Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Hi there,
I have Mountain Lion on my Macbook Air. For some strange reason I can't move the "Movies" folder into my Sidebar. I've tried deleting the com.apple.finder.plist file and rebooting.
See the video here:
As it is far easier to show than describe.
OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Sorry - just got this email.
Yep I've tried other folders - they work. It's just the Movies folder!!
Anything weird about the movies folder ? Is it a link or are the permissions wrong?
To me it appears to be no different than pictures or music. THere's not even anything in it. See pic attached.
If it is empty what if you delete it and make a new Movies folder just to see if that changes anything. The permissions seem fine but I can't think of anything else to try at this point.
Unfortunately OS X won't let me delete the Movies folder!
Linc, thanks for the help! Sorry it took so long to get back to you - I was out and about....
I've tried both tests.
When logged in as a guest user, adding (and removing) the "Movies" folder from the side bar worked perfectly.
When logged in in safe mode (as myself), I still had problems moving the "Movies" folder into the sidebar. Appears to be something wrong with my user specifically. I guess booting with safe mode (and still having issues) means that it isn't a 3rd party plugin?
Is this a personal computer administered only by you, or is it administered from an OS X Server or network directory server?
This is a personal computer used only by me. It is a MacBook Air from a year or so ago.
Generally completely stock. I haven't done too much fiddling with system files, mostly just getting my dotfiles & terminals set up properly.
Are there any extended attributes associated with the Movies folder? To see this, open the Terminal and run the following command:
xattr ~/Movies
This should drop you back to the command line without any additional output if there are no attributes.
@Topher Dropped me straight back into a terminal prompt.
@Topher & @Linc :
The only thing I can think might have been messing with the Movies folder was BitCasa. I had previously installed it to give it a shot, but have since wiped if off of my computer. Is there any way to blow the movies folder away and start fresh? (i.e. from a "clean operataing system state").
There is. You can remove it by the following command in the Terminal:
sudo rm -rf ~/Movies
This should allow for its unhindered removal, but if this still does not work then you can first run the command "sudo su" to drop to the root shell, then run the following command with the modification of "USERNAME" to that for your main account:
rm -rf /Users/USERNAME/Movies
After doing this, close the Terminal or type "exit" to exit from the root shell. You can then recreate the Movies folder in the Finder where it should then be recognized properly. You can then ensure its permissions are set accordingly by rebooting to the OS X installation drive, choosing "Terminal" from the Utilities menu, and then running the command "resetpassword." With this utility, select your account and then choose the option to reset user permissions and ACLs.
I have no idea why, but removing and recreating the Movies folder worked.
I don't know why I ddin't think of rm -rf 'ing it.... I only tried trashing it from the finder (wasn't sure if OS X was doing anything interesting in the background with the folder).
Should I still be resetting permissions / ACL's / etc. as you described? Or am I good to go?
I would. It wont necessarily hurt or help things, especially if you are the only user on the system, but will ensure the home folder permissions are back to the defaults for those folders in your account.
Move this item from your home folder to the Trash and relaunch the Finder:
Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.finder.savedState
Test.
@Linc - Think I'm all good now ! A simple rm -rf did the trick.... I'm not sure why though haha. Thanks for all your help!
Can't add "Movies" folder to the Finder Sidebar
