Finder does not show files in folders

When I open Finder all folders seem to be empty. Checking with the console shows that all files are there. This is also true if I try to open a file from within an application using the File menu.

If I paste the full path of the file into the text field of the file dialog, the file gets opened.

If I jump to a subfolder with Cmd-Shift-G that works fine. But again the folder is empty.

Any ideas what's missing?

Solution 1:

After all this turned out to be a side effect from com.apple.IconServicesAgent going wild and eating up lots of CPU.

Running mkdir ${TMPDIR}/com.apple.IconServices in Terminal solved the problem immediately.

Solution 2:

It my case, it was Finder itself that was going wild and eating up lots of CPU. I have no idea why. But killing and restarting the process fixed the issue of empty folders displaying.

In general, I suppose it's a good idea to go into Activity Monitor, see what's eating up CPU and restart anything that's using an unreasonably high level.