The default file manager used on the Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems.
4
votes
5answers
2k views
AppleShowAllFiles does not show hidden files
I use OS X 10.8, I type the following
defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
killall Finder
but still I cannot see any hidden files like .bash_history, .Trash, .cups, .gem etc. in ...
4
votes
2answers
4k views
How do I keep QTKitServer (QuickLook Helper) CPU usage from exploding out of control? OR How do I disable QuickLook entirely?
I've been watching lots of .MKVs lately, opened from the Finder. In Column View, when you single-click any file, QuickLook will load a viewable thumbnail into the next column over. This causes ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
How do I get Finder windows to reopen on start up?
I just got my new computer with system 10.7.2 and this is really bugging me. I like having a few Finder windows always open. When I shut down and then start up my computer the next day, all the ...
4
votes
1answer
98 views
Fully displaying volume size info on the desktop
No matter which combination of icon size, spacing, font size I use for the desktop Finder view, the info for my drives on my Mac Mini hooked up to my TV (1080p) shows up as:
999.85 GB, ...06 GB free
...
4
votes
5answers
465 views
What are the best mnemonics to remember important short cuts?
In my job I teach a lot of people to use macs. Since you use what you remember I'm always on the look out for funny or memorable ways to remember keyboard or system shortcuts (like you have the option ...
4
votes
2answers
460 views
Speeding up and improving directory listing from windows Servers?
When I connect to windows servers (called PC-servers in OS X) getting the list of files in a directory is really slow (20-30s) in comparison to using a windows machine (<1s). Sometimes the files in ...
4
votes
2answers
465 views
What does Mail do when you try to quit it?
For some reason, Mail takes significantly longer than most of my other apps to quit. It might become unresponsive for a period of time after I hit [command]+[q] before it actually quits. What is ...
4
votes
1answer
130 views
Removing coloured icons in Finder
There have been a number of questions for removing the muted sidebar icons and replacing them with the older coloured versions. It's well documented that the coloured versions still happily exist and ...
4
votes
1answer
531 views
How to change the Finder title bar font from the command line?
I'm sure the fellow who wrote TinkerTool, which lets me change the Finder title bar font among other things, is a fine fellow and surely TinkerTool is not malware. Nevertheless... I want to change the ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
How do I disable quarantine on Lion?
I've been tearing my hair out trying to get rid of the quarantine "Do you want to open this?" warning because I don't like it.
The well documented way (defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
OS X Lion - Finder: Difference of “Sort by”, “Clean Up By” and “Arrange by”
There is an option in the Finder.
Right click in the background of a finder window, the new toolbar icon or
cmd+j. To change the view of the sorting/arranging I can choose between
"Sort by"
"Clean Up ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
How to disable ._ AppleDouble files for SMB?
I have a small problem. I don't want that our Macs here create the ._ files to the network drive. For example when you copy an image over the finder to the SMB storage.
Is there a way to disable this ...
4
votes
1answer
313 views
Moving files in Finder with drag and drop opens a new window
I'm trying to move files around in Finder by using my trackpad to drag and drop files. The problem is that I'm using tap to click with dragging enabled. So, when I decide to drop the files onto a ...
4
votes
2answers
247 views
Change the default action to open executable files in the editor instead of Terminal
When double clicking an executable file (without a file extension) in Finder, it opens in Terminal by default. I can change that to any other application for this single file, but I cannot change the ...
4
votes
1answer
677 views
Remove services from context menus (but leave them in the app's Services menu)
I created a few services with Automator and it seems OS X automatically adds these to the context menu of files/folders that they apply to. Is it possible to remove the services from the context menu ...
4
votes
1answer
221 views
“All My Files” in Finder of Lion has stopped working
"All My Files" in Finder of Lion has stopped working.
I suspect that this has happened after installing Path Finder 5.7.8.
4
votes
1answer
3k views
can i delete “developer-old” folder?
I've got a "developer-old" folder besides for my "developer" folder. "developer-old" contains "headers", "SDKs", etc folders.
