Default Folder X 6.0a4 is available for download. This is another “preview” release, intended for testing and to get your feedback. Like earlier pre-release builds, this one adds a bunch of new features. It’s very stable, so you should be able to just install it and run it as part of your regular workflow. For a quick overview of all of the new features in version 6, see the Default Folder X 6.0 Tour page.
Debuting in 6.0a4 is the ability to customize the menu that Default Folder X puts in your menu bar. You can add, remove and reorder items, as well as putting the contents of any of the submenus (Favorites, Recent Folders, Finder Windows, etc) directly in the top-level menu for quicker access. Click on the “Customize” button in the General tab of the settings to get the editor.
There’s also an experimental option for Finder-click which recognizes items within Finder windows. Turn on this checkbox:
and Finder-click will change the location in file dialogs to the folder you click on, rather than just changing to the folder represented by the Finder window as a whole. In the example below, Finder-click will take you to the “Screenshots” folder that’s currently under the cursor, rather than the Downloads folder.
Of course, this also works when the Finder is in List View or Column View mode.
The reason this feature is still experimental is that I’m concerned that some people will find it confusing, and that even folks who like it may find it unintuitive when the Finder window is hidden behind the window of another app. As you move the mouse around, the folder name displayed by Default Folder X changes as it passes over different folders in the window (which you can’t see). Please try it and let me know your thoughts, positive or negative.
The new Quick Search window shows additional context when you hit the right arrow to search within a folder. The folder’s path is shown below the search field, and there’s a “back” arrow to take you back to your previous search results.
Also, searching for “..” will give you the parent of the folder you’re searching in. We’re getting pretty good at navigating through the filesystem with the keyboard 😉
There are a number of other additions and numerous bug fixes that are all detailed on the Default Folder X Testing page. There are also download links there, or if you’re already running an earlier 6.0 preview, just choose “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar to get the latest build.
Default Folder X 5.7.8 is available, largely thanks to a single individual. Default Folder X user Andrea Bornstein discovered that browsing Time Machine backups caused Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature* to stop working.
I’ve been getting sporadic reports of Finder-click failing for quite a while, but was never able to isolate the cause of it. I tried numerous fixes based on the information I could collect from people that reported the issue (and discovered a few weird edge cases along the way), but the reports kept coming. I didn’t know how to reproduce the problem on a Mac here, so I never had a way to test locally. And people that reported it said it would come and go, so I couldn’t rely on them to test potential fixes either. Very frustrating. 😡
Then Andrea’s careful observation gave me a reliable way to make it happen, and I could finally test and debug a true fix. Hurray for smart, detail-oriented customers! 😎
And what an odd bug it was (and still is) – not in Default Folder X, but in the Finder. Default Folder X uses the macOS Accessibility API to gather information from the Finder – it’s essentially a way to programmatically say “hey Finder, give me a list of your windows”. Normally the Finder happily complies, but if an app asks that question after you’ve been browsing Time Machine backups, the Finder just says “nothing to see here!” Luckily, there’s another way to coax that info out of the Finder, so I’ve sidestepped the bug entirely while waiting for a fix from Apple (the bug is filed as FB12199998).
So – all you folks who restore files and folders from Time Machine on a regular basis, you can reliably use Finder-click without resorting to hidden settings in Default Folder X. I’m sorry it took so long to get to the root of the problem, but honestly, it’s a pretty weird one.
And in other news, version 5.7.8 of Default Folder X also adds badged icons to the Finder-click interface. If you’re running ForkLift or Path Finder alongside the Finder, you’ll see an icon indicating which of those apps “owns” the window you’re currently hovering the mouse over. Like the ForkLift 4 icon on the folder in the screenshot above.
Choose “Check for Update” from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar to get the update, or download it from the Default Folder X “What’s New” page. Oh, and the update’s free, as usual.
* For those that don’t know, Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature is available in the Open and Save dialogs of any app. While in the file dialog, you can click on any open Finder window behind it, and the file dialog will switch to show the contents of that folder. This works with ForkLift and Path Finder as well as the Finder.
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.
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.
Version 1.4 of Go64 was released yesterday, correcting a few issues it had when running on Ventura and offering better reporting of the CPU architectures supported by your apps.
As a refresher, Go64 is our free app for analyzing all the apps you have installed on your Mac. It shows you which ones are 32-bit, 64-bit, Intel-only, and Apple Silicon-native. This gives you a full picture of which apps will run on newer versions of macOS (Catalina and later will not run 32-bit apps) and which will run best on newer Macs with Apple Silicon processors (M1 and M2).
Here’s a full list of changes in version 1.4:
Added an option to filter the list of applications to show CPU architectures that are not Intel or Universal.
You can double-click on the separator between column headers to automatically resize a column to fit its contents.
When saving the results of a scan, the architecture of applications is now exported along with the other information.
Fixed the formatting of exported application information that contains tabs, carriage returns and other special characters.
Updated terminology such as “preferences” to refer to “settings” when running on macOS Ventura and higher.
Go64 now correctly reports the developer and website for Akai Professional and Cycling ’74 audio apps.
Fixed user interface layout issues on macOS Ventura.
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.
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.
Version 5.7 of Default Folder X is now available, delivering compatibility with macOS 13 Ventura! It also adds integration with Find Any File so you can start a search from a file dialog, and addresses a number of issues such as problems with iCloud and Microsoft OneDrive.
If you’re running a very old version of macOS, however, I have some disappointing news. Default Folder X now requires macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later to run. Apple’s Xcode tools no longer support building software for versions of macOS prior to High Sierra, so I don’t have a way of providing support back to macOS 10.9 anymore. You can still use Default Folder X 5.6.6 on older systems, and it’ll continue to work as well there as it always has.
With that caveat, I encourage you to use Default Folder X 5.7 even if you’re not running Ventura, as it fixes issues when running on earlier versions of macOS as well. Check the Default Folder X Release page for a full list of changes.
Note that there are still a few rough edges as of Ventura’s sixth public beta. When giving Default Folder X permission for Automation, Full Disk Access, etc, you’ll have to enter your password (or Touch ID) more than once. I apologize for this – it’s due to a bug in Ventura’s new System Settings app. I’ve submitted the bug to Apple, but don’t expect to see it fixed before macOS 13.0 ships. As usual, I’ll revisit this and other less visible workarounds for Ventura’s quirks as Apple fixes them.
If you haven’t tried Default Folder X, grab a copy to see how much more convenient Open and Save dialogs can be! And if you’re already running it, just choose “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar to download the new version – and thanks for your support!
Version 1.8.5 of Jettison is available. It delivers compatibility with macOS 13 Ventura, while also including a number of other improvements on all supported versions of macOS.
Mounting of disks is quicker, and for those of you using shared volumes from a file server or NAS, it’s more reliable as well. A notification is now also displayed when disks are remounted, so you know it’s no longer safe to unplug them – make sure to use Jettison’s menu in your menu bar to eject them again before disconnecting them! And for the few people that use RAM disks these days, Jettison recognizes that they’re not external disks and will not eject them when your Mac goes to sleep.
There are also tweaks to the user interface to improve your experience, error reporting and handling has been improved, and more information is logged internally for troubleshooting purposes. All in all, the changes should improve many people’s experience with Jettison.
For a full list of changes and download links, visit the Jettison release page. If you’re already running Jettison, just choose “Check for Updates…” from its menu in your menu bar to get the new version.
