Compensating for a Major Problem with the Finder app on the Mac
Put too many files in one folder on your Mac, and your Mac can seize. Here is a workaround that succeeds for me.
INTRODUCTION
I ran into a difficulty on my Mac. It happened twice. Each time it was major.
It was that the Finder app on my Mac stopped working. It seized. [see Note 1]
FIRST INSTANCE
In the first instance, the failure prevented me from working on tens of thousands of files for my work. It also prevented me from using my Mac for my own purposes.
In essence, it bricked my Mac.
I dutifully went to the Apple Store. A Genius wiped my machine and reinstalled MacOS.
It took about two days for me to re-download everything and get the machine set up all over again.
It was a massive effort. But I was relieved that the problem was fixed.
Or was it?
SECOND INSTANCE
The exact same problem happened again.
In this second instance, I was hesitant to go back to the Apple Store.
I expected they would repeat the same solution as last time:
- Wipe the machine
- Reload MacOS
Recovering from that would take another two days of grueling effort.
I wasn’t willing to squander my life on that fix, knowing it didn’t actually fix the underlying problem.
REMEDY #1
FAIL
Searching online, I found a possible remedy. It was that I sign out of iCloud. Apple claims this can fix many difficult problems.
Long-term Mac experts always caution against signing out of iCloud. I was aware of the dangers. But my Mac was effectively bricked. I was desperate for a solution.
So I did it.
However, upon signing out of iCloud, all that happened was that it simply wiped out all the files stored on my machine.
To recover, I had to manually re-download more than a hundred thousand files.
And nothing was fixed. The underlying problem with Finder persisted.
Signing out of iCloud did NOT fix the problem.
REMEDY #2
SUCCESS!
Searching online, I found possible remedy #2.
It was in a forum where people were discussing a seizing problem with the Finder app. [see Note 2]
They pointed out the following dichotomy:
- Finder on Mac is stated as theoretically capable of handling millions of files in one folder.
- However, in the real world, people experience seizing problems after just a few thousand files in one folder. At perhaps 2,000 tiles in one folder, Finder stops working. It seizes.
That discussion thread explained all my recent woes. I had tens of thousands of files in individual folders.
The remedy was to split the files into a bunch of individual folders so that the number of files in each folder is less than roughly 2,000 files.
I did that.
With that change, Finder no longer seized. I was spared a needless trip to the Apple Store. And I was spared yet another needless wiping of my Mac and two days of needless recovery work.
NOTES
Note 1. You may know that the Finder app on Mac is like File Explorer on PC. [Jump back to the text.]
Note 2. The events described in this article took place more than a year ago. Since then I lost the link to the forum discussion.[Jump back to the text.]
Originally published on July 2, 2025
Last updated on July 03, 2025
TOPICS: apple, macos,