OS X :: Finder Window Randomly Changes From Active To Inactive?
Jun 21, 2008
Could not find such a thread and since this is quite an annoying problem, I decided to register The problem I am encountering since a few days is when I open a finder window, it starts to sort of "flash" from inactive to active window (even when there is no other window/application opened).[Please refer to post below for updated information on the problem]This happens on my MacBook running 10.5.3 (unfortunately I cannot say if the issue only appeared after the update).
I am using an EXTERNAL seagate 250gb drive formatted with the apple partition map on a osx10.4 system with no problems (intel based). I then plugged it into a 10.5 system (ppc system), it displayed some message which I ignored, perhaps to my peril, and began to backup some files and the transfer was moving quite slow. The drive was unplugged before the transfer was completed. I now try to use the drive on my 10.4 system and even-though the partition is still visible (in disk utility) it is not active (the drive is in black font but the partition is in grey font). Did the 10.5 system possibly make the partition inactive, if so how to do i make it active again? When I attempt to verify the disk, it reports that there is an "INVALID SIBLING LINK" and tells me that the volume needs repair. I try to repair the disc and it fails "INVALID SIBLING LINK" and the "THE UNDERLYING TASK REPORTED FAILURE ON EXIT" I would really like not to have to take this to a data recovery service and I am not tech challenged so I don't think I need to do this as the Hdd didn't fail, I hope.
BUT.. I just doubled my RAM from 1 to 2 gigs. After a fresh boot and loading up Safari, Firefox, and iPhoto, and then CLOSING all of them and running no apps, Leopard shows more than a gig of ACTIVE memory, which even after sitting there for an hour doing nothing - does NOT go over to the INactive section. Why? I'm not asking why it doesn't go to "free". I know why.
I have an MBA 2011 with 10.7.4 and Safari 5.1.7. I am very shortsighted and have struggled with the poor contrast levels between tabs and the rest of the Safari UI. My solution has been to switch off tabs, use windows instead. and configure my right option key as an App Expose shortcut. This works very nicely, but the only fly in the ointment is that when I click on a link I wish to open in a new window, it defaults to always opening in a new ACTIVE window, when I'd usually prefer it to open in the background as per tabs.Â
I have checked and unchecked the option in the 'tabs' preference pane with no luck- do I need to re login to make this stick? CMD-Click works to a point, but it's not reliable, and I find it finicky, even though I've routed it to a touchpad gesture through BetterTouchTool. Is there any other way to force safari to open new windows in the background - perhaps by adding a new item to the context menu? I'd really like to resolve this as I'd love to make the switch from Chrome to Safari, especially with ML coming very soon. Â
Info: MacBook Air (13-INCH, MID 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
At a random time months ago (I cant pinpoint what triggered it) certain windows started to make themselves half-opaque when inactive. They seem to be "cocoa" applications (though I'm not sure the exact definition of that). The windows that are effected are: Skype v2.8.0 (chat windows only, not main 'buddy list') iMovie / iPhoto... I think there are more, I can't figure out which though. I'll update. The windows that are (surprisingly) NOT effected are: Windows Live Messenger v7.0.2
Textedit Microsoft Word 2007 Firefox v3.6
I have the program named "Afloat" and it seems to be inconsequential to the problem.
My laptop screen randomly going black during the use of computer, but the cursor is active and it moves with the track-pad. I bought this macbook pro 15"Inch laptop just 3 weeks ago. Is there any alternative for this issue?
So I followed the guide here on how to permently get your widgets off your dashboard onto your desktop.
[URL]
Problem is, there widgets are always on top of everything. I included a screen shot. How do I get them behind the active window or how do I put them back onto the dashboard completely?
Any app for MAC OS that will display my active windows? The app can run in the menubar or dock, or mount next to the doc. Basically, something like the taskbar from Windows XP and Vista. Not Windows 7 as that shows the active programs, but not specific windows. I'm basically looking for an Expose alternative. So if I have 10 different windows running for Firefox, I can quickly look at my menubar or somewhere near the dock, and just click the window I want to see. Yes, I know that is what Expose is for, but I prefer to see me active windows without using a shortcut.
So far here's what I've tried: -Going to System Preferences, and unchecking "Minimize windows into application icon" in the Dock settings. This offered a partial solution as the icons could not be distinguished for the same program. 10 firefox windows minimized would just show 10 firefox icons. -Googling the following terms: app switcher for mac mac expose apps show running apps in menubar show expose items in menubar pin active applications to menubar in mac always show expose for mac application management for mac
I've also tried running these apps: alunch: [URL] WindowFinder 1.4: [URL] Running Applications for Mac: [URL] XMenu: [URL] Himmelbar: [URL]
All of these apps more or less place one icon in the menubar, which when clicked on shows your running apps, favorite apps, and system folders. This is fine, and is very similar to the windows start button. However, they all fall short because they only place one icon in the menubar, which must be clicked on to show active apps or active windows. Can someone please point me to an app that will always be on my screen, and will show icons or labels of active windows.
Again, similar to Windows taskbar before Windows 7. I know this is a difference in Mac and Windows, and that I can use the dock to see my active applications, and use the various shortcuts to see my windows, but there's got to be an app that will just always shows my active windows. So if I have Apple Mail Open, and have 3 compose new mail windows going, I would like to see 4 icons or labels somewhere in the menubar or near the dock. I'm on a Macbook Pro - OS 10.6.4
Try to open iChat window, version 4.0.8. in Time Machine. The TM window changes to a finder window. Is this normal for an application like TM? Trying to get back an open chat. not recorded.
