When loading a folder which contains around 500 video files (each approximately 200mb-700mb in size), Finder becomes unresponsive and displays the beach-ball.
The folder in question is a networked folder (on an AvidISIS server). Network speed shouldn't be an issue as we are accessing the server using dual ethernet cards (high-end).
What's annoying is that this only occurs on systems running Snow Leopard. Our Lion systems (which dont even have the dual ethernet set-up) have no problem accessing the folder. I've also tested this on SL computers without the dual ethernet and the issue still exists.
Furthermore, if I open the folder, wait 10 seconds and then scroll around with the mouse, the folder responds fine for a while. But if I click and drag the scroll bar Finder shows the beach-ball again.
- Is there a way to prevent Finder from slowing down when accessing the
folder? - Could it be due to Finder trying to load thumbnails of
the video files?
(both the Snow Leopard and Lion systems are fully up-to-date – mix of Mac Pros and Mac Minis)
Best Answer
I have a similar problem with a network drive that is over ethernet on 10.6.x
If the folder has a list of image files that approach 3000 or over, it will slow down the finder.i.e constant beach balling. The only solution is to break the files down into sub folders that have no more than 2000 file each. I also make sure that Calculate all sizes is not on or icon preview.
The problem seems to be that the finder is waiting for the ethernet to return the data but is not getting it quickly enough so beach balls. Simliar to when you try and mount a share that is not on the network anymore.
I suspect it is actually not the finder but the ethernet component on 10.6 that cannot handle either the number of items or the overall data size of the list.