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Mojave, some finder windows have no side bar

If I create a new finder window with command N, or double click my computer desktop icon I get a finder window with no sidebar. Also it will not respond to "show sidebar" either from the menu or from command option S.


If I open an existing folder I have a sidebar and I can turn it on and off with the "show sidebar" command.


I have tried deleting com.apple.sidebarlists.plist and com.apple.finder.plist and restarting but there is no change.


10.14.6

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)


Tony


How can I restore my sidebar in a new window?

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Jul 25, 2020 10:21 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 19, 2020 6:09 AM

I figures out the issue. In order to change the state of the side bar one must have the tool bar displayed. So once the tool bar is on, one can toggle the side bar. As soon as the tool bar is not displayed the side bar cannot be toggled and will stay in the state it's in when the tool bar was turned off.


When mounting disc images, both the tool bar and the side bar are turned off and this setting then gets applied to new windows. This is what has caused my problem. Once I turned the toolbar back on the problems went away.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 19, 2020 6:09 AM in response to Sharhari

I figures out the issue. In order to change the state of the side bar one must have the tool bar displayed. So once the tool bar is on, one can toggle the side bar. As soon as the tool bar is not displayed the side bar cannot be toggled and will stay in the state it's in when the tool bar was turned off.


When mounting disc images, both the tool bar and the side bar are turned off and this setting then gets applied to new windows. This is what has caused my problem. Once I turned the toolbar back on the problems went away.

Aug 19, 2020 4:45 AM in response to Tony Dymoke-Bradshaw

Please check if you have same issue in safe mode.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Note: Safe mode prevents your Mac from loading certain software as it starts up, including login items, system extensions not required by macOS, and fonts not installed by macOS. It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility. And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.


Hope it helps.

Mojave, some finder windows have no side bar

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