Problem sorting items in finder window

I've searched other posts and seen that others are having similar issues however, I can't a solution to my problem.
In a finder window in list view, in the upper part of the window, I have Name, Date Modified, Size and Kind. Before I upgraded to Mavericks, I could click any of those options and the window would sort accordingly. Now, if I want to sort a window, I have to open the view options and do it that way. The weird thing is, I have a RAID connected via esata and it works like it should on any window I open from that drive. Any suggestions?

Might be corrupted Finder preferences.
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Click Go then move the com.apple.finder.plist file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac then try the Finder.

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Items in Finder window will not show alphabetically while in columns view

I am running a Mac Pro Yosemite 10.10.1
a couple of weeks ago I had some kind of glitch since then it takes a long time to save items having a continuous spinning beach ball.
Also in the Finder window items will no longer listed alphabetically while in columns view they list fine in the other views.
Is there an easy way to fix or could I fix it by reinstalling the operating system?

Hi tundrabob,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. Based on what you stated, it sounds like Finder takes a while to save and you need to sort a window. I would recommend that you read these articles, they may be helpful in troubleshooting your issue.
This article may help the spinning beach ball.
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck - Apple Support
OS X Yosemite: Ways to view items in Finder windows
Sort items: In any view, click the Item Arrangement button , then choose an option, such as Date Created or Size.
OS X Yosemite: Reinstall OS X
Cheers,
Mario

Sorting files in Finder Window A-Z instead of Z-A

My issue arises when I access Finder through an app (for example, when I'm adding a file to my iTunes library). The files in the Finder window are being sorted Z-A instead of A-Z. I think I might have accidentally hit a shortcut to sort Z-A, and I can't figure out how to toggle it back. It's a small thing, but it's driving me crazy. I've tried switching between all the different viewing options, and that doesn't work. Anyone know what to do here?

Good Morning V.A.L.I.S.
Thanks for the question. I'll include some information about the Finder application below. What I usually do is select a folder like Documents or Music and change the view to List view. At the top of each column is a grey "header." The first one you should see is Name. Click on Name and your files will be sorted in order by the file name. A ^ symbol beside the column heading indicates the files are in ascending ( A - Z ) order. Click on the word Name again, and the sorting will toggle to descending order (Z - A). Does that make sense?
Mac Basics: The Finder organizes all of your files - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201732
List View
Choose View > as List to see the items in a consecutive order. You can change the sort order of the list by clicking the headers (Name, Documents, Kind, Date) at the top of the list view. Click the same header a second time to switch between ascending and descending order.
If an item is within a folder, you can click the triangle next to the folder name to see any items stored within that folder.
Have a great day!
- Judy

How can I sort two open Finder windows differently?

I have two Finder windows open. I want to sort one by date and one by name. Whenever I try changing one window, Finder changes the other window too. What am I doing wrong?

terry,
Now not optimal but you can open the folder you want to organize by say size, and name or Whatever, in to windows. Organize one by name for my example, and in the other start a spotlight search with a space (Hit the spacebar once). Change the search criteria from Macintosh HD and select the folder you were in, if the spotlight search isn't in list view change it to list view. And now you can organize the to windows independent to each other.
But as this is still not the most optimal solution I would send Apple your feedback by going to http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Also I've never used it but you could look into MuCommander it might do what you would like. http://www.mucommander.com/
Weston

Some items in finder windows have gray dots after file names

When I open a finder window for the current directory, some of the file name shave little gray dots after the file names, off to the right at the end of the name field. What do they mean? Mavericks 10.9.4 on a 2009 Mac Pro.

It means that the gray tag has been assigned to them.
(110820)

Copy alphabetically sorted items from Finder yet pastes them UNSORTED!!!

This is weird, but if I copy some items from the Finder in list or column view (they show alphabetically sorted), they paste UNSORTED on Eudora or Word 2004, for instance. How to fix it, so that they are pasted also alphabetically sorted (A to Z)? Thanks.

