Smart Folders in Open/save

I just tried the Rob Griffiths Mac OS X Hint from July Macworld mag, making default smart folders in open and save dialog boxes. It wont work.
I type in ANY folder name in the search area when I try to save a file. I click this app only. It just sits there. The smart folder is not created.
any ideas.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode. Shut down the computer and then power it back up. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application unistaller. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.
Safe Mode
Safe Mode - About
General information.
Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Troubleshooting Permission Issues
Step by Step to Fix Your Mac

Similar Messages

How to permanently display hidden files/folders in open/save dialog?

I know about Apple-Shift-Period. I just wonder wether i can make this setting permanent. Also, making the Finder show hidden files is not what i'm looking for. Thanks for replying!

bobvjsingh wrote:
World's most advanced OS, can't do such a simple thing!!!, thanks for your answer anyways.
The world's most advanced OS (OS X) can do this, just click the header for Name or Kind. Simple as that.
The problem is that you have posted in the wrong forum. You did not post in the OS X forum. You posted in the Classic Mac OS forum, a forum for an OS that has been dead for 13 years. So you were given a correct answer for the forum you posted in. If you were asking about the current OS X Mountain Lion system at the bottom of your post, you can do what you requested, as described at the beginning of this post.

Open/save trackpad problems

I have an intermittent problem with not being able to select files/folders in Open/save dialog boxes. The only way to select items is by using the up/down arrow keys. Not a consistent fault, not limited to a particular application. Any ideas?
1st gen MBA, 10.6.4

you could try creating another account and see if it dose it again.
is there any specific applications you don't have the issue in?

Anyway to view open Finder folders in an open/save dialog?

Either in the side bar or in the menu from the top?
The quikest way I've found is to drag the header bar icon from an open folder into the open/save dialog

Incidentally, another thing I did was expand one of the offending folders in List view in my Documents folder, so I actually can't even open my Documents folder in Finder. In other words, say I had a folder in my Documents folder called "Pix". In the List view of the Documents folder, I clicked the arrow next to "Pix" and since that expanded "Pix," which I can't seem to open, it shut down the Finder window. So now whenever I try to open my Documents folder, it shuts down the window, since it's also trying to open the (expanded) "Pix" folder. A stopgap measure for un-expanding that folder would also be appreciated, if anybody has any smart ideas.
Thanks.

Can't save Smart Folders

Hi all,
I saw an article online about Smart Folders and realized I've never used this feature! Unfortunately, it's not working for me.
I selected New Smart Folder, and chose Kind->Any and Last Opened->Today. But, when I click Save and the save dialog appears, the whole window freezes and I have to relaunch the finder to get rid of the window.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
17 PB, 1.33GHz, 1.2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Yes, you can edit them even more easily using Property List Editor, if you have that installed.
I tried making a smart folder with Activity Monitor running to see if I could spot anything interesting. All I noticed was that both Finder and Windowserver were more active as I created and saved a new one (and mds of course as the search was was done). So that wasn't very enlightening. The only other thing that occurs to me is perhaps something has gone wrong with the Saved Searches folder itself (it's in your home Library folder), since that is the default place to save to. I tried copying my folder to another drive, then trashed the original. When I relaunched the Finder and created a new Smart Folder the Finder had created a new Saved Searches folder. If that doesn't work either, you can trash your creation and put the original back.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Smart Folders show icons only in Open Dialog pane

Hi,
I have created a couple of Smart Folders and put them in the side bar. When i select the Smart Folder, it shows the files and their preview icons. When i access the same Smart Folder in an Open Dialog pane from Keynote or another application, it shows regular file icons only, not the preview icons.
Is this how it is supposed to work?

While I'm not quite sure what you mean, it sounds to me like you had the Open dialog set for Column view, and at some point changed it to List view. Take a look at the toolbar at the top of the Open dialog window, you should see the back/forward buttons, then a group of three icons representing icon, list and column view. Both icon view and column view will show a preview icon of the selected file. Personally, I like icon view, since you see all the files that fit in the window with custom thumbs, and can pick what you want quickly. If you change the setting, in say Safari, to list view (which makes more sense in Safari), then the Open dialog for, say, TextEdit gets changed too. Just change it back by clicking the little icon in the toolbar at the top of the Open window.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Can't drag sidebar items in "open/save" dialog boxes - Mountain Lion

(First time poster) Using Mountain Lion 10.8.3 and InDesign CS6. Having errors. First was that smart folders made the Open/ Save dialog boxes crash when referenced in the "Favorites" section of sidebar. Next, and more serious, error, is that I cannot drag/ rearrange my sidebar items in this view. AKA I cannot take "Favorites" on the sidebar and drag that section below "Devices" or "Shared" or "Media" like I normally can in Finder or any other app for that matter. Recently installed SIMBL and "Colorful Sidebar" app but uninstalled and removed bundle file from SIMBL plugins folder in order to try and resolve this. Hard to say if this problem started before or after the third-party plugin was installed, but regardless, it's gone now, and still having problems. Help please! Thanks,

None of these are InDesign questions.
I'd suggest asking this is the Apple forums:
https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

Major change to how smart folders work?

