Monterey 12.6.1 Finder hangs in mouse down in menu & moving file & Time Machine Restore

The Finder has begun hanging, thus requiring a Finder relaunch. It happens under the following circumstances:

(1) In Finder Any Menu in Menu Bar & Context Menu

• • Left click on a file in the Finder window.
  • Either right click on the file for a context menu or left click in menu bar to select "File>Move to Trash".
  • The spinning beach ball appears and Finder is non-responsive.

(2) In Finder Drag File to Trash

• • Left click on a file in the Finder window.
  • Drag the file to the trash icon.
  • The spinning beach ball appears and Finder is non-responsive.

(3) In Finder Click Tool Bar Delete Icon

• • Left click on a file in the Finder window.
  • Left click the Delete icon in the tool bar.
  • The spinning beach ball appears and Finder is non-responsive.

(4) Time Machine Icon in Menu Bar Within Any Application

• • Left click the Time Machine icon in the tool bar.
  • In the context menu select "Enter Time Machine".
  • Go to any backup date/time.
  • Left click on a file.
  • Right click to select restore the file.
  • Time Machine closes.
  • In the Finder a copy file dialog appear, but the file is not copied, the dialog never closes.
  • The spinning beach ball appears and Finder is non-responsive.

Attempts to solve problem.

(1) Restarted my iMac.

(2) Shutdown and started my iMac.

(3) In Disk Utility I ran First Aid.

(4) In Tech Tool Pro 16 I ran a full system check.

(5) In System Preferences I removed SMB access in the Sharing panel.

(6) I quit TechTool Monitor that runs in the background and restarted my iMac.

(7) In Terminal:

• • • sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
    • sudo kextcache -system-caches
    • restarted my iMac.

(8) In Terminal:

• • • edit the file /etc/auto_master
    • comment out the line "/net -hosts -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid"
    • sudo automount -vc
    • restart my iMac

I could really use some help. I want to avoid installing a fresh copy of Monterey into a separate volume and do all the upgrades and migration work. I want to wait on Ventura until an update or two.

Thank you,

Don

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac19,1

Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Core i5

Processor Speed: 3.7 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 6

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 9 MB

Memory: 32 GB

System Firmware Version: 1916.40.6.0.0

OS Loader Version: 540.120.3~22

SMC Version (system): 2.46f12

1x3TB Internal Drive

1x1TB SanDisk Extreme SSD USB 3.1 (Contains Monterey)

2x6TB OWC External Drives USB 3.1

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