I just got my new Mac mini and when I try to sort my files in the finder window by Kind or Application it doesn’t rearrange my files. On my old MacBook Pro, I used “Application”… my business partner has a Mac mini running Sonoma 14.6 and uses “Kind” to sort… mine doesn’t like either. What is happening here?
Mac mini, macOS 14.6
I am using Sonoma 14.6.1 on my M2 Mac Mini Pro and I have my Finder view set to Icon and the Group toolbar set to Name. This places Folders first followed by filenames — all sorted alphabetically.
When I switch that from Name to Kind, all of my icons become organized top down as Folders, Developer, Documents, Movies, PDF Documents, and Other. If I switch to the Finder Window's List view (e.g. cmd+2), the same order is respected with a gap between the alphabetically sorted categories.
When you are in a specific Finder Window location, you can also press cmd+J to open the Finder's Show View Options where in my case, it is set to Group by: Name, Sort By: Name.
My Downloads folder has the previous paragraph settings as Group By: Name Sort By:Date Added. That setting places the most recently downloaded content in the top left of my Finder Window so I don't have to hunt for it.
You may wish to refer to macOS User Guide - Apple Support
Can’t Sort Files in Finder Window - Sonoma 14.6.1
