Finder high CPU or not responding: why, and how to relaunch it

What Finder does

Finder is the oldest app on the Mac and one of the busiest. It draws the desktop, every file window, the sidebar, the icons, and the previews you see in Gallery and Column view. It handles copies and moves, the Trash, drag and drop between apps, mounting disks and servers, and the right-click menu. It also talks to Spotlight for search and to Quick Look for previews.

Most of that is cheap. What makes Finder expensive is counting and drawing. Open a folder and Finder must read every item in it, fetch icons, work out sizes if you asked for them, and keep it all up to date as files change. On a folder with 200 items that is instant. On a folder with 200,000 items, or on a volume at the other end of a slow connection, it can take minutes, and the CPU column shows it.

What normal looks like

Why Finder is using CPU right now

1. A folder with a huge number of items. Downloads after a year, a node_modules folder, a camera card dump, a cache folder someone opened by mistake. Finder lists everything in the front window and keeps watching it. Close the window and it stops.
2. A network volume or a slow external drive. Finder waits for the server to answer every request. A dropped VPN, a NAS that went to sleep or a server that vanished leaves Finder retrying, which looks like a hang. Eject the volume if you can.
3. iCloud Desktop and Documents syncing. With Desktop and Documents in iCloud, Finder works with fileproviderd and bird to show cloud status on every file. A big sync means lots of updates to draw. It settles when the sync does.
4. Thumbnails and Quick Look. Gallery view, large icons and the preview pane all ask Quick Look to render files. A folder of RAW photos or big videos is heavy. A broken third-party Quick Look plug-in can hang Finder outright.
5. Calculate All Sizes. In List view, View Options has a checkbox that makes Finder add up the size of every folder. On a large volume that never finishes.
6. A sync or cloud client fighting Finder. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and similar tools inject badges and menus into Finder. An old version or a stuck sync is a classic cause of 100 percent Finder.
7. A corrupt preferences file or Finder cache. Rare, but it explains Finder that misbehaves immediately after every relaunch.

Is it safe to quit Finder?

Yes. Relaunching Finder is the safe, expected action, and macOS gives you two built-in ways to do it. Hold Option, right-click the Finder icon in the Dock and choose Relaunch. Or press Command-Option-Escape, select Finder, and the button reads Relaunch instead of Force Quit. Finder closes, your desktop blinks for a second, Finder reopens with the same windows. Documents open in other apps are untouched because Finder does not hold them. A copy that was in progress stops and may need to be started again, which is the only real cost.

Finder is a normal app, so Activity Monitor can also quit it, and it comes straight back. The checker above is more useful for the helpers you see next to it: fileproviderd, QuickLookUIService, mds_stores, bird.

What to do, in order

1. Close the front window

   If Finder spiked when you opened a particular folder, close that window (Command-W). Nine times out of ten the CPU falls straight away. Open the folder again in List view with a smaller window if you need it.

2. Eject anything remote or slow

   In the sidebar, eject network shares, a sleeping NAS, old external drives and disk images. If Finder was waiting on one of them it will respond again within seconds.

3. Relaunch Finder

   Option-right-click the Finder icon in the Dock, choose Relaunch. Or Command-Option-Escape, Finder, Relaunch. Give it ten seconds to redraw the desktop.

4. Switch off the expensive views

   In the folder that causes trouble, press Command-J. Untick Calculate All Sizes and Show Icon Preview. Switch Gallery view to List view. These three settings cover most slow folders.

5. Pause cloud sync tools

   Pause Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box from their menu bar icons, and let iCloud finish any big upload. If Finder calms down, update that client. Old versions are a known Finder hog.

6. Remove a broken Quick Look plug-in

   If Finder hangs whenever you preview a file type (say, a video or an archive), a third-party Quick Look extension is the suspect. System Settings, General, Login Items & Extensions, Quick Look: switch off anything you do not recognize, then relaunch Finder.

7. Log out and back in, then restart

   Logging out resets Finder's state completely. A restart also resets the file system caches and any volume that is half-mounted. Do this before anything more drastic.

When to worry

Worry when Finder goes back to 100 percent within a minute of every relaunch and every window is closed. That means something external is driving it: a cloud client, a plug-in, or a volume that is unhealthy. Disk Utility's First Aid on the startup disk is the next safe step. Worry a little more if Finder also loses track of files, shows folders as empty, or copies fail: that is the disk, not Finder, and a backup comes first. A Finder that spikes when you open big folders and settles when you close them is not a problem at all. It is doing the counting you asked for. Our guide to force quitting on a Mac covers the relaunch shortcuts in more detail.