brycesteiner
Level 1 (25 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Finder won't save preferences on reboot

Hello,

 

I'm trying to having something as simple as keeping the sidebar open in my Finder windows. Unfortunately it will only stay that way for that session as soon as I reboot it's back to not having the sidebar open. I've set it up the way I want it and then closed the window reopened it and it's right--until I reboot. Same thing will displaying tags and then telling it to "use as defaults" in View Options.

I've also deleted the Finder preferences in ~/Library/Preferences/ and rebooted. Nothing seems to make it right. It always goes back to the default view with the exception that it will display as list like I've asked.

 

Any ideas?

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 27"

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 4:43 AM

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brycesteiner

Q: Finder won't save preferences on reboot

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  • by brenden dv,

    brenden dv brenden dv Oct 9, 2015 9:29 AM in response to brycesteiner
    Community Specialists
    Oct 9, 2015 9:29 AM in response to brycesteiner

    Hi brycesteiner,

     

    I'm sorry to hear you are having this issue with your Finder settings. If you are able to change the settings for a session but they appear to reset to defaults when you restart, it may be worth trying a permissions repair from Disk Utility, as outlined in the following article:

     

    Repair disk permissions with Disk Utility - Apple Support

     

    Regards

  • by brycesteiner,

    brycesteiner brycesteiner Oct 9, 2015 2:49 PM in response to brenden dv
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 9, 2015 2:49 PM in response to brenden dv

    That was a good idea but it didn't help. Finder still turns off the sidebar every time I restart.

     

    I also found out I don't have to restart for it to screw up. Just log out and log back in and everything is back.

     

    Could it have something to do with the Mac server running only SMB? AFP is turned off. Though the other computers connecting don't seem to have the problem. They are all running El Capitan.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Oct 10, 2015 11:22 AM in response to brycesteiner
    Level 9 (71,175 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 10, 2015 11:22 AM in response to brycesteiner

    Finder

     

    Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

     

    Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J.  When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder.  Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.  Move the .plist to your desktop.

     

    Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

     

    If the same, return the .plist to where you got it  from, overwriting the newer one.

     

    Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

  • by brycesteiner,

    brycesteiner brycesteiner Oct 10, 2015 7:28 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 10, 2015 7:28 PM in response to Eric Root

    I've already deleted the .plist preference file (like the first post mentions) and it made no difference.

     

    Perhaps I should just reinstall or maybe try upgrading to El Capitan.

  • by brycesteiner,

    brycesteiner brycesteiner Nov 4, 2015 5:18 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 4, 2015 5:18 AM in response to Eric Root

    Hello Eric,

     

    Just an update on the finder sidebar issue. If I use AFP instead of SMB it's fine. As soon as I switch back to SMB it can no longer remember to keep the sidebar open on folder windows.