Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
A while ago my Finder's sidebar turned into this:
I didn't really notice at first, but now that I know it, it really bothers me. I tried removing the Preferences for Finder and Sidebarlists, but no dice. I tried CleanMyMac to clear some caches, still nothing. I tried PRAM and SMC reset for the **** of it. Nope. And just now I tried to reinstall the 10.8.5 combofix, but that didn't do anything either.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)
Try dragging the Downloads icon out of the Finder Sidebar and then dragging the folder for Downloads from your user to the Sidebar.
Testing in a new User will quickly tell you if the problem is system wide or if it's your User's folder that contains the problem.
CREATE A NEW USER
Go to System Preferences --> Create a New User in Accounts. Switch to the New User by logging out/in or use Fast User Switching.
Do you still see the issue?
If yes, then the problem is with your base files.
If no, then the problem is in your User's folder.
The problem does not occur with another user, but I figured that already because the combo update (base files stuff) didn't do anything.
@Eric: Nope, no change.
Often tracking down the solution is more time consuming than moving to a new User. Be very careful about moving items in your User's Library. Most likely the probem is in the User's Library folder.
Transferring files from one account to another on the same Mac
You can use your Shared folder:
1. Log in to the account you wish to copy files from.
2. In the Finder, navigate to the Shared folder. It is located in the Users folder.
3. Copy any files or folders you wish to the Shared folder, such as items on your desktop, in your Documents folder, in your Music folder, and so forth. You may be asked to enter an administrator password when copying certain items. Note: To ensure that you copy items (as opposed to moving items), hold the Option key as you drag files to the Shared folder. Depending on item permissions, some files or folders will copy by default, some may move by default.
4. Log out of the current account.
5. Log in to the new account (that you are transferring files to).
6. In the Finder, navigate to the Shared folder. It is located in the Users folder.
7. Copy any files or folders you wish from the Shared folder to the desired locations, such as desktop, Documents folder, Music folder, and so forth. You may be asked to enter an administrator password when copying certain items.
Watch your disk space during the process. You are duplicating your data. If you are low on disk space move one item (Documents, Pictures, Music etc) at a time then when you have verified the data is on the new User, delete from the old User before starting the next move.
Creating a new user is not a solution, it's a workaround and a rather devious one at that. I don't wanna copy 1 TB of files in chunks of ~50 GB just because "tracking down the solution is more time consuming than moving to a new user". I also don't wanna reset preferences for a ton of applications.
Here's the solution for ya:
Reboot into safe mode
Reboot back into normal mode
????
Profit
Selected item's icon disappears from Finder sidebar
