broken aliases in mountain lion

I've noticed issues with aliases in 10.8 that weren't a problem in 10.7 and earlier. I have aliases of folders on my desktop, created in the same way that you did, but I can't copy or move files by dragging them onto the alias icon. I also can't save files directly to the aliased folder from the save dialog in any application.

Both these methods worked fine in 10.7.

I'm getting the same problem.

Steps:

1. Create the alias.

2. Moving the alias to desired folder.

3. Renaming the alias, removing the "alias" text

4. Clicking on the alias from an application to save the file doesn't open the alias folder

Nothing happens. You can click on the folder, and click on it, and click on it. The folder will not open.

Append the text "alias" back on the folder fixes the problem but this seems very peculiar. Why would such an advanced OS need to have the "alias" text on a file? This functionality (shortcuts/aliases) has been in production for, gosh, over ten years. I don't understand why they'd limit the users from having to leave the "alias" text in the folder.

I just don't like seeing that "alias" text. I know it's an alias. I created it. That little arrow is telling me it's an alias.

You're right, adding back the word "alias" to the name seems to fix the problem. This is really dumb, if it's intended to be a "feature" of 10.8 and not a bug. Like you, I don't need to have the word "alias" in the name to tell me what it is.

Same issue - once I remove the word 'alias' from the file name, I can't save to that aliased folder in the save dialogue box of an application. Annoying. As has been said, I know it's an alias by looking at the icon, I shouldn't need the word in the file name for it to function.

Kind of strange, and I cannot replicate it, but try this workaround.

Instead of "Make Alias," Drag the folder to where you want the alias, but before dropping it, hold down cmd+option. You'll see the badge change on the icon to the alias arrow indicating you'll create an alias instead of moving the folder. That alias will not have "alias" appended.

That workaround does result in what I would consider a normally functioning alias of the folder. Thanks!

July 25th and the aliases still break.

OS X 10.8.4 MacbookPro

Right clicking on the alias and selecting the option show original will give you an option to fix it as well.

Not remotely a fix in my opinion since having to repeatedly repair it isn't a solution, just a bit of bubblegum and bailing wire to repair a broken feature.

I had exactly the same issue with broken Aliases and posted here some time ago...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4157219?answerId=19493239022#19493239022

I did not try the Terminal prompts as suggested in my post. I opted to fix the aliases once a reboot took place and since then all has been well...

Maybe try:

Set up the aliases. Rename accordingly. Reboot. Search for all files (system included). Sort into kind and then go through your user generated aliases, using the fix button on the prompt that pops up.

Ta-dah!

This computer has rebooted and the same link has been broken again.

Probably not immediatly, but it did eventually break.

Ahhh, that is something I haven't (yet) experienced... Truly odd behavioiur then...?

Although, have noticed that the OS in question is V 10.8.1, maybe an update to the latest may help. Although, each incremental update I have done has resulted in the same behaviour. Albeit, I am able to permanently fix my aliases with the reboot method...

This is 10.8.4 the latest version.

A truly irritating part is that if I display the info on the alias, it has the correct path.

This is a bit late this. I had similar problems, looked for an answer, and couldn't find one.

So I wrote a script that will do it as follows:

Given an alias directory, and a "target files" directory:

- Test files names for a trailing "alias" and test files to see if they are symbolic links.

- If so, search for filenames in the target directory tree matching the root of the alias or link name

- If found: replace the broken alias or link with a new symbolic link.

That works for me but it's not a very nice solution:

1) It doesn't use a good test for aliases, which is slightly dangerous but not very: It'll fail in the unlikely case a files which is not an alias finishes with " alias", or if an alias has had the trailing " alias" removed.

2) It doesn't check for multiple file matches, and will link to the first it finds. (or link to all of them in turn, over-writing, I can't remember).

3) most importantly: It removes all aliases and replaces them with symbolic links which isn't great. Aliases supposedly have greater flexibility than links which explains why they are ten times the size.

Links are enough for me - I'm just posting this as an indication of what can be done, without including my inelegant script.

Finally, a good place to look to learn how to do a better job is this person I came across:

http://sveinbjorn.org/osxutils_docs

This Sveinbjorn has shared this utility "mkalias" which shows how to make aliases.

From there, it's probably not hard to make a proper applescript "alias" test in place of my stupid filenamename method, and test separately for aliases and links to avoid the "all links" problem.

And finally a little test for multiple matches when searching for the target would be nice.

Good luck.

I myself will probably stick to links, too lazy.