I'm an ex-PC user and one way I configured the finder to work more like how I was used to working was to color code all my folders red and the half-dozen files I work with on a daily basis green. I had smart folders for both in the Tiger sidebar and they were there all the time. In Leopard they are only there in a finder window and are in the search for area. When I am in a program and want to open a file, that search for section is no longer in the sidebar, so I have to drill down through all folders and sub-folders to find the file I want. Am I going to be limited to launching files directly from the smart folder to easily find the files I need and not open from within the application?
RR

By default when you make a Smart Folder and save it you get it saved into this folder:
"/Users/yourname/Library/Saved Searches"
If you open that folder you should see your Smart Folders. Drag them into the "Places" section of the Sidebar in your open Finder window. They will now show up in the Open dialog window of your application. Of course, you will have them listed twice in the normal Finder window: once in places, so you can see them in the Open window, and once in Search For. Jeez, don't the programmers ever have to talk to each other? Anyway, the sensible thing to do is to have other sorts of things, that you don't need access to from an application, in the Search For section--or just close that section up. This is definitely another "what were they thinking" moment.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Smart Folders - different view types

Why is it that some Smart Folders I create, look like a normal folder (can be sorted by Name, Date Modified, Kind, etc) and other Smart Folders look like the windows in Spotlight, which do not contain separate sortable headings for Name, Date Modified, etc.?
I tried to change the "view" but there appears to be no option to do so.

There are three View options available (in the "normal" window toolbar, which is above the "find" toolbar, if you have the toolbar enabled) in a Find window: as Icons, as List, as Groups. I have my search window set to a default of List view. The Groups is the usual default. You have to edit a system file if you want to change the default behavior. But if you open a Find window, set the View to list, enter your search criteria and save as a smart folder, then it should open in the same state it was when you saved it. Anyway, mine always do.
You can even go up to the Finder's menu item View and set the View options. For instance, you can change the window to Icon and then set the icon size to 128X128.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Organize Safari Download Folder (Smart Folders)

Alright, I have been organizing my computer and I was wondering if there was a way to organize my download folder with smart folders. If a song I download or place into my download folder, I want to be automatically organized into this smart folder labeled, "Music." Is this possible? But I don't want to include all my music located on my hard drive. Just the music located in my Download Folder.

Open the downloads folder in Finder
choose File-Find (Command F)
where it says 'search' at the top, select 'downloads' rather than 'this mac'
Set the 'kind' to 'music'
hit the save button & save it inside the downloads folder (or anywhere), with whatever name you choose.

Searching Smart Folders and Negating... or not...

Hey, I've been searching the discussions for a bit and can't seem to find what I'm looking for.
Basically I have two iTunes Library folders (with a bunch of artist/ album sub folders). I have two smart folders that isolate all the audio files from each library... but from there I'm trying to search the two smart folders to see which files are in one folder and not the other. I was trying to use the kMDItemFSName and the kMDItemPath attributes to find what files had 'Temp Music' in their path names compared to those that don't (as a way to differentiate which libraries the files come from). However I don't think I'm using them correctly with all the sub folders. Is there an easy way to search for "whats here && not in here" on the smart folders?
One music library is on an external drive. Don't think that should make much difference... Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The path attribute doesn't actually work. I think the best thing to do is to navigate to the iTunes folder in the Finder, hit Command-F, make sure that the iTunes folder is still selected in the toolbar (it tends to revert to Computer), and fill in a the Name:Contains field and also put the search into List view. Then save the search. Do the same for the other iTunes folder. Bring up both Saved searches and check what you want. For instance, if you want to know if both have a certain song or artist folder you would change the Name:Contains field in both to same thing.
As for what you are trying to do: if you actually have a folder named "Temp Music" in your iTunes Libraries, I'm afraid the easiest approach would be to simply open the two folders in List view and compare them.
Personally, I haven't found any easy way to compare file system stuff using nothing but the Finder. The only good way to compare my two iTunes Libraries that I've found is to use the Analyze function of Chronosync:
http://www.econtechnologies.com/site/Pages/Downloads/downloads.html
It is what I use for my incremental backups, so I've found it well worth the $30, especially since you get free updates forever.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Open/Save Dialog, 9 min. Beachball Freeze

