Cannot remove a broken sidebar network folder alias in Finder window

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Level 1

9 points

Cannot remove a broken sidebar network folder alias in Finder window

Mac OS 10.6.7 -- WinXP Home

I have a created netowork folder alias in the sidebar of my Finder window that points to a shared folder on an officemate's PC (WinXP Home). This folder has been deleted on the officemate's computer. Now, in my Finder window, I cannot click on the alias. Clicking on the broken network sidebar folder aliases or dragging them off of the side bar (they used to vanish in a puff of smoke but now they don't) does nothing.

I can right/control-click is but the only option in the sub-menu is "Open Sidebar Preferences..." and nothing else (other aliases have all the options including "Remove from sidebar"). I can't even drag the folder aliases off of the sidebar in a puff of smoke either. I'm at a loss on this one.

Any ideas how to remove these broken sidebar aliases? Even opening the sidebar preference panel yielded nothing I could see that would help.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Apr 26, 2011 11:56 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

captfred

Level 7

26,422 points

Apr 26, 2011 12:07 PM in response to Jay Gelnett

Hold down CMD as you drag it off. This is new with 10.6.7

Regards

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Answer 2

Jay Gelnett Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 26, 2011 12:16 PM in response to captfred

SOLUTION

I knew something changed, thanks for that, but it still wouldn't work on the broken aliases in question. While looking around the "More Like This" section at the left of this page I found the following solution from macjack:

Navigate to ~(yourhome)/library/preferences and trash this file:

com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

This resets the sidebar back to its original state. I had to re-create my aliases but it got rid of the broken aliases as well.

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Answer 3

Jun 7, 2011 10:56 AM in response to Jay Gelnett

If you have installed Developer Tools on your Mac (Optional Installs on your MacOS X installer DVD) then you can delete individual aliases in the Finder sidebar, using Property List Editor, which you'll find in Developer > Applications > Utilities.

In your Home folder go to User > Library > Preferences > com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Control-right click and choose Open With > Property List Editor.

Scroll down to "useritems" and click the grey arrow next to it to reveal contents.

Click the arrow next to CustomListItems and you'll see a list of entries marked "Item" with a numeric suffix.

Click the grey arrow next to the Item whose number corresponds to the sidebar alias that you want to get rid of and you'll see the info associated with that entry, including its name, as seen in the sidebar.

If it's the right one, click again on the Item header (i.e. "Item [x]") and hit delete.

Quit Property List Editor and Save changes.

Quit and relaunch Finder and that item will be gone from the sidebar list. Everything else will still be there, and you won't need to rebuild the list.

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Answer 4

Jay Gelnett Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 7, 2011 11:53 AM in response to cj hoppit

Thank you very very much! Great tip. Better than the solution I found myself. <doffs hat>

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Answer 5

Jul 1, 2011 7:50 AM in response to cj hoppit

I tried both methods: the Property List Editor and deleting the whole .plist but it always reverted to the original.

Any ideas?

Paul

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Answer 6

Jul 1, 2011 9:29 AM in response to Jay Gelnett

OK, I finally managed it by editing the .plist and then, instead of saving changes, did Save As... and overwrote the original file. After a Finder relaunch, the offending folder was still there but now selectable and thus removable with command-drag.

Paul

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