My Finder is broken (OS X 10.9.5). Icon view works fine, but List, Columns, and Cover Flow do not work at all.
When I switch to "List View" (cmd+2), the contents panel of the Finder window does not update. However, if I click around randomly the files will still open. So it is only a problem with the display.
I can revert to Icon View (cmd+1) and it will start working immediately. Related, my desktop icons have the same problem. I can't select icons on my desktop by dragging my mouse, but they are clickable. Relaunching Finder will fix this, but usually stops working very quickly.
I have tried deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, but it did not help.
What else can I try?
Update:
1) Everything works fine on a Guest account
2) "View as Columns" works as well IF I disable "Show icons" in "View Options". When I check the "Show icons" box it stops working, when I uncheck the box the Finder window starts working again immediately.
Update 2:
My problem seems to be fixed. I applied several System Updates (through Software Update) which seems to have caused some settings to be reset. At that point, my problem was 99% fixed; List View worked but was still a bit buggy (some of the "expand" arrows were missing). I followed the instructions from this page (posted below for convenience), and now it seems to be 100% back to normal for now.
Delete icon cache files:
$ sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.dock.iconcache -exec rm {} \;
$ sudo find /private/var/folders/ -name com.apple.iconservices -exec rm -rf {} \;
$ sudo rm -rf /Library/Caches/com.apple.iconservices.store
Best Answer
I had this problem following upgrades to Google Drive on 29 July 2016.
To fix it I had to
Change Google Drive settings to 'Show sync file status items and right click menu' (in Advanced tab)
Restart the Finder.
Of course the setting no longer worked, but you can see if you are synced from the Google Drive menu in the top bar.