MACOS Catalina finder does not update changes to folders and files without force quit

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Level 1

8 points

MACOS Catalina finder does not update changes to folders and files without force quit

I am hoping for a solution to this question, and also hoping my information will help other if they see it. I spent a lot of time looking for fixes on this issue for older OS versions. There are many problems going back years and not a lot of solutions.

I was able to get folders to update instantly on a corporate Windows based domain by doing the following on

each MAC.

This seemed to work up until at least High Sierra.

1)open terminal from applications --> utilities

2) put in this command below and hit enter

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE

3) log out or reboot

This seems to have stopped working in Catalina. We got three new MAC desktops and this no longer works. I did some research and found that they changed the shell for terminal in this OS. So I tried to change the shell back to the old version in hopes that the same command would work. It did not.

Here is what I tried

Go to applications --> utilities
open terminal
enter chsh -s /bin/bash (this is the command to change to older shell version)
It should look like
enter the command that used to work below on number 6
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE
reboot MAC

Does anyone have a solution to this issue? Did the syntax change for Catalina or is there any other way to make this work from the MAC device? I have proven on multiple MAC desktops that my old way actually fixed this issue on our company network. We have all these new desktops and the users are upset because they have to constantly force quit finder to see files they renamed or moved.

Thanks

Posted on Feb 25, 2021 8:25 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tress209 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 16, 2021 9:29 AM in response to tress209

I just wanted to post the solution to my problem. I was able to figure this out with a lot more searching on the issues. Your idea of the defaults write command not working is what gave me a focus point. There are permission issues with Catalina and you have to manually give full disk access to items to make terminal commands and other things work.

1) Go to apple symbol in top left and then preferences.

2) Go to security and privacy

3) Under the privacy tab select full disk access on the left

4) Hit the plus to add an item

5) In the drop down in the top middle change it to MAC HD

6) Click Command-shift-period to show hidden items

7) You should be able to see and click on the folder BIN now

8) Select bash and hit open

9) Do the same procedure to the BIN folder for Sh and Zsh and add them to full disk

10)Hit plus to add another item

11) browse to applications --> utilities

12) select terminal and click open

13) close open items and go open the terminal program in applications --> Utilities

14)Run the command below on a and hit enter

a. defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE

15) restart the MAC or log out and back in

You should now be able to save files and rename files and see them instantly in finder.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,734 points

Feb 25, 2021 9:03 AM in response to tress209

Those aren't "shell" commands, so it doesn't matter what shell you use.

With sandboxing, the defaults system has been changed to where you sometimes cannot drive a change with the defaults command. I haven't figured out what is required to make them stick.

Did you check that it was written after the reboot?

defaults read com.apple.desktopservices

This article is still current. Adjust SMB browsing behavior in macOS - Apple Support

It just suggest logging out after, but I would assume a restart should accomplish the same thing.

Perhaps Terminal needs to have Full Disk Access.

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Answer 3

tress209 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2021 10:11 AM in response to Barney-15E

That is likely where I originally found the solution that used to work. You are correct that I normally just had to log out and in for the change to start working. I think I rebooted multiple times while trying all kinds of things on the newer Catalina desktops. I don't remember them off the top of my head, but I found a couple other slightly different commands like the following and still doesn't work.

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

113,734 points

Mar 16, 2021 11:59 AM in response to tress209

I ran into that solution for other things. It’s been so long since I gave Terminal full disk access that I forgot about that as a possibility

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MACOS Catalina finder does not update changes to folders and files without force quit

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