Sometimes I simply cannot open a new finder window. If I use Command-N or if I choose New Finder Window in the Finder menu, nothing happens. If I am using Command-N, I can see the File heading in the Finder menu bar highlighting, and then after a few seconds the highlight goes, but no window opens. Also, clicking on my Downloads icon in the dock, the dialog opens showing all the files, but if I then click on Open in Finder, the dialog closes but nothing happens. Now that I am writing this message, it all works again! That's what I mean by 'sometimes'. This issue can last for tens of minutes. Secndly, and this is still a problem, my finder Preferences do not stick. So for instance, I don't want to see an icon for my hard disk on the desktop, so I untick this in Finder preferences. The icon disappears. If I now re-start, then it comes back. The same happens for removing the empty trash warning and all of the other Finder Preference tick boxes.Â
Now, when the first problem of not being able to open a finder window suddenly stopped being a problem, the icon for the hard disk suddenly appeared on my desktop. So the two issues are linked. This has been going on intermittently for a few days. I have verified my disk, and repaired permissions.
Wasn't this an option previous to 10.7.4? It doesn't work now.When clicking the Finder icon in the Dock, a new Finder window would open? I know about Finder prefs - General - Always open folders in new window but this isn't what I mean.I'd have a Finder window open then want to copy/move something so I clicked on the Finder icon in the dock to get a new window.Every time I clicked the Dock icon, I'd get a new Finder window.
On any desktop I'm using (mission control) when I place my mouse cursor in the middle of my desktop, a window appears with random days of the week.The following screen shots did not capture the cursor, but it was just below and to the right of the cursors position on the desktop.
For some reason, Finder has been crashing randomly for one week. Every five minutes or so, Finder closes for 10 seconds, and reopens again. Every time, I get a lot of error reports in Console:
Whats's going on!??My finder windows have recently started to randomly close and reload for no reason....I don't get a 'this has unexpectedly quit' message, but whatever i'm doing in finder closes and reloads back to my mounted volumes..Is this happening to anyone else? (weird bug) or is it just me?!
For some strange reason when I open Apps or Finder windows within OSX 10.7.4 on my MBP the menu bar at the top of the screen disappears randomly then reappears again. I've attached an image.
I was playing with the maximize button on a Finder window a few days ago and toggling it would yield a different size every time (guess I was amused by that). So it go into a state where the resize corner is out of reach always now. Clicking on the maximize button does not change the size at all and just remains there. I want to be able to resize Finder again. How do I do it? For reference, attached is the screenshot of my desktop with Finder window, so you can see what I mean. I am unable to find a way to get it to a stage where the full window can be shown and I can resize it.
I have two accounts set up on Mac. The mac boots into the primary account just fine. But whenever I go to my secondary account finder always opens a window just after startup.
For the last 48 hours, my mac will constantly switch to a 'new' finder window every few minutes. I'll be typing away and then bang, I am back on the finder window and my application will be in the background, so I will have to click back on the application to continue working. It's extremely frustrating and I don't have a clue how to fix the problem.
I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.6 (9G55) with Leopard. On a typical work day I'll open Finder to look for pdf files. I'll perform my search for pdf documents and, as expected, all pdf documents that exist on my Mac are listed in Finder. In the Finder dialog box there are headings at the top of the columns that include "Name", "Kind" and "Last Opened". When I single click on any one of the listed pdf documents, the path to that document's location is given at the bottom of the Finder window. Every month I save hundreds of different pdf documents in about 135 different customer file locations.
As a result, I need to be able to add a column heading that orients the results on a file location basis. On my former XP I could add many different headings, including one that simply stated "Filed In" (or something along those lines). By clicking on the heading "Filed In", all of the pdf documents would be grouped and listed by their file location. My question is: Can I add a "Filed In" heading to the search results window of Finder so that I can click on "Filed In" and group search results by the file locations?
How do I open a folder in a new finder window? I know on a PC you can right click the folder and choose open in new window. How is this accomplished on the mac?
I was just looking through some of my files and things when I noticed these weird looking icons replacing the normal pictures of a hard drive for my two partitions. What do these mean? Are they corrupted or something? They don't look like this on my desktop.
Recently, Finder windows have not been keeping there default size. For example, I have to extend the Finder window size every time when opening the Finder.
It has been bothering me for some time that when I open the Finder window, it opens pretty small and I either need to re-adjust it or scroll to find the folder. Is there a way to set it so that the Finder Window opens to a set amount of space?
When I first got my macbook 2 months ago I could command+space and open the spotlight dialog box and type say "i" and it would start displaying ical, iweb, you know everything that starts with I. Like it should. Somewhere down the line things got funky. Now I command +space, open the box, type the letter of the application i want or whatever and nothing is displayed in the finder window. However when I move my cursor to the actual magnifying glass in the corner after I typed the search, and click it, it will show the results. Or if I type what I want to find and then command space again it will show it. So what did I do wrong? I want it back the way it way) Just having to command + space twice, once to open the search box and then one more time after i enter the search string, is getting annoying. Or having to click on the magnifying glass after entering the search.
I've been using OSX since it first came out but one thing I still don't understand is how you determine where a new finder window will appear.
I recall someone once saying open a window, press CTRL then close the window and the next window will appear in the same spot as the now closed window. That doesnt work, nor does pressing command or any other combination I have tried.
