Reveal AND select folder in finder - Catalina 10.15.4

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Versusnja Author

Level 1

8 points

Reveal AND select folder in finder - Catalina 10.15.4

Dear community,

Until recently "Reveal in finder" opened a folder containing the file or folder AND selected the file or folder.

Now, if I reveal a file, it works OK: it opens the folder containing the file and selects the file.

But when i reveal a folder, it only opens the folder containing the target folder, but doesn't select it.

It really slows down my processes. I think it is related to a recent update. Did anyone come across this problem before? Any solutions?

MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Apr 28, 2020 11:10 AM

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Answer 1

Versusnja Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 28, 2020 11:51 PM in response to VikingOSX

And still it is a bug of Catalina.

What we have discussed before was if you press "ENTER" in spotlight and therefore run "Open file" on the folder. Which in turn opens the folder in question.

But if you press "CMD+ENTER" and run "Reveal in Finder", you will reproduce the problem that I have described - the parent folder will be opened, but the target folder will not be selected.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,470 points

Apr 28, 2020 12:12 PM in response to Versusnja

What I am seeing in El Capitan, Mojave, and Catalina — when performing a Spotlight search for a particular folder name — is that even if a folder is seven levels down in a parent folder, the ⌘+R (reveal) selection within the Spotlight results will open a Finder window to that selected sub-folder name. It is not automatically opened.

Reference:

kind:folder AND name:mockups

If I perform a Spotlight query with NSWorkspace in Objective-C, a single occurrence of the folder is highlighted in a resulting Finder window — just as in the first paragraph. If there are multiple matches, that Finder window shows each folder name in a Finder window, and it is up to the user to determine which one is selected and opened. That can be assisted with Finder View : Show Path Bar.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,470 points

Apr 28, 2020 12:26 PM in response to Versusnja

Reveal will highlight the target folder in the Finder window opened on somefolder.

In the following example:

when I search in Spotlight for a folder named "mockups", I get a generic Finder Window that isn't opened on the parent, but shows duplicate MOCKUPS folder in it. I then click on each to see what the path is shown in the path bar.

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