Favorites are missing from sidebar in Save/Open dialogues (El Capitan)

Question

Level 1

62 points

Favorites are missing from sidebar in Save/Open dialogues (El Capitan)

The Issue

The issue is that the sidebar of all SAVE / OPEN windows is missing the favorites list. Some people also report they are missing in the sidebar of Finder itself, but in my case that was not the issue.

In some cases rebooting seems to temporarily "fix" the issue, only for it to return a little later.

Some people have suggested deleting the Finder preferences plist file ( ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist). But people report this does not fix it, or that it's only fixed temporarily. Deleting this file also kills all favorites from Finder, which means one has to recreate the list.

I find it hard to believe such a serious UI bug has been occurring since 10.11.0, which was released over 1 year ago.

Does anyone have a legitimate solution to this issue?

Further Background Info

This issue seems to be relatively widely reported. There are numerous instances reported here on the Apple Forums, although I have seen not meaningful discussion about the issue and permanent solutions.

It is also relatively widely reported on other websites (blogs, etc.). Various solutions are suggested, but many people report these don't fix it, or only fix it very temporarily.

As far as I can tell, this issue has been occurring for people in all versions of El Capitan, from 10.11.0 through to 10.11.6 (the most current, as of this posting).

A small sample of the instances reported here on Apple Forums:

Links in finder dialog sidebar missing

Favorite folders missing when saving as in every software program

Re: Missing Favorites or Shortcuts in Sidebar

Some references to this issue on other sites:

https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/3z660v/bugmissing_favorites_in_finder_and_ applications/

http://snewsi.com/id/15422981943

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/208205/file-open-dialog-is-missing-side bar-items

This issue is relatively widely reported online. I've searched through the Bug Reporter and no results were returned, which seems hard to believe.

The Finder instance handles Open/Save dialogues is missing the Favorites.

Often the Sidebar is hidden. It can be restore to view, but then the Favourites are missing. People have been reporting this issue online since 10.11.0

Sometimes in Finder itself this also occurs.

Steps to Reproduce:

Use the Open/Save from within any application.

Side bar is missing all favorites. Only items seen are the DEVICES.

Expected Results:

There should be a list of FAVORITES in the sidebar of all Open/Save windows.

Actual Results:

Sidebar is missing the FAVORITES list.

Version:

10.11.6 (issue is reported to occur in all El Capitan versions)

Notes:

Report here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/208205/file-open-dialog-is-missing-side bar-items

Reported here: https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/3z660v/bugmissing_favorites_in_finder_and_ applications/

Reported here:

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), 256 SSD, 1TB HDD, 8GB RAM, Matt 17"

Posted on Aug 8, 2016 5:14 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ArtessaDonnett

Level 1

13 points

Sep 26, 2017 8:55 PM in response to RVRoadieT

I am having the same issue. And regardless of what that person is saying, this is definitely a BUG. There thousands of people in different threads online having the same issue. Here's a thread http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/208205/file-open-dialog-is-missing-side bar-items

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Answer 2

Jun 21, 2017 6:28 PM in response to InspiredLife

I'm on Mac Pro 10.11.6 and suddenly lost all the favorites from both the Finder windows and the Save As dialogues from apps. I went to Preferences, and only a few of my previous favorites were there, and they were unchecked. I checked them all and relaunched the Finder to save. Now I still lack all the old Favorites.

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Answer 3

Jun 22, 2017 5:48 PM in response to InspiredLife

I have this issue open with Apple tech support now. They are saying it is a permissions related issue, and have me resetting the permissions on all files within my home directory using Get Info->Apply to all, and then using diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` to reset them again.

They forgot that this would also go through my 2TB dropbox, so it is taking many hours to run. I complained that this isn't focusing on my finder's files, and tech support said that Engineering told them these are the only allowed commands to run.

So far, it hasn't helped anything. I'll update once we get to the next steps.

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Answer 4

Jun 30, 2017 7:18 AM in response to InspiredLife

I have Scrivener also, but didn't have the problem with Favorites not showing in Finder when saving from other applications, until I installed Sierra as a clean install then migrated my data from a Yosemite backup

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Answer 5

Jun 30, 2017 7:21 AM in response to JDW1

I have the same problem. When I upgraded to Seirra 10.12.5 from Yosemite, I did a clean install, then migrated the data from my Yosemite backup. I see my Favorites in the Finder window but not from the Save/Open windows. I saw a post that mentioned Scrivener - I use Scrivener also.

