janie_burmy

Q: Finder last opened doesn't work on El Capitain

Hi All

I'm having trouble with my Finder since El Capitain.

It used to show last opened spreadsheets very well but now it seems selective in what it shows. I can open something and it will show up and if I open another file from a different folder it won't show. Still on same login still on same mac still in same session.

Has anyone any ideas why it should be selective now when it used to work ok? I've not moved any of these files so nothing has changed except the operating software version.

Any help would be appreciated.

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on May 22, 2016 10:01 AM

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Q: Finder last opened doesn't work on El Capitain

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  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 22, 2016 10:07 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 22, 2016 10:07 AM in response to janie_burmy

    I've realised I've posted this in the wrong place as I have an iMac but I don't know how to move the post. Apologies, but nevertheless any help would be appreciated.

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack May 22, 2016 10:17 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (55,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 22, 2016 10:17 AM in response to janie_burmy

    You could try re-building your Finder pref and see if that helps...

    Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key and choose Library. Then go to Preferences folder and trash these files:

    com.apple.finder.plist

    com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

    EDIT: Make sure you restart after doing that and you may have to re-set a few preferences.

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack May 22, 2016 10:15 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (55,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 22, 2016 10:15 AM in response to janie_burmy

    janie_burmy wrote:

     

    I've realised I've posted this in the wrong place as I have an iMac but I don't know how to move the post. Apologies, but nevertheless any help would be appreciated.

    I'll see what I can do.

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 23, 2016 12:46 AM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 23, 2016 12:46 AM in response to macjack

    Thanks. I tried this but it didn't solve the problem and it gave me more (every item in the finder I clicked on and opened, it created a new "copy" link and said it couldn't find the file). So I reverted to the old version of Finder by returning the Finder files to their original position, which still doesn't work.

  • by macjack,

    macjack macjack May 23, 2016 7:49 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (55,709 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 23, 2016 7:49 AM in response to janie_burmy

    I've never heard of that. What happens when you startup in Safe Mode and see if the problem still occurs?

    Restart holding the "shift" key.

    (Expect it to take longer to start this way because it runs a directory check first.)

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 23, 2016 8:02 AM in response to macjack
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 23, 2016 8:02 AM in response to macjack

    Iworked out what the problem is but not why. Since El capitain in finder the search looks either 'on my mac" or on "all my files". For some reason it has recategorised a load of my folders and files and taken them out of the all my files category. So if I search, for example, it won't find it on the standard all my files search but I have to click the "on my mac" option.

    Hence why it used to work and now it doesn't.

    I don't know why it's recategorised nor how to change it back. Any ideas?

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 24, 2016 4:05 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 4:05 AM in response to janie_burmy

    When I say "on my mac" it actually said "This Mac". Does anyone know why El Capitain changed the categorisation of files and split the documents on my user between "All my files" (which is where they ALL should be) to some being "This Mac"?

     

    Apple Care don't seem to be able to figure it out either.

     

    Anyone know if its possible to down grade back to Yosemite (when I didn't have this problem)?

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E May 24, 2016 4:18 AM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (50,379 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 4:18 AM in response to janie_burmy

    All My Files is just a search on its own. It should show all files in your Home folder.

    Are the documents in question not in your home folder, but in another location on the hard drive?

    The fact that Spotlight finds them somewhere on the Mac implies that the spotlight index is functional, but that they are not actually in your Home folder.

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 24, 2016 7:08 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 7:08 AM in response to Barney-15E

    Thank you - this might be the issue, but I'm not sure how to go about finding out where the files are as I thought they were all in the same place. Certainly before El Capitain they were all categorised the same and could be found in the "All my files" area. Don't know why they would have changed, nor how to get them back to where they should be. Any ideas please?

  • by Barney-15E,Helpful

    Barney-15E Barney-15E May 24, 2016 3:02 PM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (50,379 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 3:02 PM in response to janie_burmy

    You didn't understand what I meant about All My Files being a search folder.

    All My Files isn't a location. It is a Search Folder. It finds all of your documents that are located anywhere in your Home folder. There are no actual files inside of the fictitious "All My Files" "folder".

    If you show the Path bar in the All My Files window (View Menu), select a file in All My Files and the path to the location will show at the bottom of the window.

     

    You can do the same for the files you find when you change the search location to This Mac.

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 24, 2016 2:29 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 2:29 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Thank you, but you're right . I don't understand - and I still don't. Where's the path bar? (struggling with the terminology) How can I put my files into the Home Folder (they used to come up in the All my files, but they don't since El Capitain) They are all on the same user path with the same user creator, so I don't understand why they can no longer be found.

    I thought the "this Mac' search option  would find stuff with shared properties from other Users on the Mac? Am I right? If so, then I can't understand why all the stuff on my own user can't be found by the "all my files" Home search. ?

  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 24, 2016 2:43 PM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 2:43 PM in response to Barney-15E

    Hi Barney

    I've checked the locations of both the folder that comes up in the "All my files" search and the folder that doesn't come up but that only comes up in the T"his Mac" search and they are both identical: /users/blahblah/Documents/blah Files/Blah work. Both folders are found in "macintosh HD" . So it's totally bizarre that they don't all show up in the Finder anymore. It's an ElCapitan screw up on my computer for some reason.

  • by Barney-15E,

    Barney-15E Barney-15E May 24, 2016 5:54 PM in response to janie_burmy
    Level 9 (50,379 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 24, 2016 5:54 PM in response to janie_burmy
  • by janie_burmy,

    janie_burmy janie_burmy May 25, 2016 1:12 AM in response to Barney-15E
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 25, 2016 1:12 AM in response to Barney-15E

    Thanks. I followed the instructions. That's the thing the Apple Care help desk advised me to do, which I did with them. That didn't work. I've just done it again and it hasn't worked this time either. That's if it did do a reindex. How do I actually know if it's re-indexing/done a re-index? Can you see it happening?

     

    So you see, I'm stumped. I have no idea why two folders within the same user - one can be found and the other can't. Mad

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