Finder windows don't retain settings!!

cyborgsam wrote:

although I don't always agree I do appreciate you trying to help. I welcome more discussion, I always look forward to learning a new trick!

Agreed! I'm not trying to railroad anyone here. 🙂

The problem I have with the 'cleaning caches' theory is that it just doesn't make sense if you know how the OS works. There's simply no way that can speed up you mac unless:

i. there is a corrupt cache (we agree on this, though not to its likelihood or frequency)

ii. the caches are bloated and the HD is nearly full

A normal users system and user caches take no time to load; certainly, less time than it does to reload all the files they point to (that, after all, is their raison d'etre).

I'd also point out that even Apple have removed the 'Empty cache' menu from the Safari user menus, hiding it in the Develop menu - a menu used specifically for troubleshooting, not maintenance (you can enable the Develop menu from Safari Preferences | Advanced tab).

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on the cache cleaning. In any case, I'm sure everyone else would welome us getting back to the icon background problem... 😉

I've seen the icon issue on multiple Macs running Mountain Lion, it's been discussed on other sites. It may be related to the use of custom icons, I have many of them throughout my hierarchy.

The usual definition of clean install means erasing the disk before the install, so yes, the drive was erased. I did migrate from my old ML install, but only user data.

I don't use images for Finder window backgrounds, so a corrupt image wouldn't account for what I see.

I doubt this is 3rd party related, since the issues occur when I log in as a user with no Login Items. The 3rd party software that loads globally shouldn't affect the Finder (but could).

And because you can't reproduce it doesn't mean it's not a bug. A sample of one is not enough information to draw general conclusions from.

cyborgsam wrote:

And because you can't reproduce it doesn't mean it's not a bug. A sample of one is not enough information to draw general conclusions from.

If Apple engineers can't reproduce the problem on a test bed they will not consider it a bug. The fact that I can't reproduce doesn't mean they can't, but it does suggest its not inherent to the OS, since my OS and yours are the same.

Also, its clearly not affecting that many people. There aren't dozens of people clicking the 'I have this problem too" button (in fact, only 1, which is presumably you!), nor is this thread receiving particularly many hits - 500 views since August last year. Given the amount of traffic this site gets, that suggests the problem is localized to your installations.

cyborgsam wrote:

It may be related to the use of custom icons, I have many of them throughout my hierarchy.

That's a promising clue. I can't recall when the change was, probably lion, but possibly Snow, icon images must now have the extension .icns and are composites of different sizes for different display modes. You can make your own.

I'm not sure why that would prevent the background image from displaying rather than just knocking out the icon itself, but I'm not entirely sure how the Finder's background image interacts with other elements anyway.

(ToU Disclaimer: note that this post contains a link to my own personal site).

The fact that 1 person can't reproduce it simply means it's not 100% reproducible. You cannot extrapolate that to conclude that it's not inherent to the OS.

OSes are not the same. These systems are so complex there are always minute differences once a system has been booted and configured. The simple loading of a different graphics driver could make two identical installs behave radically differently. We can say things like "this shouldn't contribute to the issue" but until the actual problem is found there is no certainty. I was writing operating systems in the early 80s, believe me, diagnosing some issues can be complex beyond belief.

How many people it affects doesn't lessen it's impact on those it does affect, not does it mindicate that it's not a real issue. And I don't care how many people "me too" the post or view it. None of the people I support who also have home Macs have ever gone to the communities for help. Yet they have real issues.

And what if the problem is localized? As I mentioned with the complexity of the OS, it's possible only a very few have the right combo of loaded kexts, et al. to see the problem.

I've been using custom icons since at least 10.1. Many I have are custom icons pasted on folders and .pngs, there is no discrete .icn file. Some are .icns, but I paste the custom icon on them also.

I've also been making my own for years. I use IconBuilder from the Icon Factory, but sadly it isn't working in Photoshop CS 6...

cyborgsam wrote:

I was writing operating systems in the early 80s, believe me, diagnosing some issues can be complex beyond belief.

How many people it affects doesn't lessen it's impact on those it does affect, not does it mindicate that it's not a real issue.

And I have plenty of experience dealing with Apple engineers and bug reporting. Believe me, Apple are not going to solve this problem for you unless they can reproduce it AND it is considered to be related to the OS itself and/or its interaction with Apple hardware.

For reasons I mentioned in the last post (the rarity of the reports), that's unlikely to be the case. Not impossible, but unlikely.

I think we're getting into a whizzing contest, let's agree to disagree. I am dealing directly with Apple about some issues, this included. Since I'm a developer and under nda, I can't say more.

cyborgsam wrote:

I've been using custom icons since at least 10.1. Many I have are custom icons pasted on folders and .pngs, there is no discrete .icn file. Some are .icns, but I paste the custom icon on them also.

When you did the clean install, could you reproduce the problem before loading your own custom icons?

I can't see any other connection at the moment between your case and the OPs. That's got to be something worth looking at.

My cutsom icons came along with my /User, so no. I have a lot more testing to do...

Steve->

" If I trash the plist mentioned (either by finding it in the FINDER and trashing it or via the terminal command) - that won't eliminate any of my more than 300 special icons on my folders, will it???"

No. That's only the Finder preferences you see when you do Finder>Preferences.

When my folders change views, anything in the View Options window can be changed, even from viewing my icon to list and vice-versa.

Today I'm doing a clean install of Mountain Lion on an external drive using my old laptop so I can try and diagnose this (and other issues I've been working with Apple on) on a clean system. Will report back what I find.

Yea, me and softwater went more than a little astray, I'm glad you learned from that!

This is my problem exactly.

I only found this discussion today, and am surprised too that no new suggestions have been forthcoming so far. Has Apple ever responded?

I am working on an Imac, and the problem of Finder windows "forgetting" colour, organization etc. started only after upgrading to Mountain Lion.

Updates to OS X 10.8.3. so far have made no changes. I do use Dropbox, but have been doing so for about two years without this problem.

I shut down my computer every evening, and it "forgets" its Finder personalized window settings more or less once in every three or four days.

Could it be that I should use a different way in personalizing these settings?

I normally use Finder -- View --- Show View Options -- then setting colour, icon size, grid etc.

Thanks for your suggestions,

Florike