I am running OS 10.10.2 on a March 2009 iMac with 8GB RAM and 1TB HD.
PROBLEM: While working in Illustrator 18 (CC 2014), if I choose File > Open, the Open dialog appears but I get the spinning beachball for 9 minutes before file contents appear. I don't have the same problem in Photoshop or any other app. But after Googling, I see that a number of people have posted similar Console Log messages (see below) when using in a variety of apps in Yosemite, even in Apple's own Mail app. This tells me the root problem may not be specific to Illustrator, even though it only affects Illustrator in my case currently.
WHAT I TRIED:
1) Moved all Adobe Illustrator related PLISTS and preference files and folders to the Desktop and then launched Illustrator. I saw Illustrator rebuild new prefs files and all settings reverted back to stock. This proves my moving of the prefs to the Desktop was successful to cause a rebuild of new prefs and PLISTS. Even so, the BeachBall freeze appeared when I did a File > Open.
2) Rebooted with SHIFT held down (Safe Mode). But the beachball problem remains.
3) Disconnected all USB devices except keyboard/mouse, and turned off WiFi and BlueTooth, and even yanked my Ethernet cable. I also turned off Time Machine and Default Folder. But the problem remains, even through a reboot.
4) I removed DropBox and GoogleDrive and I closed all apps other than Illustrator, but to no avail.
5) Tried a Guest User, but that doesn't work with Adobe Apps. Ditto for a Standard user. You get an error dialog when you try to launch Adobe apps with that kind of user. So I then created an Admin user. Illustrator's Open dialog box displays files perfectly, as normal! A NEW ADMIN USER FIXES THE PROBLEM!
So a new Admin user fixes the beachball problem in the Open dialog, but for my normal Admin user there's the 9 min. beachball problem. And yet, SAFE MODE doesn't fix the problem while in my normal User. And neither does deleting Illustrator prefs. So it's clear there's still something lurking in my primary user account that is absent in the new Admin user account. But what? And how can I find it? (Migrating everything to a new User account is no easy task.)
Pertinent section of CONSOLE system.log:
Mar 6 13:27:03 iMac.local WindowServer[151]: disable_update_likely_unbalanced: UI updates still disabled by application "Adobe Illustrator CC 2014" after 15.00 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds). Likely an unbalanced disableUpdate call.
Mar 6 13:27:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: DNSAddressResolver:Resolve CFNetServiceResolveWithTimeout failed
Mar 6 13:27:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 64
Mar 6 13:27:49 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: DNSAddressResolver:Resolve CFNetServiceResolveWithTimeout failed
Mar 6 13:27:49 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 64
Mar 6 13:28:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: DNSAddressResolver:Resolve CFNetServiceResolveWithTimeout failed
Mar 6 13:28:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 64
Mar 6 13:28:24 iMac.local com.apple.SecurityServer[56]: Session 100025 created
Mar 6 13:28:49 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: DNSAddressResolver:Resolve CFNetServiceResolveWithTimeout failed
Mar 6 13:28:49 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 64
Mar 6 13:29:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: DNSAddressResolver:Resolve CFNetServiceResolveWithTimeout failed
Mar 6 13:29:19 iMac.local NetAuthSysAgent[858]: ERROR: AFP_GetServerInfo - connect failed 64
the above repeats while time elapses (I deleted this part for brevity)
Mar 6 13:35:40 iMac.local mds[33]: (Volume.Normal:2464) volume:0x7f9823863800 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:1 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/WORK_SPACE
Mar 6 13:35:42 iMac com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.TMHelperAgent.SetupOffer): Service only ran for 2 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 8 seconds.
Mar 6 13:35:42 iMac.local mds[33]: (Volume.Normal:2464) volume:0x7f9824087000 ********** Bootstrapped Creating a default store:1 SpotLoc:(null) SpotVerLoc:(null) occlude:0 /Volumes/GLOBAL_SPACE
Mar 6 13:35:43 iMac.local WindowServer[151]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Adobe Illustrator CC 2014" after 534.23 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 1.00 seconds)
I get the exact same set of messages that you see above every time I try to reproduce the problem, simply by doing a File > Open in Illustrator.
I assume AFP is Apple File Protocol? But what "server" is it trying so desperately in vain to "Get"? And why is a DNS resolver being used?
Anyway, as you can see from the Console log above, the beachball in the Open/Save dialog in Illustrator goes away after 534 seconds (about 9 min.). But it reappears each time I try to go to a new folder on my HD within that Open dialog. Each time takes exactly 534 seconds each time for the stupid beachball to go away when changing folders in the Open dialog.
This beachball freeze (for 9 min.) in Illustrator's Open dialog occurred every once and a while over the last several weeks, but now it consistently happens. And no, I've not installed any new software on my iMac other than Yosemite updates.
Once again, I would prefer to fix the root problem in my primary user account rather than migrate to a New User even though I now know a new Admin user account resolves the problem.
Please help.

