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How do I get Finder windows to hold their settings?

Reading in other discussions, I see some folks are having problems with desktop icons moving around. My desktop icons are fine and stay put, but my Finder windows continually rearrange themselves to whatever random design Lion wants to give them.


They will not retain size, toolbar on / off, arrange by / sort by, icon size or grid spacing etc. For a while I thought I had the problem sorted by leaving the main User window open when I shut down at night, but this 'solution' didn't hold either.


I have worked my way through the View options, tried resetting defaults etc etc, but either there's nothing I can do about it (bug?) or I am missing something simple.


Any thoughts would be appreciated. TIA

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 5, 2011 4:01 PM

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56 replies

Aug 5, 2011 5:30 PM in response to tranceman07

Thx very much for the quick reply - yes I have gone down that track. I have also tried trashing the plist for the finder and relaunching (also restarting the Mac) but still no joy. I have no third party items installed (except Perian which I doubt is related to this) so it is a bit of a puzzle.


I also accept these are early days in the OS so maybe something will kick in - but it is very frustrating! It's an issue I would like to reolve...

Aug 6, 2011 7:10 AM in response to John Vaughan1

I have also been frustrated by this behavior. I have tried the Finder View menu "Show View Options" on the folders but settings are not remembered (or they are ignored in Lion). I position windows for various folders where I want them, with the sort and size and view that I want. Different folder windows have different settings. When I first set the windows as I want them, the folder windows will re-open correctly. However, after a few minutes they will open in the wrong locations and sizes, with the sort reset back to Name, and the view set to List. It doesn't seem to matter what windows are re-opened first.


How does such a bug get past Apple QA? Wonder what Steve sees on his Macs?

Aug 19, 2011 4:14 AM in response to Mike Weasner

For me "New Finder windows show: .." does not remember. I have mine set to the name of my HD but after restarts (I think) it wants to reset to my user folder. When that happens and I open Finder Preferences to check the pull down tab, that setting has reverted to blank.


(Could this in any way be related to the fact that my Safari does not remember my log-in to My.Yahoo.com? Though there is a check box that used to 'keep me logged in for two weeks' and it is still checked, about every third time I open a Safari home window, I must log in again. Oddly here, Firefox does not misbehave this way.)

Aug 25, 2011 3:47 PM in response to John Vaughan1

same issue, driving me nutty.


I love many things in Lion but this issue remindes me of my Utilities Folder in Leopard and Snow. it NEVER wanted to remember I wanted it to sort by name and be like some icon size...


Now it's moved to many other folders!!!! the funny thing is, my Utilities folder actualy remembers all my command J settings now!? (well more often than others, including Applications now.)


BUG report time

Aug 26, 2011 11:29 AM in response to John Vaughan1

I may have discovered a tidbit that could help for now.

I noticed a folder earlyer today that has yet to get scrampbled. This folder is NOT set to always open in any view type, but it is set to snap to grid and has icons organized by and to where I want them.


So, maybe we can avoid the scramble for now by not setting always open in check boxes. It's not like it isn't simple to hit command 1 to get icon view if it's not.


Just an observation and idea looking for validation still.

Aug 27, 2011 10:28 AM in response to Steven Dodds

Nope, i was wrong... it seems once a folder starts having this issue, even turning off the always open in icon doesn't fix it.


Not sure what is different between the folders affected and the ones so far unaffected. Other than maybe they never had always open in icon under Lion, nor do I recall using Clean up or otherwise moving any icons in them.


Also not sure where Finder is getting it's scrambled icon mess, but it seems to always toss them back into the same piles of overlapping mess. With a few changes now and then... Odd.

Aug 27, 2011 8:06 PM in response to John Vaughan1

I have this problem too, and it's maddening. My latest effort fo fix it has been to make .DS_Store read only using the Terminal. This will work for directories that you never alter; I did it to my home directory. If you do it to directories that change, the results will be undefined, because the Finder will be unable to write changes to the .DS_Store file reflecting the position of the new files.




To do this, open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities, and then type:




cd "/Path/to/directory/to/fix"




Replace the path with the folder you need to fix. If you're not sure what it is, you can just type "cd " (without the quotes, but note the space after the letters 'cd') and then drag the folder you want to fix onto the Terminal window. Then press return.




Now, type:



chmod 444 .DS_Store




Make sure you include the period at the beginning of the .DS_Store name. Press return. This will effectively lock the .DS_Store file and prevent the Finder from screwing it up. Your icon positions and window settings will be fixed in place until you make the .DS_Store file writable again. To do that, repeat Step 1 above, and change Step 2 as follows:




chmod 644 .DS_Store




That will return the .DS_Store file to its original state and undo the changes you made.


I have tested this only on my home directory, which never changes. Doing this to directories to which files are added and removed will result in undefined behavior. It will not damage your computer or your files, but Finder windows for that directory will not behave in a predictable fashion.

Aug 29, 2011 11:36 PM in response to BradG

same for me - just posted this:



Why does the Finder forget my settings for folders and desktop - I set some folders to be viewed in list, others in icon - 10 minutes later, Lion has forgotten these settings. I am constantly resetting my folder views for my workflow and I am wasting my time. I can set the folder view, close the folder, immediately reopen and it is changed to whatever the machine decides - there is no pattern to it, icons appear as list, I lose my backgrounds, the windows are different size settings to what I set just 1 minute ago. No matter what settings I have for a folder, they are ignored 100% of the time by the System/Finder/GU eye-candy department. I don't want folder icons at 128 x 128, nor do I want folder windows to be half my screen - I want GUI to be mine not a random hash of views.


I have reset ACLs and repaired permissions, I have deleted various Finder prefs and reinstalled the system. I hate Lion because the emphasis is on eye candy rather than function. I want a system that remembers my settings - Mac OS has been doing this for years, but suddenly under Lion, user settings and preferences are optional, to be disregarded at a whim by the system. Why is it so hard for the Finder to remember/respect my settings? What's so difficult about respect a folder view in list mode and another in icon view?


How many times do I need to zero my drive and reinstall Lion until it actually works?


I have posted details to the feedback page but for all I know, these postings are ignored/trashed/ignored for all the non-improvements in 10.7.1 over the base install. Has anyone solved this massive GUI bug in Lion? There are certainly lots of posts on theese forums with similar issues but I have yet to find a solution of any sorts.

Aug 30, 2011 2:28 AM in response to BradG

I'm having the same issue. Could this be related to the Spotlight issue? In Lion the Spotlight keeps re-indexing my hard drive every time the system stars. Could it be resetting DS Store files?


The strange thing is that in my case the desktop icons stay put. Lion only messes the icons in Finder windows.

How do I get Finder windows to hold their settings?

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