ApMaX wrote:
Edit - Paste and match style, because if I select just Edit - Paste, then the file icons instead of the file names is what is pasted
I used the helpful hint from above "convert to flat text (shift-command-T)"

Finder window not showing

After upgrading to Lion, I am no longer able to use cmd+Tab to go to the Finder windows. However, when I am shifting between spaces, I am able to see all the finder windows in the background. SImilarly, if I am using expose, I can see all the Finder windows, but am unable to click and navigate to them. Any thoughts? I am no Power user. So, pardon my ignorance.
Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem of invisible finder windows on a Mac Book Pro.
Shortly:
I cannot open any finder window (to access files and folders) in any way after a Mac Book reboot.
Tried by clicking a finder icon in a Dock
Tried by clicking a New Finder Window menu
Summary of other indicies of the problem
The problem of the invisible finder windows has appeared after an upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion 10.7.2
The problem still persists in the same manner after an upgrade to the latest Lion 10.7.3
The finder window shortly shows up when sliding between "desktops" when using the "three finger scroll gesture", but it is not manipulable, and disappears when the screen settles on the next "desktop".
But Finder knows about all its open windows even though they are not not visible on a desktop. All windows are listed as an items inside the Finder Window menu. But clicking and of that window items has no effect ..... the related window still does not appear.
This problem appears after a reboot of the Mac Book ..... when the Mac Book is powered up and Mac OS X is freshly launched.
But ..... in the Dock ..... When I change the Option state ("All Desktops", "This Desktop", "None" values) in any way, all invisible finder windows suddenly appear. After that action opening and closing all other finder windows works well ..... until the next reboot of the Mac Book.
The problem appeares only within my Standard User login account (Czech language). It does not appear within an Admin User login account (English language). Opening and closing finder window works well within an Admin User login account from the beginning without any problem. I do not know, whether it is related to languages or not
I have performed Disk Permission Verifications several times, but without any effect.
I have also deleted the "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist" file several time and also without any effect ..... I have been deleting from a Terminal of the Admin User login account when Standard User login account is logged off ..... and of course I have deleted the file related to the Standard User login account.
Thank you very much for some usefull hint.
With my best regards

HT2470 Is there a way to arrange the items in Finder by multiple options?

I would really like them arranged by kind then name to help me find everything better.

Hello mooncinders,
Thanks for the question, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
In Finder, you can change the View Options by clicking the Action Menu > Show View Options. Depending on the view you are in, there will be various options in this menu. For example, you can choose Arrange By: Kind, then Sort By: Name. For more information, see this article:
OS X Mountain Lion: Choose options for viewing items in Finder windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10801
OS X Lion: Choose options for viewing items in Finder windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3919
Thanks,
Matt M.

Finder window is too large, help....

howdy,
i recently inherited an older powerbook g4 from the office. it's running 10.2.8 and has a slight problem...
the finder window is streched beyond the bottom of the screen. i can't seem to get a hold of the corner to drag it back up and the resolution is set to the highest setting. obviously this causes issues with applications at the bottom of the list (ie. utilities) not being shown. is there a way to fix this problem? i may be installing tiger soon so it could be a temporary issue, however for the time being i'd love to get it fixed.
thanks for taking the time...
ryan

Hi Ryan, if you cannot reduce the window by cliking on the green button and then right it, do this:
Navigate to yourhome/library/preferences and trash this file:
com.apple.finder.plist
(You may have to reset a few finder prefs the way you like them.)
Then log out and back in again.
Let us know.
-mj
[email protected]

Spotlight Find Window has incorrect arrangement

Lately, whenever I use Spotlight and then choose "Show All", the resulting window is displayed (in list view) with a very wide sidebar, and very narrow columns which must be expanded to read the fields. Normal new Finder windows open correctly, in column view, with the sidebar and columns all readable without adjustment. Under View Options, with the Search window as the foremost window, the checkbox "Always Open in List View" is not checked, however the window always opens in List View.
This problem with the Spotlight Find window has only occurred recently and no attempt to fix it has been successful. How and where do I specify the format of the Spotlight window so that I may specify it as it used to be?

