-12-11) [Support]

Silverlight: 4.0.60310.0 (2011-04-30) [Support]

SlingPlayer: Unknown - SDK 10.6 (2012-12-05) [Support]

iPhotoPhotocast: 7.0 (2011-03-20)



User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

Flash Player: Unknown (2011-01-17)

._Flash Player: Unknown (2010-02-23)



3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (2012-01-22) [Support]


Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!



Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

24% mdworker(7)

4% WindowServer

2% kernel_task

0% fontd

0% Google Chrome


Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

1.61 GB Google Chrome Helper(11)

465 MB kernel_task

229 MB Google Chrome

152 MB mdworker(7)

131 MB mds_stores


Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

300 MB Free RAM

3.96 GB Used RAM (991 MB Cached)

0 B Swap Used


Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Oct 5, 2016, 03:55:39 PM Self test - passed

 

[DeltaMac]

Start with items that are obviously not working, under User Launch Agents, for example.
You have really old versions of some items, such as Boom (don't think it works with El Cap, but there is a Boom 2 that you can get.
Your Flash Player is way out of date. You can update if you need flash, otherwise you can uninstall it (good riddance!)
GoogleTalk
Silverlight
Slingplayer
Check that your browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc) are all up to date
You will notice that Chrome wastes great gobs of memory. Try to not use Chrome unless you really need it...

InsomniaX probably doesn't work in El Capitan. You can check for updates, or just remove it.
Good idea to check for updates on every third-party app that you use.

Two more things to consider - El Cap is not terribly happy when running on a spinning hard drive. Your MBPro would be a good candidate for an SSD.
Also, you can upgrade to 8GB of memory. Doing either would be good. Both - would give your 7-year-old laptop a new lease on life. The difference in actual performance would make your laptop feel better than new - really...

 

[hotkey]

OK. Thanks. I'll run thru those and see what happens.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you remove some items (uninstall, or just drag to the trash), be sure to log out, then log back in - or just restart your Mac, so your system would reset with the change.
I expect that your popup will be the result of SOMETHING that is part of the startup software.
It can be an adventure to discover exactly what is causing that popup, without other identification.
Sometimes, as you make other changes, that popup may just go away, never to return (hopefully )

Another thing that might help is to go to your user/Library folder. It's hidden, so you can see it by clicking on the Go menu, then press your Option key. You will see Library appear when you press Option. Open that Library folder, then drag the Caches folder to the trash. Restart your Mac, then empty the trash. That folder will be rebuilt as you go forward using your Mac.

 

[Weaselboy]

Like you mentioned that "Get Specified Finder Items" is an Automator action. Did you at some point use Automator to setup something like maybe a smart folder or similar?

Maybe some app is using Automator actions for this.

 

[hotkey]

Like you mentioned that "Get Specified Finder Items" is an Automator action. Did you at some point use Automator to setup something like maybe a smart folder or similar?

Maybe some app is using Automator actions for this.

View attachment 663454

Not that I was aware of. How can I tell and then delete?

 

[Weaselboy]

Not that I was aware of. How can I tell and then delete?

It is kind of a hassle... but here you go.

https://github.com/sjitech/mac_list_windows_pids

Go here and click the green button to download this Python script. Then open your downloads folder and unzip the file mac_list_windows_pids-master.zip. Then in the folder that spawns, drag the file lswin.py off to your Desktop.

Now open Terminal and run the command below. You need to do this while the window is present.

python ~/Desktop/lswin.py

That will generate output like this showing all windows, the window title and the Process ID (PID) for each window,

 492    79 {100,100,1,1          }    [Fantastical] Focus Proxy
    492    76 {2231,0,30,22         }    [Fantastical] Item-0
    543    82 {870,478,775,547      }    [Contacts]
    546   140 {1116,969,180,19      }    [Mail]
    546    95 {100,100,1,1          }    [Mail] Focus Proxy
    546    94 {0,0,2560,22          }    [Mail]
    546    93 {0,0,2560,22          }    [Mail]
    546    83 {446,330,1140,756     }    [Mail] Inbox (0 messages)
    547    84 {1783,74,730,537      }    [Messages]

For example, you can see Messages has a window up (although hidden) and is PID 547.

Then go to Activity Monitor and look for the app that belongs to that PID. In this case you can see PID 547 is Messages.

So look through the script output to find the PID matching your stray window then match that PID to the process in Activity Monitor and you should have the process name that is spawning that window.

 

[hotkey]

Yep it reads PID 6219 AUTOMATOR RUNNER.

Now what?

EDIT: Further on my own I opened Automator.app. Selected MOST USED. And found 3 items:

Rename Finder Item
Get Specified Finder Item
Copy Finder Item....

Now what? HAHA

 

[Weaselboy]

it must be an Automator action then. Look in this folder and see what Automator actions are in there. Note this is your users Library folder and not the main Library folder. You can access by selecting my comment below with your mouse, then right click, then Services, then Reveal in Finder.

~/Library/Workflows/

 

[hotkey]

Start with items that are obviously not working, under User Launch Agents, for example.
You have really old versions of some items, such as Boom (don't think it works with El Cap, but there is a Boom 2 that you can get.
Your Flash Player is way out of date. You can update if you need flash, otherwise you can uninstall it (good riddance!)
GoogleTalk
Silverlight
Slingplayer
Check that your browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc) are all up to date
You will notice that Chrome wastes great gobs of memory. Try to not use Chrome unless you really need it...

InsomniaX probably doesn't work in El Capitan. You can check for updates, or just remove it.
Good idea to check for updates on every third-party app that you use.

Two more things to consider - El Cap is not terribly happy when running on a spinning hard drive. Your MBPro would be a good candidate for an SSD.
Also, you can upgrade to 8GB of memory. Doing either would be good. Both - would give your 7-year-old laptop a new lease on life. The difference in actual performance would make your laptop feel better than new - really...

Removed InsomniaX - not needed anymore
Removed Boom - Same
Removed Flash - We'll see if I can do without

Didn't see these in APPLICATIONS folder?
GoogleTalk
Silverlight
Slingplayer
[doublepost=1475783217][/doublepost]

it must be an Automator action then. Look in this folder and see what Automator actions are in there. Note this is your users Library folder and not the main Library folder. You can access by selecting my comment below with your mouse, then right click, then Services, then Reveal in Finder.

~/Library/Workflows/

There is folder named FOLDER ACTIONS, and it contains Rename.workflow. Do I just delete that?

 

[Weaselboy]

There is folder named FOLDER ACTIONS, and it contains Rename.workflow. Do I just delete that?

Yup.

 

[hotkey]

Thanks a bunch man! I really appreciate the help.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks a bunch man! I really appreciate the help.

You bet. I got a little sidetracked there thinking it might be some other app launching this. In hindsight, we could have gone straight to that folder. I was just worried maybe something bad was going on.

 

[hotkey]

You bet. I got a little sidetracked there thinking it might be some other app launching this. In hindsight, we could have gone straight to that folder. I was just worried maybe something bad was going on.

Ha - well with my luck it usually IS bad!