Argh! Annoy finder prob

[JustAndy]

Hiyas all
I've got this little problem that is really irking me in finder - on the panel to the left where the shortcuts for home, applications etc the icons that are usually displayed are not :( What is displayed is just the standard folder icon :confused: I've attached a pdf screen shot of the prob. Anyone know what is going on?

Andy

[hayne]

Does the problem occur when you log in as a different user?
If not, the problem is likely to do with a corrupted preference file.
These are in ~/Library/Preferences
~ = your home folder
The likely problem is the Finder preference file: com.apple.finder.plist
Try moving it to the Desktop and then restarting Finder by pressing Command (with the Apple symbol) and Option and Esc all at once and then choosing Finder from the list in the window that appears. (Or you could just log out and log in again)

[bramley]

Have you restarted?

This sort of thing happens from time to time particularly with systems that have been up for sometime - most times a reboot sorts things out.

[Las_Vegas]

This will also happen if you've tried changing your User Name, UID (User ID) or Home folder within NetInfo Manager. It's actually quite easy to fix… Just rebuild it.

1) Drag all the folders out of the Sidebar. This will leave the Sidebar empty.

2) Open your Hard Drive.

3) Locate the Applications folder. Drag it to the Sidebar.

4) Locate and open the "Users" folder.

5) Locate your Home folder (It looks like a house). Drag it into the Sidebar, above Applications. Then open it.

6) Drag the Desktop folder to above your Home folder in the Sidebar.

7) Drag the following to below Applications in the Sidebar:Documents
Movies
Music
Pictures
Public
Faxes
Favorites8) That's it! You should be back in business!

[JustAndy]

Thanks for the ideas :) No luck with what was suggested so far - removed the preferences files, cleared the sidebar, logged out & logged in, rebooted too but no joy. :( Also created a new user and the problem persists there too - doh! Any more suggestions?

Andy

[bramley]

And if you go into the top level folder of your home directory, does 'Documents' (for example) have its normal icon?

[JustAndy]

Yea when viewed in the main pane to the right, all folders have the correct icon overlayed - bit of a weird one.

Andy

[bramley]

Hmm! Didn't realise this but the preferences for the sidebar are not in com.apple.finder.plist

Try dragging com.apple.sidebarlist.plist to your desktop and relaunch Finder. See if that gets it.

EDIT Ah - you have the same issue as another user. Well, try anyway!

FURTHER EDIT (must be time for sleep) I'm not sure if relaunching Finder is good enough. Might be better to log out/in.

[JustAndy]

Hmmm no go still! I do however have the applications' icon showing and looking at the sidebar preference's plist shows that for every other entry they're missing a

<key>Icon</key>
<data>'string'</entry>

Seems somethings not writing the preferences properly

[bramley]

Well, the something could be a corrupt Finder, but if you have some 3rd party app 'working' with Finder (or with anything) I'd look at one of them to be giving you the problem before thinking about trashing Finder and reinstalling it.

I'd turn off all 3rd party apps that you might have running, and see if it makes a difference. If it does add them in one by one until the problem reoccurs. Then you know where the problem is.

[JustAndy]

Oh god! I've 3rd party apps/addons by the boat load on my mac - I might wait until I've my master's submitted and then do a fresh install - wanted to do this anyway at some stage so I could dual boot with linux too - not that I'm saying I'd do a clean installation of mac os x just for a wee prob like this - but rather take advantage of the opportunity ;)

Thanks for all your guys input and suggestions :)

Andy

[hayne]

Oh god! I've 3rd party apps/addons by the boat load on my mac
Apps are not a problem. They only have an effect while they are running. What is a problem is any 3rd-party software that has a system-wide effect or (in this case) anything which changes the way that Finder operates.

[Dr. Smoke]

Generic icons appearing on objects in the lower-half of your Finder Sidebar are caused by the Unsanity Labels-X haxie. Disable or, better yet, uninstall Labels-X and all should be well.