If the problem doesn't exist in other accounts, then there's further corruption within the original one. While logged into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. If the problem's solved, open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving conflicts or identifying corrupt plist files is a laborious process. Good luck.

Trouble using Finder window to look at image/movie files

I know I'm doing something wrong...
I'm using the Finder to look at image and movie files
If the files sit in a folder that is a few layers deep, then it's really frustrating to look at
The space for the icons are all small
I have to maxmise just to look at properly
It's super frustrating
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
Omar

Hey Omar,
I was able to find a couple of tips that should make your Finder experience better. First off, I'd check out the following article that goes over the different viewing options in Finder:
OS X Lion: Choose options for viewing items in Finder windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3919
If you're having trouble seeing the details of the icon because they're too small, choose View > Show View Options, and then try adjusting the sliders for "icon size." You might also want to try using the Cover Flow view option. With it you can easily see live previews of images, documents and movies, and can thumb through them quickly.
I'd also look over the general Finder article that goes over some tips for usage:
Mac Basics: The Finder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2470
Cheers,
David

My computer had to be shut down this morning when I could move my mouse around but it would not respond when I double clicked on an item to select. Now I cannot open a file in my finder window by double clicking on it. Any suggestions?

My computer had to be shut down this morning when I could move my mouse around but it would not respond when I double clicked on an item to select. Now I cannot open a file in my finder window by double clicking on it. Any suggestions?

Did you reinstall CS3 after CC?
For that matter, doing an in-place upgrade on the OS is always a gamble with Adobe programs. Reinstalling all the versions you need, in order, would probably solve your problem.
And you shouldn't need to save as IDML after opening the .inx in CC.

External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware

External hard drive connected to my airport extreme will no longer open, when navigating to it in Finder, the Finder window quits and reopens, cannot access hard drive, it is visible in airport utility, since the problem began I have updated firmware on Extreme as well as both of my Airport Expresses. Hard drive is USB connected to Extreme.

Reboot the USB drive.. assuming it is powered.. or unplug and replug a self-powered drive.. (you should not use self-powered drives on AE before the latest model.. always use a powered hub).
Does the drive now appear in finder..
If not reboot both drive and the AE.. it should now appear.
If it doesn't work with direct connection try a powered hub.. that can help.

How to view file item count in finder window?

Hi all,
Pre-Lion, I had things set up so that I was able to view the number of files/items in a finder window that was in list view. This information would show up at the bottom of my finder windows. I know I had intially pressed some kind of OS X shortcut to get it to show up there and now would *really* like to be able to easily view that information once again. Not only did I get a file count, I was also shown a file path if I clicked on one of the files in the finder window.
For the life of me though I just cannot remember how to do this. Can anyone help me out?
Thank you very much in advance:)
Christine

Got it! That was SO EASY...thank you very much

Problem with the Finder window in Chrome

Hello,
I have a problem with my finder window in Chrome.
Since the window isn't a separate window anymore, but stuck to the top of the webpage, my finder window is too big. I can't read the "Cancel" or "Send" (I have no idea what's supposed to be there in English but I assume it's something like "send" and "cancel") buttons. I have provided some images of the problem, even if I make the Chrome window as small as possible, the finder window still is too big for my screen. I can resize the finder window from lest to right, but not up or down, which is extremely irritating for me.
If anyone can help me how I can solve this problem.
Thanks!

I found the solution on another thread...Here it is.
"I was having the same problem. I found a way to make it smaller. First, I opened chrome and clicked the green button on the window to make chrome go into full screen. Then I tried to save a file to make the finder window open in chrome. When it opened in full screen I could see the bottom of the window so I resized it to make it a little smaller. Once I did this it remembered the size so now I can access the bottom buttons when I take it out of full screen mode. Hope this helps."
Worked like a charm!

Problem sorting items in finder window

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