macOS High Sierra下Finder失效、桌面空白及Xcode 9故障求助

Hey there, let’s work through this frustrating issue step by step—sounds like your Mac took a nasty nosedive after that Xcode glitch, but we can get it back on track.

1. Wrap Up Disk Utility First Aid #

Since you got your internal drive mounted, let’s make sure you run First Aid thoroughly:

• Select the top-level internal drive (not just a single partition) from the Disk Utility sidebar
• Click the First Aid button, then hit Run
• If it reports unfixed errors, restart back into Recovery Mode and run First Aid again—some drive glitches need a second pass to resolve.

2. Restore Finder & Desktop Icons #

Once your drive checks out, let’s bring Finder back to life:

• Exit Recovery Mode by restarting your Mac normally (use the Apple menu in Recovery Mode > Restart)
• If Finder still won’t open, launch Terminal via Spotlight (Cmd+Space, type Terminal)
• Run these commands one at a time, pressing Enter after each:

  killall Finder
  defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder
  

  The first command force-restarts Finder, the second ensures your desktop icons are re-enabled.

3. Fix the Original Xcode & Simulator Problems #

With your system stable, let’s tackle the Xcode issues:

• Open Xcode 9, go to Xcode > Preferences > Locations
• Click the arrow next to Derived Data to open the folder, then delete the entire Derived Data directory—this clears corrupted cached build files that often break simulators and storyboards
• For the wonky Main.storyboard: Right-click it in Xcode’s project navigator, select Show in Finder. If the file looks corrupted, restore it from a recent Time Machine backup or your version control (like Git)
• Reset the iOS simulator: Open Simulator, go to Simulator > Reset Content and Settings..., confirm the reset to wipe any glitched simulator data.

4. Avoid Repeat Crashes #

• Update Xcode 9 to its latest compatible version (check the App Store or Apple Developer downloads page)
• Cut back on resource-heavy apps while using Xcode—simulators eat up a lot of memory, which might have triggered the system crash
• Enable Time Machine backups if you haven’t already, so you can quickly restore files or your system if this happens again.

Heads up: If Disk Utility’s First Aid reported severe, unrepairable drive errors, immediately back up your data using an external drive in Recovery Mode, then consider reformatting or replacing the drive.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Gontzal Aparicio