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Answer 6

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Jul 4, 2017 2:00 PM in response to InspiredLife

Well, for many months now my computer has continued to have this issue. It's fine after a reboot, but after some amount of uptime (perhaps hours, perhaps a few days... it varies) the issue reoccurs. It's only in save/open windows, and it's a royal pain in the arse.

I've since gone through a number of OS updates, and for have been on 10.12.5 since it was released. The issue persists.

Having access to only my three drive mounts in the shortcut panel is proving a real time-waster.

I see a lot of other people have joined in on this discussion since I first posted it. Have any of you found a permanent solution?

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Answer 7

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Jul 4, 2017 2:03 PM in response to Michael Williams10

Hi Michael. Would you please elaborate on what you mean by "Get Info -> Apply to all". What specifically are you issue the Get Info command on? You primary OSX Installation drive? Or something else?

Thanks.

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Answer 8

Jul 18, 2017 5:36 AM in response to InspiredLife

I don't know if it's permanent (I suspect not since the cause is unknown) but opening Finder / Preferences / Sidebar and un-ticking and re-ticking the favourites causes them to be repopulated in the Save and Open dialogues. In my case they were already ticked and hadn't vanished from the main Finder window but un-ticking and re-ticking seems to force a re-read of the plist file (?). Maybe there's a working cached version somewhere in an array and it gets overwritten (?) or there's some other mechanism that causes it to ignore that section of the plist until it flags up as "changed".

Anyway, that seems to be a workaround and it's not too onerous, depending on how often you see the issue - for me it's only once every few weeks or less.

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Answer 9

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 26, 2017 8:48 PM in response to mister_saxon

mister_saxon wrote:

"I don't know if it's permanent"

So far it seems to be.

" opening Finder / Preferences / Sidebar and un-ticking and re-ticking the favourites causes them to be repopulated in the Save and Open dialogues. "

Thanks for sharing this. I was hopeful. But this seems to have no affect in my case. At least not in the open/save window I am looking at in this moment. What's more, this unfortunately resulted in messing up the sort order of my favourites in Finder. All the system favs are now at the bottom of the list, and my personal favs at the top. I prefer them to be sorted differently from that. Oh well...

Cheers... J

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Answer 10

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 26, 2017 8:52 PM in response to Michael Williams10

Michael Williams10 wrote:

I have this issue open with Apple tech support now. They are saying it is a permissions related issue, and have me resetting the permissions on all files within my home directory using Get Info->Apply to all, and then using diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` to reset them again.

So far, it hasn't helped anything. I'll update once we get to the next steps.

Did this fix it for you?

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Answer 11

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 26, 2017 8:59 PM in response to InspiredLife

So, over a year later, and this issue still occurs. My system now runs 10.12.6. Still, from time to time the favorites vanish. A system restart is the only way I've found to get them back.

I see 354 people have marked my question as one they have too.

There's also a post here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/208205/file-open-dialog-is-missing-sid ebar-items

raising the same issue. It's had 113,112 (as of Sept 27 2017) views.

For sure sounding like a bug to me.

Here's hoping High Sierra resolves this. Although none of the many updates since Aug 2016 until now have fixed it, so I won't be holding my breath.

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Answer 12

InspiredLife Author

Level 1

62 points

Sep 26, 2017 9:09 PM in response to JDW1

Huh. lol. Yeah... 😕

It was after that last major upgrade (to Sierra) that I seem to recall this (and a host of other issues I had to resolve) began.

As per normal, I'll be waiting a few months before doing a major upgrade. Whilst the propeller-heads at Apple iron out the signifiant bugs and issues High Sierra is bound to have lurking within it, and whilst apps get up to play with High Sierra compatibility.

So, as it's almost Oct, I'll likely report back in early 2018 after I update the OS.

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Answer 13

JDW1

Level 1

65 points

Sep 26, 2017 9:13 PM in response to InspiredLife

Drat, you're just like me. 🙂 We both intelligently wait a few months before updating our OS! Oh well, maybe somebody else won't wait and can then provide us feedback on whether this bug is fixed in High Sierra!

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Answer 14

Dec 2, 2017 10:15 AM in response to InspiredLife

I can't upgrade past El Capitian with this early 2008 MBP. I tried the unchecking all items in the Finder preferences under sidebar, relaunched finder, rechecking finder preferences sidebar items, relaunch finder. That didn't seem to fix the problem. I then did a safe boot and logged in, then shutdown and restart. I now do have favorites in open/save dialog boxes.

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Answer 15

Jun 21, 2017 6:35 PM in response to dialabrain

I tried to install this but couldn't. It says my root disk doesn't meet the requirements.

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