File name randomly displays on screen even when Finder is closed

When I hover the cursor over certain parts of the screen for too long, a grey box pops up with the name of a file as if I had Finder open and hovered over the name of a file. However, it happens when I don't have Finder open, which is the issue. It's as if Finder detects the cursor through all the other screens.


I figured out that it's the files from Recents folder (even though it'd happen even when I didn't have it open), and when I hid it in Preferences from the sidebar, it just started showing files from Desktop.


It's been an issue for a long time, and no updates have fixed it (currently I have Sonoma 14.3.1). It's infuriating, and I don't know what to do at this point.

MacBook Air (M2, 2023)

Posted on Mar 7, 2024 08:13 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 23, 2024 12:43 PM

This thread helped: Unwanted and unrelated "Tooltips" at mous… - Apple Community


It appears to be related to items in the Downloads folder. Removing the items in the Downloads folder caused this problem to go away.

Similar questions

3 replies

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

File name randomly displays on screen even when Finder is closed

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.