Version 5.7.6 of Default Folder X is available for download, offering a number of fixes and improvements.
A new addition is its ability to match the light or dark theme used in the current file dialog. If you’re running a photography, video or design app that offers a custom ‘dark mode’ even when the rest of your system is running in light mode, Default Folder X’s toolbar will no longer pop out at you in glaring white – it now matches the look of the dialog it surrounds. Yeah, it’s about time 🙄, but it took a – um – “creative” approach to finally get it implemented.
Other improvements included fixes for a number of little annoyances. Finder-click was broken in a few rare scenarios and that’s been fixed, folder switching is improved (yet again), and compatibility issues with SPSS, Raycast, SpeedDock, GraphicConverter and Luminar Neo have all been corrected. And the error that could occur when creating two new nested folders in a file dialog in quick succession has finally been eliminated.
A full list of changes is available on the Default Folder X release page, along with download links for English, Japanese, French, German and Danish versions. Or if you’re already running Default Folder X, just select “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar to get the latest and greatest.
I’m pretty excited about this preview release of Default Folder X 6 – it includes two new features that have really boosted productivity for me personally.
First, you can now drag and drop files and folders onto Default Folder X’s icon in your menu bar to copy or move them anywhere. Default Folder X pops up its main menu so you can show it where the dropped items should go. Select a folder from your Favorites, Recent Folders, or anywhere in the filesystem by navigating with DFX’s hierarchical menus. Once you choose a folder, the item is moved or copied, and the destination folder is opened to show you the item’s new location.
Dragging a Read Me file to Default Folder X’s icon, then using its menu to move it to the Sample Files folder.
Second, Default Folder X’s new keyboard-driven mode has gotten smarter. To review a bit, there’s a “quick search” window that pops up with a keyboard shortcut. You type in a few letters, and it shows you all your recently-used folders, files and apps that match what you typed. For me, this gets me to 90% of the items I want with a couple of keypresses.
Now, however, the list of results shows a “>” button next to folders. Clicking on that or hitting the Right Arrow key on the keyboard “drills down” into that folder to show its contents, and then typing a few more letters matches items within the folder.
As before, hitting the Return key opens whatever is selected, but now you can also Control-click a result to get a contextual menu so you can Open, Reveal or Copy the item’s path. If it’s a folder, the contextual menu also includes a Contents submenu that lets you more rapidly descend into subfolders using Default Folder X’s hierarchical menus.
Honestly, the best way to understand it is just to try it for yourself. Download the latest build and launch it. The accompanying Read Me file contains more details on setting up and using the new features, though they pretty much just work. Hit Command+Option+Spacebar to invoke the quick search window – that’s all you really need to know.
I released a quick bug-fix of Default Folder X a week ago (sorry for not posting then, but I’ve been sick). Version 5.7.5 fixed two bugs:
The Finder-click feature wouldn’t recognize open Finder windows in some Mac configurations. This was due to a change I made in a previous update where I refactored an underlying library and made the criteria tighter for “matching” an open window to its underlying Finder window. The change made no difference in my test cases, but there are apparently a few Desktop configurations in which the matching didn’t work. So now we’re back to the way it was.
Folder switching in Open and Save dialogs would sometimes fail on macOS 13.2 Ventura (and would stay stuck in that failure mode until you quit and relaunched Default Folder X). This was due to the fact that a bug in Ventura always returns an error for one API call, making it impossible for DFX to tell whether that call has succeeded or not. I worked around this the best I could, but Default Folder X would sometimes think the call had succeeded when it hadn’t, causing it to get stuck in an error state. This is now fixed in v5.7.5. And happily, Apple has actually fixed the underlying bug in Ventura for macOS 13.3, so the whole mess won’t be an issue in another month.
If you’re already running Default Folder X, just choose Check for Update from its menu in your menu bar to get the new version. If not, you can grab it from the Default Folder X release page.
The latest addition to the DFX6 preview is a rewritten Drag Zone, the drag and drop “shelf” that sits on the left side of Open and Save dialogs. You can now select and multi-select items, drag them to reorder them, insert new items between existing ones, etc. Previews pop up if you hover the mouse over an item. Double-clicking an item will open it. Control-clicking on an item brings up a contextual menu with options to reveal the item in the Finder, open it in the file dialog, or remove it from the drag zone.
There are also a number of fixes for issues in the previous DFX6 build – if you’re curious about all of the changes, check out the Read Me file that accompanies the app when you download it. The Read Me also includes instructions for setting up other new features, such as the keyboard-centric quick entry window, syncing preferences via iCloud, running actions after saving a file and more.
Version 5.7.4 of Default Folder X is available, addressing several issues that could impact its reliability in Open and Save dialogs. These ranged from the mundane – a timing bug in the code that switches to new folders in file dialogs – to the “I wouldn’t have guessed that” – where Safari’s SandboxBroker helper app was tricking Default Folder X into thinking there were actually two Save sheets displayed at once.
All of these issues happened infrequently enough that they only generated a few tech support requests (my apologies to those unlucky folks), but chasing them down and getting them fixed will ensure that they don’t disrupt anyone else’s day.
The complete list of fixes and download links are on the Default Folder X release page. Or if you’re already running Default Folder X like you should be, just choose “Check for Update…” from its menu in your menu bar to see the change history and update to the new version.
A new pre-release build of Default Folder X version 6 is available! Click here to download it. If you haven’t been following along, previous posts have covered new features like the wider filename edit box in Save dialogs, new Quick Entry window, and post-save actions.
