M1 Max Monterey Finder scroll issue

Same here, very disturbing for heavy column view users, with deeply nested folder hierarchies...

Apple, please bring back horizontal inertia in Finder, we are many using this feature to navigate fast!

Hi All,

I spoke too soon: only horizontal inertia in column view is solved in Monterey 12.2.

Unfortunately, "unexpected jump to the deepest level" bug is still present.

It feels like a QuickLook issue to me: it's as if the document preview was triggered, sending the focus to the rightmost element displayed in the Finder Window, not caring if the actual user has scrolled left.

When we scroll, no matter what happens in the window (if a file finished copying or duplicating, if a Quicklook rendering is being processed, if a folder name is being typed, whatever), the view has to stick to the scrolled area, and not "jump" somewhere else.

An OS process is interfering, taking precedence over a user action, and this should not happen. OS processes must remain in the background, and not take the focus.

Just like a plane pilot lands manually, and not on autopilot. Manual controls should be in the front of the interface, always.

I already had that unchecked and it's been happening to me since updating to Monterey. Here is another thread with the same issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253297944

So far no solutions on it either but maybe if we make some noise about it, Apple will come up with a fix.

It just occurred to me that this might have something to do with the cursor jumping to the bottom left of the display. See this thread:

Cursor jumps to bottom left corner of dis… - Apple Community

Another thread suggested System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom > Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom > Uncheck. This may have worked for me with the cursor jumping to the bottom left of the display. And testing just now, I don't see the jumping to the enclosing folder in Finder columns.

Removing the PLIST file of Finder is just clearing up the preferences settings of your Finder. When you reopen Finder, a default PLIST file will automatically be recreated again. At that time, the horizontal scrolling function in the column view of your Finder will perform properly.

Here's how to clean up the corrupted Finder PLIST file on your Mac:

• Open Finder and select the Go option at the top menu bar > Go to Folder.
• Enter ~/Library/ in the Go to the folder box and click Go to access the Library folder.
• Find and open the Preferences folder from the Library folder.
• Look through all the .plist files and find the 'com.apple.finder.plist' file. Then, select and drag it to Trash.
• Choose the Apple menu > Log Out to exit your Mac.
• Log back into your Mac.

You can go to Finder and check if the horizontally scrolling action brings back this time.

Your theory of it wanting to still show the item preview makes sense. A workaround someone suggested in another thread was to untick the "show preview icon" from CMD-J, but it doesn't fix it completely. It's better, but still janky AF.

Apple, please, respond and correct this crazy bug: it's probably a conflict with Quicklook, or the level of the mouse focus in column view.

It's even hard to create a new folder and edit its name: the focus jumps to another location in the window, so you have to scroll back to find the half-edited name, and start again...

Please: it's really annoying.

Hmmm... don't count your chickens before they're hatched, but it *seems* to me that the issue is gone with macOS Monterey 12.3 that was released tonight, March 14th.

My column view Finder window *finally* seems stable, and stops jumping erratically to the far right.

Anyone confirms this?

Hmmm... grmbl... it's not entirely fixed, after all: I've suffered a lot less, but tonight, I got yet again a "far-right erratic jump" when displaying a JPG file, and then scrolling left. Finder brought me back to the far right.

Apple, one more round of debugging please! Pleeeeeeaaaaase for Monterey 12.4!

Yes I would have to agree with Grand-Zouave. After further testing, while better for most, I did have the old annoying experience this morning. It was an isolated case, though still very annoying. I think it was associated with a folder that had files with long filenames??

Ended up here because of this problem. I work in my files a LOT so this is really disruptive to my day. It doesn't help that Dropbox has eliminated their desktop client app, so I am forced to use Finder to navigate through thousands of files. The only "solution" I've had is to hurriedly click back on the folder in the left column while I am browsing. If this has been a problem for almost six months, how has this not properly been addressed?

Edit: after some googling and experimenting, I've discovered a correlation. This has apparently been an issue in past releases, and it has had to do with the USB ports. Recently I had seen an improvement in this, but then it became prominent again the last several days. I realized that my laptop was plugged into the charger, so I unplugged it to see if it made a difference. It did. No springing behavior at all.

I am writing this almost the end of March 2022 and the problem still persists. This is a very annoying issue when working with a deeper multiple-level folder in columns view. Whenever you try to use the two-finger gesture to go to the upper levels of the folder, it will keep bringing you back to the lowest level. I thought the problem was only on my MacBook Pro but now it is also doing the same on my Mac Mini Desktop. It's certainly an OS issue.

Apples PLEASE FIX THIS.

There are many other issues where I see Apple is rolling back on good features, such as Photos Memories, we used to be able to edit them and now with the latest upgrade, editing is very limited.

What is going on, why roll back on such a good feature, is this is how you reward us by being a loyal customer?

Found this solution for Monterey:

System Preferences -> Accessibility -> Select Pointer control -> select Trackpad Options button -> ensure Scrolling without inertia is selected and select OK.

You are returned to the Pointer Control Mouse & Trackpad screen.

Now select Mouse Options -> ensure Scrolling without inertia is selected and select OK.

@Mxoff - and you restarted your Mac after you made the change? I didn't because it immediately worked but I read somewhere else a restart worked.

Another fix I found was resetting Finder which made me wonder what Finder had to do with this flickering.....but maybe worth a try?

So make a backup first of the two .plist files and then do this:

From your Finder "Go" menu > "Go to folder" and enter

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Click Go.

Delete the plist file.

Then do the same for com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Then, restart, or log out and in again.

I recommend the restart because I find a restart fixes som many things.

BTW did a restart in Safe Mode produce the same flickering?

I really do hope this one works for you.

@Karhmen

I have tried all these, couple of times, nothing works.

That said, I discovered something very strange.

In safe mode, the flickering happens only once. Then it doesn't, ever.

That's the only thing I have found that puts me in a normal behavior. Start in Safe boot, and it flickers once, and done.

Of course, that is not a fix as it requires to start in safe mode... but maybe it will help narrow the origin of the issue.