Can't add favorites in finder sidebar

Logging out of the Finder and signing back in worked for me too ! Until doing this my sidebar was only allowing me to see Devices, and when I tried to restore my Favorites selections via Finder Preferences the checkboxes wouldn't stay checked. YMMV

Hey John,

I had acidently hidden my finder favorites and searched for an hour for a fix until I found your post about hovering over favorites and revealing the show/hide option. Thanks so much for posting this simple fix before I tore my sytem apart.

Hello,

My problem is slightly different. However I thaught I should post my answer incase it helps anyone else.

My issue was that I wanted to add a folder on my desktop, to the favorites bar in Finder. The way I did it was to right click on the folder and select make alias (shortcut). Then add that to the favorites bar in Finder.

I had the same problem. I solved it by trashing the preference files used by the finder. You can locate these preferences in ~/Library/Preferences (search for the plist files with Finder in the name). Note that you can access your user library by holding the option key while clicking on the Go menu in the Finder to reveal access to the Library folder. Move the preference files to the Desktop (just need to be out of the prefs folder) and restart. You'll have to set your preferences again, but the checkboxes should now behave.

Hope this helps!

I have the same problem under Yosemite Public Beta 5. I had a folder in iCloud Drive which can't be added to the sidebar. Just this specific folder can't be added, so I moved this folder to the hard drive, add the sidebar and copy back to Drive.

This is by far the MOST BIZARRE FIX EVER. For weeks I've been trying to solve multiple Finder related bugs - from a blank Finder preferences window to not being able to create shortcuts in the Finder toolbar or sidebar (dragging an icon while holding Command caused the icon to disappear when the most crossed over into the sidebar or toolbar, rather than create the familiar green "+" symbol)... among other options. I did a Repair Disk twice, Safe Mode once, logged into the Guest account multiple times and even considered creating a new admin account and just moving all my data over to that one. Then I came across this thread. Relaunched Finder twice in succession from the Force Quit Applications window and voila! Everything is fixed!! Go figure. I just hope it sticks.... will report back if it doesn't. THANK YOU!!!

The reason you sometimes have to force-quit and relaunch the Finder twice in succession (without restarting after each force-quit) in order to fix this problem, is that one or more of the Finder's preferences files may be damaged, and OS X has a feature that when some parts of the System software, and some apps, crash or are force-quit more than once in succession, OS X will delete some of its preferences and/or cache files, starting with fresh undamaged copies.

For whatever reason Death.Ray , THIS HELPED ME also. I performed your "recipe" 2 times, and then, logged off [user], and logged back in. AT start, I WAS ABLE to see my favorites in a "regular" finder window, BUT, when trying to " "save file as' any {document} ", I could NOT see my favorites, in the sidebar. My problem started when I upgraded to El Capitan 10.11.3 , I first noticed that "Airdrop" was absent from my regular finder windows favorite column and then ALL my favorites were absent from my finder window when attempting to "save file as" , as in WHERE was missing in the left panel directory of favorites in sidebar. Thanks. Mark {Macbookpro 15 inch. late 2008} still humming along after all those years.

I had a similar issue while trying to add my Desktop folder to Favorites. This post is a few years old, but I have the 2017 iMac with macOS Sierra. To add the folder, I held down the Command and Shift keys at the same time and dragged the folder. Holding down the Command key alone did not work for me.

Force quit Finder and relaunch by pressing Cmd-Opt-Esc. That worked for me.

Wow, if it'd been a snake it would have bitten me. In my defense, I did discover this accidentally though. See attached screenshot.

Caveat: Running Mountain Lion 10.8.3

Hold the CMD key down as you drag them to the sidebar.

i have the same problem and non of suggested fixes didn't work :/

anyone else?

Held down cmd before click n drag. Worked for me.

Holy crap! The death.ray fix worked the 2nd time I tried it. Not the first time but I got desperate enough to try it again and it worked. Thanks, man.