In this build I’ve rewritten the drawer that Default Folder X (optionally) attaches to Finder windows. It now properly supports dragging to reorder items, selection and multi-selection of items in the drawer, dragging items into folders that you’ve added to the drawer, and more.
This makes the drawer much more helpful as a temporary “shelf” when moving items between folders, as well as a handy place to organize files and folders while you’re working with them. They’re easy to get to, even if they’re actually located in multiple different folders.
One of the challenges with the drawer was finding a way to make it scale as you add more items to it. It shrinks the icons as more are added, then as you mouse through them, spreads them apart so you can read their filenames.
I’ve been experimenting with this for quite a while, and I’d appreciate feedback on how it works for you in practice. Suggestions are more than welcome!
Version 5.7.3 of Default Folder X works around issues in macOS Ventura that have been causing problems for some of you.
A bug in Ventura’s metadata API could cause Default Folder X to crash when it tried to ask the system for information about the selected file in an Open dialog. This release recovers from the error, though it won’t be able to show some metadata information (like the width and height of jpeg or png images) when the problem occurs. I’ve submitted the bug to Apple so we’ll hopefully have a resolution to the underlying problem at some point.
Another issue in Ventura is its handling of drag-and-drop operations in file dialogs. This, in a round-about way, was causing Default Folder X to hide the mouse cursor for several seconds when switching from one folder to another in Open and Save dialogs. Default Folder X 5.7.3 works around this problem as best it can, usually reducing the length of time the cursor goes missing to an almost-unnoticeable fraction of a second. Again, I’ve submitted a bug report to Apple – fingers crossed that they address this 🤞🏼
Default Folder X 5.7.3 also fixes some minor bits, moving the default position of the button for Default Folder X’s Finder drawer further to the left in the Finder’s toolbar so it doesn’t get hidden behind the “>>” button when Finder windows are small. Descriptions of Default Folder X’s AppleScript commands have also been improved in its AppleScript dictionary so details of their operation are clearer. And finally, the popup path menu in the Open and Save dialogs of Affinity apps will now respect the Dark Mode interface setting in your Affinity Photo / Designer / Publisher settings, even if the rest of macOS is running in Light Mode.
As always, if you’re already running Default Folder X, just choose “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar. If you’re not, download Default Folder X and save yourself time and headaches while opening, saving and managing your files!
Version 5.7.2 of Default Folder X is available, addressing several problems when using Stage Manager. Flaky behavior of Default Folder X’s drawer in the Finder has been fixed – it now correctly appears and disappears as Stage Manager shows and hides the Finder’s windows.
And when using Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature (which lets you click on the Finder’s windows to switch to that window’s folder in an Open or Save dialog), Default Folder X now takes Stage Manager into account. Normally, the Finder’s windows aren’t “clickable” when they’re not showing on the screen. Since that’s pretty much always the situation when using Stage Manager, Default Folder X will now allow you to click where the windows would be if the Finder weren’t hidden by Stage Manager. As you move the mouse around, DFX will highlight the areas where Finder windows would be if they were visible.
The shadowed rectangle shows a Finder window displaying “Creative Cloud Files”
This release also fixes a bug that could cause Default Folder X to ask for Security & Privacy permissions on macOS 10.15 Catalina even though they’re already set. And it corrects a few minor user interface bugs and a problem creating aliases for files and folders that contain the ‘/’ character in their names.
Details and download links for English, French, Japanese, German and Danish versions are available on the Default Folder X release page, or if you’re already running DFX, just choose “Check for Update…” from its menu.
After making intermittent progress on version 6 of Default Folder X for months, I’m hoping to get things moving faster so I can get the new features out to a wider audience soon. The new capabilities make Open and Save dialogs even faster and easier to use, as well as speeding access to recently used files and folders in the Finder.
Among the features I find most useful are a wider edit field in Save dialogs, so you can actually see and edit long filenames:
and a “quick entry” pop-up where you can type a few letters in the name of a folder or file you want to access:
I outlined the details of these features in a previous post.
In addition, the latest build synchronizes your preferences and history between multiple Macs, so you’ll have access to your favorite and recently used files and folders regardless of which Mac you’re using. The caveat here is that synced Macs must have their files and folders synchronized so that Default Folder X can find the items on both machines – if it can’t, those items will be grayed out in its menus.
DFX 6 also offers “post-save” actions that you can use to automatically handle files after saving them. Built-in actions include immediately opening a saved file, attaching it to an email, or running an AppleScript or Automator workflow on it.
If you’d like to give the new features a spin, you can download the latest development build here. While it’s not feature-complete, the features above are working well and are stable. Please see the Read Me file for details on enabling the new features, and if you’ve got suggestions, feedback or bug reports, send them to DefaultFolderX@stclairsoft.com
There’s a quick update available for Default Folder X, bringing it up to version 5.7.1.
This release provides a fix for a handful of folks who’ve been getting prompts from Default Folder X after they log in, saying that it needs approval in Security & Privacy even though it already has the permissions it needs.
If you’re affected, just choose “Check for Update” from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar to get the new version. Or you can download Default Folder X 5.7.1 and update manually.
Please note that this isn’t the only cause of repeated requests for permissions approval. I’ve also seen a number of cases where the macOS TCC (Transparency, Consent, and Control) database gets corrupted and mistakenly refuses to give proper access to Default Folder X or other applications that require Accessibility, Full Disk Access, Screen Recording and other permissions. If you’re seeing these problems and version 5.7.1 doesn’t fix them, you may need to reset your TCC database. There are instructions for doing that here.
