Change options for Icon, List, Column, or Gallery view in the Finder on Mac

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Level 2

243 points

Change options for Icon, List, Column, or Gallery view in the Finder on Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mac-help/mchldaafb302/mac

Nowhere does it specify what folders, will not have my custom settings saved.

So, to clarify my problem even more than I had in my original post, just what are the folders that I have no control over?

Is it the Macintosh HD and folders within?

Is it the Applications and folders within?

Is it the Users and folders within?

Is it the Utilities and folders within?

Is it the Downloads folder?

As stated in my original post, this problem has, and still is, afflicting four Macs to varying degrees.

Take for instance I have selected the Applications folder to, always open in icon view, and to browse in icon view. Sorted by name. Icon view selected for mid size, and grid size to max spacing. Text size set to max. Label position selected for bottom. Background set to the colour that I have selected for the individual folder. I do not select, Use as Defaults.

Also, all of these are not selected to show.

Toolbar

All Tabs

Tab Bar

Path Bar

Status Bar

On most occasions, the custom settings for the above mentioned folders will change after a restart. But I've even had them change when I immediately open a folder that I had just closed.

This problem has manifested on four Mac computers, three desktops and a laptop about two or three Catalina versions ago.

Two desktops and the laptop are running the latest version of Catalina.

The third desktop is in hiatus.

On all four Macs, I have numerous times performed:

Restarts

Safe starts

Used different users

Used Disk Utility - all three ways

Reinstalled the operating system

I certainly hope that I have provided enough information to finally have this very irritating problem rectified to my complete satisfaction.

And once this problem no longer shows up on any of the four Macs, I'll be back again with even more queries about the perplexing irregularities that I'm presently encountering with the Catalina operating system.

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 14, 2020 10:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,140 points

May 3, 2020 8:47 AM in response to Clique of One

I actually had some relative success with folders maintaining the desired view. But, I got off on a tangent when I thought it wasn't creating .DS_Store files. Turns out it does, but it caches them and writes later. So, it appeared they weren't being created.

When I switch between folders, it will display that folder the last way I left it, no matter what I have changed in the view.

There is no way to set a default view for a particular folder such that you can temporarily change the view, then when you re-open, it is back to what you set. However you leave a folder is how it should re-open.

I haven't gotten around to looking at the View in and Browse in checkboxes.

And, as expected, changes to protected folders is not possible since it cannot write the permanent file. It will stay in cache until you log out or restart.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,140 points

Apr 14, 2020 1:22 PM in response to Clique of One

The "System" in Catalina is mounted read only. Since view options are stored in .DS_Store files inside the folder you are trying to modify, you cannot set any view options for system folders.

You should be able to set them for folders inside your home, but that only affects opening the folder for in a new window.

The Finder window is no longer a "folder" window, but a folder "viewer" window. It is not the folder that drives how you view the contents, but what the settings of the Viewer window happen to be when you open a folder into the viewer window.

Apple started breaking this when they switched to the SideBar viewer-type window. It is now not even worth bothering trying to define how your folders are viewed.

Many have complained about the way Apple stored the view options in the hidden file (which harkens back before OS X). Maybe now that they have locked down many of the locations in the file system, they'll create a database that stores the settings independent of the actual folder. It would be nice to see that happen, but they have always given Finder short shrift.

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