MacOS – Where did the open file dialog go

findermacos

Recently I've started having some problems uploading files via Chrome. When I click a button to select a file, Chrome crashes instead of showing the open file dialog window.

Shortly after this, I started noticing that if I tried to upload files via Firefox, the dialog simply doesn't show up. The same occurs in Safari.

This seems to have extended to nearly every app I use that has a "open file" type dialog: Sublime Text, Sequel Pro (crash), etc. The only exception to this seems to be apps that provide a file dialog "within" the app, such as Excel/Word for Mac.

The only other nugget I can seem to find is that when Sequel Pro wants to report the error, the first line of the details contains the following error message:

NSInvalidArgumentException

*** setObjectForKey: key cannot be nil

Any idea how I can fix this? I'm running Mavericks 10.9.2.

Per request, here is a copy of the crash log from Sequel Pro:

NSInvalidArgumentException

*** setObjectForKey: key cannot be nil

(
    0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8ec0a25c __exceptionPreprocess + 172
    1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff92537e75 objc_exception_throw + 43
    2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8eb052de -[__NSDictionaryM setObject:forKey:] + 1102
    3   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da0832d _ZL29MakeSnowLeopardColumnSettingsP12NSDictionary + 524
    4   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da07e41 +[FI_TListViewSettings settingsForNode:] + 110
    5   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da02057 -[FI_TNodeViewSettings initWithNode:] + 307
    6   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da008c4 +[FI_TNodeViewSettings settingsForNode:] + 48
    7   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8daac775 -[FI_TBrowserContainerController nodeViewSettings] + 353
    8   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8daabcc3 -[FI_TBrowserContainerController initWithWindowState:targetPath:containerDelegate:] + 280
    9   FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da2afb4 -[FIFinderViewGutsController _internalSetTargetPath:withViewStyle:] + 879
    10  FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da27d59 -[FIFinderViewGutsController forceContainerToExist] + 146
    11  FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da28836 -[FIFinderViewGutsController prepareToShow] + 135
    12  FinderKit                           0x00007fff8da30c2b -[FIFinderView viewWillMoveToWindow:] + 256
    13  AppKit                              0x00007fff954c289a -[NSView _setWindow:] + 205
    14  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8eb3e3a9 __53-[__NSArrayM enumerateObjectsWithOptions:usingBlock:]_block_invoke + 137
    15  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff8eb3db4f -[__NSArrayM enumerateObjectsWithOptions:usingBlock:] + 319
    16  AppKit                              0x00007fff95c06c72 __21-[NSView _setWindow:]_block_invoke712 + 231
    17  AppKit                              0x00007fff954c32ef -[NSView _setWindow:] + 2850
    18  AppKit                              0x00007fff954c0964 -[NSView addSubview:] + 364
    19  AppKit                              0x00007fff9586dd3e -[NSBox setContentView:] + 81
    20  AppKit                              0x00007fff95ae0ff7 -[NSSavePanel(NSSavePanelLayout) _layoutViewsVerticallyAndResizeWindowToLastExpandedSize:accessoryViewHeight:] + 4674
    21  AppKit                              0x00007fff95acc814 -[NSSavePanel _initPanelCommon] + 425
    22  AppKit                              0x00007fff95acbc46 -[NSSavePanel initWithContentRect:styleMask:backing:defer:] + 578
    23  AppKit                              0x00007fff95acb49a +[NSSavePanel _crunchyRawUnbonedPanel] + 205
    24  Sequel Pro                          0x0000000100013e07 -[SPAppController openConnectionSheet:] + 56
    25  AppKit                              0x00007fff956ca340 -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 327
    26  AppKit                              0x00007fff956e52a8 -[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 394
    27  AppKit                              0x00007fff956e4fe4 -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 117
    28  AppKit                              0x00007fff9573448d -[NSMenu _internalPerformActionForItemAtIndex:] + 35
    29  AppKit                              0x00007fff95734309 -[NSCarbonMenuImpl _carbonCommandProcessEvent:handlerCallRef:] + 104
    30  AppKit                              0x00007fff956db0d6 NSSLMMenuEventHandler + 716
    31  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8cfc11d4 _ZL23DispatchEventToHandlersP14EventTargetRecP14OpaqueEventRefP14HandlerCallRec + 892
    32  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8cfc0787 _ZL30SendEventToEventTargetInternalP14OpaqueEventRefP20OpaqueEventTargetRefP14HandlerCallRec + 385
    33  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8cfd4880 SendEventToEventTarget + 40
    34  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d00a640 _ZL18SendHICommandEventjPK9HICommandjjhPKvP20OpaqueEventTargetRefS5_PP14OpaqueEventRef + 420
    35  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d03d238 SendMenuCommandWithContextAndModifiers + 59
    36  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d03d1e0 SendMenuItemSelectedEvent + 178
    37  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d03d0bf _ZL19FinishMenuSelectionP13SelectionDataP10MenuResultS2_ + 94
    38  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d045095 _ZL14MenuSelectCoreP8MenuData5PointdjPP13OpaqueMenuRefPt + 718
    39  HIToolbox                           0x00007fff8d044cc1 _HandleMenuSelection2 + 446
    40  AppKit                              0x00007fff9564d73c _NSHandleCarbonMenuEvent + 284
    41  AppKit                              0x00007fff954ac6be _DPSNextEvent + 2170
    42  AppKit                              0x00007fff954aba2b -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 122
    43  AppKit                              0x00007fff9549fb2c -[NSApplication run] + 553
    44  AppKit                              0x00007fff9548a913 NSApplicationMain + 940
    45  Sequel Pro                          0x0000000100002084 start + 52
)

Best Answer

I had a similar issue. I moved the files:

com.apple.finder.plist
com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

out of 

~/Library/preferences

And then "turned it off and on again", ie. restarted. This fixed the issue for me.

My hunch from looking at the crash log was that it was somehow choking on Finder itself (the logs in Console.app reported the key found to be null was "dateModified"), and that some sort of corrupt settings were to blame.

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