lilianev

Grr. This is the second time this has happened to me. I work on Snow Leopard at home and at work, but now twice at work I’ve gotten this fatal message:

“The application Finder can’t be opened.” -10810

I can’t remember what I was doing the first time it happened, but when it happened just now, I was attempting to delete 4 or 5 directories on a shared server. The directories were NOT huge; it shouldn’t have crashed Finder. But it did. I had to force quit Finder and then when I tried to open it again, I got that crappy error message.

But I found a solution via the googler.

1. Open Terminal. For those who are scared to open Terminal, don’t worry I’m in the same boat. I promise it will be okay.
2. Type this in to Terminal:
   System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder &
3. Hit Enter.

Now the first time I hit enter, my Finder window popped open. I was happy, so I closed the Finder window & Terminal. Then I clicked on Finder in the dock, and I got that damn error again.

So, second time through, I started over at Step #1 and repeated the process. The second time that I hit enter (Step #3), the Finder window did not open automatically. But the Finder icon in the dock had the bottom light, so I clicked on it and a Finder window popped open. Phew!

But then I closed Terminal. When you go to close Terminal, it closes your Finder. Boo.

Third time through, repeat all steps. Finder automatically opens when I hit enter this time. Hit up the googler again to find a fix.

4. Type this in to Terminal: disown
5. Hit Enter.
6. Now close Terminal and your Finder should still stay open.

Wow… That was a huge bear. Hope Apple fixes that bug.

Many thanks to this person:
http://www.adeepbite.com/must-know-macosx-tips-and-tricks/the-application-finder-cant-be-opened/,
and this person:
http://utvv.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-fix-application-finder-cant-be.html