How to turn off Finder window stickiness?

Question

Level 1

80 points

How to turn off Finder window stickiness?

I'm using Mojave (refuse to "upgrade" to Catalina and lose significant proportion of my software and workflow), and want to turn off the 'stickiness' in the Finder. I can not size and position my Finder windows without significant stress. When I attempt to resize a window, the breadth or depth suddenly freeze or lock in to some mythical "edge" somewhere else on my screen. I can see no rhyme nor reason for this rubbish behaviour. No matter how hard I drag the window resizing arrow to one side or the other, or top to bottom, the window refuses to resize to where I want it to be.

This is another example of garbage GUI "enhancements" by Apple that should never have been allowed. I have wiped the Finder plist and searched for other settings that might turn off this highly unwanted and unwelcome "feature". Any suggestions welcomed.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 13, 2019 7:14 PM

Reply

Answer 1

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Dec 14, 2019 12:08 PM in response to EJW Tas

Have you tried a safe boot followed by a normal boot? Does that make any difference?

Have you tried a second account and does this make any difference? If yes, then there is likely some corrupted plist file in your original account. Not so easy to isolate which one, unfortunately.

Good luck...

Reply

Answer 2

dialabrain

Level 10

136,379 points

Dec 14, 2019 1:10 PM in response to EJW Tas

Maybe I'm missing something. As I tried showing in my screen shot I have no trouble resizing Finder windows. Nor do I have to hold the alt/opt key to do so. I do know there are third-party apps you can get to add such a feature if one wants it such as SnapTo, Magnet, etc.

I guess I'll leave it at that.

Reply

Answer 3

EJW Tas Author

Level 1

80 points

Dec 14, 2019 2:41 PM in response to dialabrain

Apologies if I haven't explained the situation - when I create a new Finder window (either list or icons) and then attempt to resize it to a particular shape/size, the edges freeze as they align with some other window or proportion of the screen or something else, and I have to use Option key to unfreeze/unalign the window edge. It's like a 'snapping' feature that once the window is aligned/snapped, it's very hard to undo. Very annoying as my workflow involves multiple Finder windows for image processing and I waste a lot of time undoing Apple's "enhancements".

Reply

Answer 4

dialabrain

Level 10

136,379 points

Dec 13, 2019 7:25 PM in response to EJW Tas

I have no such 'mythical "edge"' nor is it a 'GUI "enhancement"'. I don't know why you do. Perhaps someone else does.

Reply

Answer 5

EJW Tas Author

Level 1

80 points

Dec 14, 2019 12:54 PM in response to dot.com

Thanks dialabrain and dot.com - seems this is indeed a feature/enhancement introduced around 10.10 or 10.11 by Apple

I found some references online about this and there is no way to permanently disable this behaviour, but you can disable it on a window by window basis (!) by holding down the option key when adjusting the size of the Finder window. Not ideal but at least there is a way around this garbage GUI/UX behaviour. Apple seems to be all about form rather than function, reducing our options for customising our macs - Apple is no better now than the Big brother it so famously revolted against in the 1984 Super Bowl ad. Cheers and thanks again for your efforts - appreciated.

Reply

How to turn off Finder window stickiness?

Similar questions