With regard to my cry for help...
Pretty please?
Here are links to other apps which show the same Console Log messages that I am seeing, proving this is not an issue exclusive to a single app:
Vmware & OS 10.10.2
Pertaining to networked HD's
Shared Mac on a Network
Prevents Time Capsule access and kills Time Machine too
OS 10.10 & Time Capsule woes
OS 10.9.2 & NAS woes
Yosemite & Time Capsule woes
iPhoto woes after Migration
More Time Capsule woes
Time Machine woes from Germany (translated)
mDNSResponder stuck in restart loop
If you read through all the above like I did, you're probably very tired by now. But if you had the same problem as I do, you would do anything to resolve it, hence my post here. So again, I plead for your kind help and attention to this problem!
The above links do tell me one thing, that a "network error" is at the heart of the Console log messages and my problem. And that remains true even when I've disconnected from the network entirely, leading me to believe that this is some sort of CACHING BUG. For truly, there is a Time Capsule at my office, and I do use Time Machine (although not saving to the TC but instead to an external FW HD). So... It is my guess that Yosemite has cached some network data it doesn't like and tries to access that data from a cache when the Open Dialog appears in Illustrator. But WHY ILLUSTRATOR in my case? It makes no sense to me at all. I would think it should consistently occur in the Open dialogs of all apps, but it's only in Illustrator.
I did have problems with my Time Machine backups after putting Yosemite on my iMac, but those issues were resolved in the 10.10.2 update.
In any case, if indeed it is a CACHING BUG, how then would I clear that stupid, evil cache?
Again, I would appreciate your kind thoughts and advice.
Thank you!

Sort-by-type for column view in open/save dialog boxes?

Hello all,
I've done a fairly good search both on Google and in these forums and can't seem to find this question addressed. When I go to open or save something (in Preview, for example) I prefer to use Column View in the dialog box, since it is easy to see and navigate the folder structure. However, Column View always shows up sorted by name, even if I specified in Finder that the folder be sorted by type. Because of this, I have to scroll down and hunt for subfolders rather than having them conveniently listed at the top.
My question is this: is there a way to get Column View to sort by type in the open/save dialog boxes? (The Command+J that works in regular Finder does nothing in these dialog boxes.)
Thanks!

No. Column view will only sort by name. If you wanted to put a space before each folder name, then they will sort to the top. Sorting by Kind will put folders above files, but it will also put anything else except files at the top. If there are only folders, however, that would put them first in the sort list.

Finder sidebar not updating with applications open/save dialog boxes

Hi all,
I've searched the threads and can't seem to find an answer to this recurring issue that I'm having.
I save folders to current projects in the Finder sidebar. However, I find that when I try to find those sidebar folders from within the open/save dialog applications that it is often times and old version of the sidebar. In the image linked below note the Finder sidebar on the left and the InDesign CS sidebar on the right. The list of folders is different. The version via InDesign seems to be an older cached version.
Screen capture: http://www.fabianross.com/forum-images/screen-capture.png
Does anyone know how to update this cached version to see the new list of folders?
Thanks,
Jerry

Try deleting this file: com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
/Users/YourName/Library/Preferences. Drag that file from the Preferences folder to the Trash, empty the Trash and reboot. See if that helps...
Seems to me that Adobe is very picky about where the files are kept on the hard drive. You might not want them in the Sidebar. Whenever you do an Adobe software update, the installer needs the path to where those files go. If it's missing in action, it can wreak havoc.
Make sure when you do Adobe updates, if there is a link included or a Read Me file, check that out first before installing anything.
Run Disk Utility and Repair Disk Permissions BEFORE and AFTER any software updates:
Launch Disk Utility. Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select FirstAid, then click: Repair Disk Permissions. Quit DU when it's finished and reboot.
Carolyn

Find in Open/Save Dialog boxes

The find in open/save dialog boxes seems to return unexpected results. Say I have two folders one called "Down under" and the other called "Down under 2". If I ask it to find "down" it only returns the file "Down under 2" and other files whose content may have the word "down" in them. The folder "Down under 2" only has jpegs in it. None have "Down" in the file name.
So what gives?

Surely someone knows what is going on in spotlight. If I use Easyfind for the search it comes up with both files folders correctly.

Smart Folders in Open/save

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for