Is Finder Not Responding on Mac? 5 Solutions Are Here to Fix It!

Mac Finder Not Responding

Finder is an application in Mac that can be used for file management and navigation. Like its name, it can help you to manage disks and network volumes, and find files that you need. Besides, it is responsible for the launch of various applications.

When Finder is not responding, things become very terrible. This issue is often reported by many users. It sometimes gets stuck on the computer screen or sometimes the window displays the information “not responding”.

Why is the Finder application not responding? The reasons are various, for example, bad configuration, corrupt system preferences, low memory storage, error on User Profile, and more. Next, let’s see some methods to fix the issue.

How to Fix Finder Not Responding

Relaunch Finder

When Finder stops responding, the first thing you can do is to restart the application.

Step 1: Press Option + Command + Esc keys to open Task Manager.

Step 2: Select Finder from the listed applications and click the Relaunch button.

Also, there is another way to force quit Finder and it is using the Activity Monitor app.

Step 1: Click Launchpad to find Activity Monitor.

Step 2: Locate and click Finder and click on the X icon in the upper left corner.

Step 3: Select Force Quit in the pop-up.

If this way cannot help to fix the Finder unresponsive issue, try other solutions.

Log out and Log back into the Mac

This way can quit all the running processes and apps when logging out of your Mac. When logging in again, all the processes will restart.

Step 1: Click the Apple icon and choose Log out from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: To log back again, enter your Mac password.

Power-Cycle Your Mac

To fix Finder not responding, you can power-cycle your Mac by shutting down the machine and disconnecting the power source. This can forcefully remove temporary configurations that are corrupted leading to the problem with Finder. Before you do, save your work to avoid losing it.

Step 1: Click the Apple logo and choose Log out.

Step 2: Shut down the Mac.

Step 3: Disconnect your power cable and wait for 2-3 minutes.

Step 4: Reconnect the cable, restart your Mac, and log in. Then, launch Finder and see if your issue is solved.

Delete Finder Corrupted Files

In some cases, the preferences files related to the Finder app are corrupt or incomplete, causing Finder not to respond. To fix the issue, the best way is to delete the Finder preference files.

Step 1: Go to Launchpad and find Terminal.

Related article: How to Open Terminal on Mac | Mac Terminal Commands

Step 2: Type rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and press Enter.

Step 3: Restart your Mac.

Clear Storage

Mac Finder not responding may be triggered by low computer space. To manage your storage space, you need to delete some unnecessary files, empty trash, and more. In our previous post – How to Clear Disk Space on Mac and Recover Mac Data, we show you some useful methods to clear Mac space.

Final Words

These are 5 common solutions to fix Finder not responding. Also, some users recommend checking third-party plugins since they may conflict with the system and resetting Mac to factory settings. You can also have a try.