It'd be nice to delete this folder bc it takes up 10GB. Can I?
4
votes
3answers
882 views
Tile Finder background image in Snow Leopard
I have seen a guide/tip on the internet to make Finder tile it's background by editing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist however the guide is now outdated and no longer works on Snow ...
4
votes
1answer
377 views
Can I get the Media browsers from the File Open dialog in the Finder sidebar?
The File Open dialog has three very useful Media entries in the sidebar (Photos, Movies, Music). They are backed by the various iLife applications, so that you can select, for example, from your ...
4
votes
1answer
364 views
Adding SMB share to sidebar in OSX Mountain Lion
Is there a way to add an SMB share to the sidebar in Finder, such that when I click on the alias, it mounts the share and opens it up like a regular folder? You can do this in Linux and Windows, and ...
4
votes
2answers
347 views
Finder dragging hang / stuck
Sometimes when dragging files from folder to another, or moving a folder, the items being dragged are stuck in the dragging mode and it hangs. I can see Finder use 30-35% CPU at that moment.
Anyone ...
4
votes
1answer
275 views
Get back some colors in Finder's sidebar
Since Lion, every item in the Finder's sidebar are gray. I miss the colors, as they were helpful to quickly find a specific item.
The problem is the same in Open File dialog box.
Do you know of a way ...
4
votes
4answers
3k views
Disable thumbnail generation in finder
Is there a way to tell Finder to not peek inside or generate thumbnails for files based on a particular network share or folder?
I've got a tape archival system which presents an SMB (Windows) ...
4
votes
1answer
183 views
Taking forever to move files to the trash
Finder is taking forever to move, rename, etc. files, especially when moving to the trash or emptying the trash.
Here is a video ...
4
votes
0answers
153 views
“Open with” in Finder.app gives duplicate entries [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to omit apps from external drives in “Open With” menu?
in finder's open with menu are a lot of dups. I am running latest OX X and patches.
I googled and found ...
4
votes
0answers
459 views
Merge folders is not working
I'm trying to merge two folders with the same name but different contents in Finder on OSX Mountain Lion.
The folder is located on my iMac and I am dragging a dropping to my External Harddrive where ...
4
votes
2answers
350 views
How can I change a file's creator code on vanilla Snow Leooard?
When Xcode is installed your best bet to change a file's creator is SetFile.
I only found AppleScript. Unfortunately, while the type is set correctly, the second line silently fails on my 10.6:
set ...
4
votes
1answer
694 views
Free software for mounting an FTP share as a writeable folder in Finder
Transmit and Forklift are paid, we can't use finder, macfusion doesn't work... so I'm wondering...
Is there any free option left to mount an FTP on finder so that I can write files to it? Maybe using ...
3
votes
4answers
7k views
Can I edit content on an FTP server through Finder?
Is there any way around the read-only access that Finder strictly allows so I can get write access to a FTP server through Finder?
3
votes
5answers
769 views
Quickly open your favorite folders on OS X?
What are the options which would be faster than opening Finder and browsing the folder, to open it?
(I like to keep the desktop completely clean so will avoid Desktop shortcuts if other options are ...
3
votes
2answers
23k views
What is Mobile Sync - Backup and why is it taking so much space?
I was checking my directory and found out that the Folder Backup in Library > Application Support > Mobile Sync > Backup, is taking 13GB of my Harddisk ... What is this and why is taking so much space ...
3
votes
6answers
2k views
How can someone coming from Windows learn Mac OS X file system and Finder?
I have recently purchased a Macbook Pro and I am very impressed with the machine and OS X. Coming from Windows the one thing I have struggled with is the file system and the Finder application. I ...
3
votes
6answers
4k views
How can I exclude the display of specific pictures and videos in the Finder?
I have some pictures and videos on my Mac (OS X Lion, OS X Snow Leopard) I'd rather have NOT show in Finder>Images. For example, if I'm in a meeting with clients and want to show some document, I have ...
