Finder not working

I've just upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard and now Finder isn't working. Can't access anything in the 'Go' menu or any files. Any advice?

Your Mac is _____
You have _____ RAM
What can you do?

Can/can't

2.4 GHz Intel, 4GB RAM (just upgraded from 1GB). And Lion 10.7.4

Can use everything in the dock/launchpad. Can pull up a file through Pages and other applications.

Can't access any files or folders through spotlight, finder or 'go to folder'. Simply get the 'file/folder not found' message. Nothing under the 'Go' menu opens when clicked on - don't even get a window.

Open Disk Utility - Repair Permissions

Does the Finder window appear at all? Just empty?

Ran Repair Disk Permissions, same problem. Empty Finder window, yes.

Can you create a new user. Log into that. Same issue?

New user doesn't have the same problem - applications all visible. So it's my user account then ... what do I do about that?

In the user with the issue go to the login items tab in accounts and disable all the entries. Restart and try again

Ok done. Same problem (the only login item checked was iTunes helper). Other ideas? (Thanks for your help btw)

Sorry I meant disable them. Best make a note of them then hit the - button to remove then.

Ticking and unticking them just hides or unhides them.

Also do you have any finder addins like pathfinder or total finder?

Ok, disabled but still no difference. Happy to delete account and create a new one, but I need access to those files ...

Can you try resetting user level account permissions.

Rather than regurgitating the info there's a great article here:
How to Repair User-Level Permissions in Mac OS X | How-To | The Mac Observer

Thanks - thought that would do it. But no. Should I reset ACLs for the root system too?

mackenzi1 said:

Ok, disabled but still no difference. Happy to delete account and create a new one, but I need access to those files ...

Click to expand...

The order is important.
You've got it backwards.
Create the new account. Move your files from the old to the new. Then delete the old account. But, there's no hurry on the final step. Make sure you have everything you need.

Broken Finder fixed

Macmini 2,1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
OS X 10.7.4

I got my blank finder working again by going to ForceQuit in the desktop Apple Menu and relaunching the Finder.

Oddly, I started having this problem after doing a clean install from my DVD copy of the Lion Installer. I had done the clean install because my Lion Upgrade (from Leopard to Snow Leopard to Lion) was very sluggish, often featuring the pretty, yet boring, little spinning beachball.

The Lion clean install is faster, but this is the second time I've had to relaunch my Finder to get everything back.

I've got my fingers crossed.

I have the same problem with anything on the left side of the menu bar with the exception of the apple logo. This happens more often than not. When I click on the "go" in the menu my list drops down but when I click on any given item, nothing shows up. The people at Apple support said to boot in safe mode. Well thats all fine and dandy. So the files appear when I reboot, but when I shutdown then restart It goes back to the same thing. I find this to be rather frustating. So I am open to suggestions as well.

Got the answer

A friend on the Apple Support site found the answer for me. See:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18434861#18434861

Thanks to everyone else for their help/comments.

Good find.

Glad you got sorted.

mackenzi1 said:

A friend on the Apple Support site found the answer for me. See:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18434861#18434861

Thanks to everyone else for their help/comments.

Click to expand...

I followed the instructions from the apple support site, and yes it works great. However it does not really fix the problem. When I restart my computer I still cannot access my files via the "go" tab in the menu bar. Is this a Lion quirk? Any suggestions?

firesidedog said:

I followed the instructions from the apple support site, and yes it works great. However it does not really fix the problem. When I restart my computer I still cannot access my files via the "go" tab in the menu bar. Is this a Lion quirk? Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Have you run through the other solutions suggested to the OP?