The Sidebar isn't working. It says Favorites (Nothing being shown) and Devices (Everything shows up). I can go into the prefs and hide and show the devices and it updates as I toggle what to show. But I can't turn on/off anything in Favorites or Shared. Its like Finder doesn't want me to see my Favorites. I've already repaired permissions and the disk. But still nothing. Anyone have any ideas on whats going on?
Try mousing over the area to the right of Favorites, there should be an "show/hide" button.
Try mousing over the area to the right of Favorites, there should be an "show/hide" button.
Try deleting the .plist file.
~/Library/Preferences
Move the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac.
~ (Tilde) character represents the Home folder.
For LIon: To find the Home folder in OS X Lion, open the Finder, hold the Option key, and choose Go > Library
that worked. guess the file was bad or something... thanks!
You're welcome. Preference (.plist) can become corrupted. Usually a new one does the trick. 🙂
I had the same problem. I'd never noticed that show/hide button. I can see everything again. Thank you!
where is that favorites thing you talking about? I tried moving that /plist file to trash and it doesn't work.
I have no idea how it disapeared either. I just noticed it was gone. And I need it.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Joey
Suddenly today I am having exactly the same problem. MacBook. OSX 10.5.8. I tried trashing the plist file, which by the way only shows up in my User Library, in other words not on my hard disk library. I thought this was odd, but I checked another Mac I have and this file is only in the user library.
I don't know where this favorite thing or show/hide is either. It's really bugging me.
Carolyn,
I also have a sidebar problem. Although I have checked the relevant items in Preferences my attached hard drives do not show up. Also my Livedrive Cloud backup (Expensive!) does not show. Can you advise me. I have no idea how to delete the .plist file if that is the problem! I am running an iMac on Lion 10.7.5.
Yours in anticipation Dumbo!!
Thanks - fixed it for me. One hint, you don't have to restart after throwing away the plist, you just need to relaunch the fFnder. Go to the Apple then pull down to Force-Quit, click on Finder, and it will say relaunch.
A relaunch of finder worked for me that was all.😁
So how does one get to ~/Library/Preferences then? I don't have a finder sidebar to work with. Only documents are showing up. I can't get to applications folder for example nor anything else.
Easy solution! When in the Finder, go to the Menu Bar and click on Go. You will not see Library there. Now let go, and this time hold down the Option key while selecting Go. Voilà! There's the Library!
Apple decided that they needed to protect us from ourselves I guess. I recommend holding down the option key and clicking on all kinds of things - it reveals all kinds of fun. For example, hold down option and select the sound volume indicator in the menubar, and instead of just showing the volume slider, you get controls to change the input and output devices.
enjoy!
Allison Sheridan
NosillaCast Podcast
In fact, for me I ONLY had to force-quit finder. I did NOT delete the .plist file. (I suppose a reboot would work as well.)
@chapmadw, This is actually the answer and the most easiest solution. Reading through the form I found that everybody was overthinking the situation, and not sticking with the basics first I read through and did not want to try any of those things because I knew that there was no need if I did not change any settings previously. Your solution should be at the top of this page. Cheers!!
@Trife66 - Glad to help! I have seen times when other .plist files DO get corrupted, but in this case mine wasn't. I saw it worked for Martin Hill so I tried it.
Finder not showing Sidebar Items