3
votes
5answers
661 views
How to quickly jump to another application without using command tab
I am trying to do a screencast and I use ⌘+⇥ to move from browser to my IDE . During editing I need to remove all the screenshots of me moving from one app to another since that is ...
3
votes
3answers
351 views
Is there a keyboard shortcut to show/open the Trash?
Is there a keyboard shortcut for the Trash? I know how to create one, but I want to know if there's a built-in shortcut. To clarify, this is to show the Trash, not to empty it.
3
votes
3answers
773 views
DMG mounts but does not auto-open
I have a DMG which I downloaded using Safari. When I double click it, the volume mounts but it doesn't open in a new Finder window.
Any idea why this would happen, and how I can fix the DMG so that ...
3
votes
1answer
207 views
How to omit apps from external drives in “Open With” menu?
I maintain a SuperDuper! clone of my primary boot drive for backup purposes. When it's mounted, Finder's "Open With" menu shows duplicate applications. When I unmount it, they go away.
How do I ...
3
votes
1answer
600 views
How do I open a file from Spotlight in Finder?
When I search for something e.g. a PDF file, in Spotlight and has i displayed in the search results list. How can I open the file in Finder? If I click on it, the file is opened e.g. in the pdf ...
3
votes
2answers
99 views
Browsing left (up) in column view with no horizontal scroll bar?
Sometimes in an "Open" or "Save" dialog you want to go one directory up. It is in column view, but there simply is no column to the left and no horizontal scroll bar. Is there a way to go up one ...
3
votes
2answers
386 views
Quick, automated way to verify the copy of a folder?
I have a lot of files that I've been transferring around my network and to external hard drives. For example, I just copied a folder with files representing an old laptop's disk image (created with ...
3
votes
2answers
104 views
Non-recursive spotlight search?
When using the Spotlight search at the top right of a finder window, I often want the search to be non-recursive, i.e. only look at files in that specific directory, not any directories within it. Is ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
Why isn't finder finding all files?
I had a Smart Search for my Photo Stream files located at ~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub/, searching for JPG and PNG files. I found that not all files were showing up. ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Whenever I try to delete a file in Finder I get “Finder wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this.”
I can't figure out why Finder isn't letting me delete files under my home directory without providing my password. Here's a listing of some files on my desktop:
~/Desktop steve 526$ ls -l@ flower*
...
3
votes
3answers
542 views
How to remap delete and shift+delete keys to delete and permanently delete a file in Mac OS X Lion?
I would like to delete and permanently delete a file in finder using del and shift+delete (windows style).
Is there any way to remap this in OS X lion?
3
votes
2answers
155 views
Cmd-N in Lion Finder shows “All My Files” not home?
In Lion Cmd-N in Finder opens a new Window with "All My Files" showing as the default. Is it possible to set that back to the normal "home" directory of my user?
3
votes
4answers
538 views
Unable to delete a file
I have a file on my system named "2011.09.08įU0.G80.Šsl" that I'm unable to delete. Here are the different steps I've tried, but haven't had any success with yet:
sudo rm file - Results in "No such ...
3
votes
3answers
365 views
How do I make symbolic links invisible in the Finder?
I use SetFile via the terminal to render files and folders invisible inside Finder windows. This does not appear to work on symbolic links: the symlink destination is made invisible, rather than the ...
3
votes
2answers
93 views
Is there a way to add shortcuts to open a particular folder in Save Dialogs and Finder Windows?
I know that when you're saving or opening a file ⌘ shift D shoots you to the Desktop folder, and pressing ⌘ shift D whilst using finder shoots you to the desktop folder as well.
Is there a way to ...
3
votes
2answers
216 views
How can I do a full text search of plaintext files in my DropBox folder?
I understand that Spotlight will search the full text of files in any folder and will show files that contain instances of the searched text. But I would also like to see highlighted instances of the ...
3
votes
5answers
70 views
Remove _specific_ items from Finder Open With menu
Is there any way to purge specific applications from the Finder's "Open With" menu? Mine is cluttered with all sorts of applications I'd never choose to open HTML files with (Word, Calibre, all sorts ...
