keriah

Q: List View column resizing in El Capitan

This topic appears frequently under other MacOS discussions but, so far, I can't find it addressed for El Capitan -- is there now a fix for this?

 

Summary:  In Finder's List View the column sizes set for (say) the "Name" column are not remembered.  When I reopen the folder window in List View the dimensions of the window are remembered but not the width of the leftmost, "Name" column.  It is scrunched down to allow the columns to the right to remain in view.  I've tried the various "fixes" discussed over the several years but they don't seem to work in El Capitan.  (E.g., holding down the option key while dragging the size of the Name column to be wider).  At this point the only solution appears to be to size the whole window wide enough for all the columns to show -- then the Name column will stay wide. 

 

In the past, the rightmost columns could be dragged 'off screen' and that setting would be remembered, on a folder by folder basis.  Is there some way to accomplish this under El C.?

MBair, MBPro, Mini, iStuff

Posted on Oct 2, 2016 1:25 PM

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Q: List View column resizing in El Capitan

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  • by Allen A,

    Allen A Allen A Oct 3, 2016 6:16 PM in response to keriah
    Community Specialists
    Oct 3, 2016 6:16 PM in response to keriah

    Hello keriah,


    Thank you for asking about the Finder list view sizes not remaining as selected here in the Apple Support Communities. I understand how it is to have your settings all configured and ready to be used each and every day. I have tested this in El Capitan, and it remembered the column width in this Mac. This means there may be an issue somewhere within your operating system or some other data. I am happy to help check this with you.


    The first thing we want to ensure is that all your data is safe. You can make a backup using Time Machine and an external hard drive. Use this article for help making a backup for your Mac: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac.


    Once your data is safe, I recommend you boot into safe mode. Safe mode will tell us if the issue is related to a startup item or plugins, and sometimes is all that is necessary to correct some problems. When you boot to safe mode, log in to your account and check if the issue is also occurring in safe mode or not. This help article may help you with the steps for safe mode: Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up. If everything is working properly again, but then is not working after you restart the Mac to leave safe mode and boot back into your user account, please check the section titled "If an issue doesn't happen in safe mode" for troubleshooting steps.


    If the issue is also happening in safe mode, you want to test this in another test administrator user account on your Mac. A test user will let us know if the issue is isolated to your account, or system wide. Please check this help article: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac. If the issue is being experienced in the test user also, then we need to check the section titled "If an issue happens in more than one user account" from the article provided above which will leads you to this help article: Mac OS X: How to troubleshoot a software issue.


    Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.
  • by keriah,

    keriah keriah Oct 4, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Allen A
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 4, 2016 10:59 AM in response to Allen A

    Thanks, Allan

     

    Since you say this is NOT happening for you, under ElC, it would be good to confirm that we are both talking about the very same behavior.  (I did, FWIW, do all your outlined steps on my ElCapitan Mac and the behavior was the same under all variations: for my native system, under Safe Mode, and under a newly-created Admin. account.)

     

    Here is what I'm experiencing, comparing the behavior under ElC and under Mavericks (on a 2nd Mac).

     

    Under Mavericks, I can push some columns off the right side of the window and the view remains that way each time I open the folder, like this:

    consistent view under Mavericks.png

    As you see (scroll bar along the bottom), there are many more columns that are active for this window but they are all off-screen in this window view.  Scrolling to the right shows those columns:

    scrolling right.png

    Now I move a copy of this folder onto my ElC Mac.  When I first open the window, all the active columns are scrunched so that all columns are in view.  Next I make the Name column wider, so that columns to its right are pushed off screen (out of the window view).  Yes, there is even a scroll bar along the window's bottom:

    ElC Before.png

    Then I close the window and reopen it.  The columns are scrunched together so that all the active columns for this window view are visible (& there's no scroll bar along the bottom):

    ElC After.png

    The only way I can make the Name column wider is to (a) make the window physically wider and (b) make the other columns as physically narrow as they allow.  Then all the settings (window dimension and column specs.) are faithfully remembered between opening & closing of the window.

     

    Are you saying that you ARE able to push columns out of view in a window's List View and have them remain out of view each time you reopen the folder?  TIA

  • by Eric~F,

    Eric~F Eric~F Oct 4, 2016 11:49 AM in response to keriah
    Community Specialists
    Oct 4, 2016 11:49 AM in response to keriah

    Hello keriah,


    Thanks for continuing our troubleshooting here in the Apple Support Communities. Thank you for also clarifying some info about your issue.


    I was able to retest this, and you are correct, when pushing the size outside the standard window size, whenever I close the window and reopen it, I have to manually adjust the size again. Another thing I noticed is that you said you are copying this folder TO the Mac. I believe some settings may be copying over for wherever you are bringing this folder in, but I did experience the same things as you did once I pushed the column sizes outside the normal boundaries. One thing I was able to do is to enlarge the window. It seems that OS X El Capitan will allow you to keep the size of your columns, as long as they do not exceed past the window size (requiring the scroll bar), no matter the size. I believe a work around then would be to enlarge the window to have all your columns showing, with the name as large as you need it, making sure there are no scroll bars. When you close the window and reopen it, your column sizes should remain.


    I apologize for misunderstanding your original explanation. Since this relates to the native operating system, and we are always looking for ways to improve our products and services, we welcome your feedback. If you have any suggestions please use this link: macOS Product Feedback. That is the only link available for the operating system since we have moved past El Capitan and are currently using macOS Sierra, but this change could occur with any operating system version.


    Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.
  • by keriah,

    keriah keriah Oct 4, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Eric~F
    Level 1 (29 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 4, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Eric~F

    I was able to retest this, and you are correct, when pushing the size outside the standard window size, whenever I close the window and reopen it, I have to manually adjust the size again.

    That's good.  At least I now know that this is something that changed between Mavericks (where it works as I'm used to) and El Capitan (which is new on my Mini).

     

    Another thing I noticed is that you said you are copying this folder TO the Mac. I believe some settings may be copying over for wherever you are bringing this folder in, ...

    Yes, I copied the test folder from my MBAir (running Mavericks) to my Mini (running ElC).  As for settings being copied over the folder copy actually lost some settings -- it didn't have all the columns that were 'checked' in the original (Mavericks) version.  And, of course, it had lost my folder & file colorings (which is why my main machine is still running Mavericks).

     

    Since this relates to the native operating system, and we are always looking for ways to improve our products and services, ...

    So you're an Apple person?  (I thought Apple ignored the discussions in these forum threads!  Good to hear otherwise.)

     

    And, yes, I'll give feedback.  Since this behavior worked one way for years (through, at least, Mavericks) and is now missing -- and since the presence of the scroll bars at the window's bottom suggests that the idea of column's out of view is provided for -- I'm hoping this is a 'bug' that will be addressed in some future OS rev.

     

    Thanks for sticking with me to answer my question.

  • by Eric~F,

    Eric~F Eric~F Oct 4, 2016 4:11 PM in response to keriah
    Community Specialists
    Oct 4, 2016 4:11 PM in response to keriah

    Hello keriah,


    You are most welcome. We're happy we were able to help sort this out with you, and provide the feedback option.