Mojave Finder Tabs Reopen

I agree with all on this thread who've stated High Sierra behaves in this manner:

1. 1. have three Finder tabs open;
   2. mouse click Finder's red-circle-X to close it; or press cmd-q to close Finder completely;
   3. mouse click Finder dock icon;

4a. Finder opens a new window containing three tabs.

I, further, agree with all on this thread who've stated that the behavior of #4, above, is different in Mojave, e.g.:

4b. Finder opens a new window containing only on tab.

I've found a solution that appears, at first blush, to work for me in Mojave.

It comes to us courtesy of the user Eagle on apple.stackexchange.com:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/100433/finder-reopen-last-closed-window/100435

Eagle states:

• • Click on top-left Apple icon
  • Then click on System Preferences
  • Then General
  • And then uncheck the box saying, "Close windows when quitting an app"
  • It will save your session of Finder and when you restart your system it will show you last opened tabs of the session

This appears to work for me when I perform my original workflow, above, items 1-4a.

Note that it also appears to reopen the tabs to their prior directory/drive locations, if present.

I had not tested that behavior in High Sierra; so I can't speak to that whether it's consistent or not.

Further note that if a tab showed contents of a directory/drive that has been removed/unmounted between Finder sessions.

Finder simply does not open that tab; but opens all other previous tabs that it is able.

I've not tested how this System Preferences->General change effects, or afflicts, other applications from session to session.

So, as you'd surmise...YMMV.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

FWIW, when Apple Developer Relations themselves have previously classified and confirmed this changed behavior is a bug (the last time they unintentionally broke it ~4 years ago), and then the bug occurs again a few years later, I think it's probably safe and correct to call it a bug until they chime in and say they've changed their minds. The below is a straight copy/paste direct from Apple's response on that bug report:

"There is a difference between clicking on the finder icon in dock vs cmd-n .. (depending on whether you have multiple tabs). There is a known bug with that workflow."

I think you're completely missing the point of the thread. The issue is not that we don't know how to or can't open tabs, it's that if you close the whole Finder window by using the red circle, the next time you open a Finder window, the Finder no longer remembers and re-displays the tabs that were already open from the most-recently closed window. This is a bug vs previous Finder behavior.

Try Command-Shift-Backslash. It should open a view to see all tabs (you probably only have one tab) and have a big plus sign that allows you to open another tab. They hid that feature pretty well, huh.

FWIW…

"There is a difference between clicking on the finder icon in dock vs cmd-n .. (depending on whether you have multiple tabs). There is a known bug with that workflow."

And now there is no difference so they addressed the bug they were referring to.

This is a bug vs previous Finder behavior.

No, you are missing the point. It is a change in the Finder's previous behavior. Something isn't a bug just because you don't like the change.

They retain them just fine unless you close the Finder window they are in with the red close button.

Yes it did, which in IMHO was a bug. In all browsers for example, what do you think happens if you open a number of tabs and then click the close button and open a new window? Or, what if you have a Finder window open and you want to close all open tabs? You can click the "x" for each tab or click the red close window button and close them all at one time.

You can. Press the option key.

I just wish I could RIGHT-CLICK on a folder in finder and it give me the option to choose "OPEN IN NEW WINDOW" or "OPEN IN NEW TAB" and not just one or the other?! It used to give you the option to CHOOSE, but you can only set one or the other in your settings now in MOJAVE. :/

Thanks, but holding the option key does nothing.

Currently, I have multiple tabs open on one finder window, and another finder window with more tabs open.

In my finder preferences, the box "Open folders in tabs instead of new windows" is not selected so when I right click on a sub folder that I would like to open in a tab, It only gives me the option (at top) to "Open in New Window". When I select that box in the preferences, then I can right click and it gives the "Open in New Tab". It's like you can only do one or the other. Make sense?

Also, If I double click on an external drive icon on my desktop, it opens as a new tab instead of a separate window and does that every time regardless of that box in the preferences is selected or not. I CAN right click on the ext. drive listed in the Finder side menu showing all drives, and if the box is not selected, then it will show "Open in New Window". Flipside, if that box is selected, then it shows, "Open in New Tab".

It's NOT too major of a deal, because I can click and drag that tab to create a new window. It's just that, before, I had a choice and I havent figured out what changed and where/how to fix it.

I know that's a lot, and I apologize for all the details, but wanted to try and help you understand what's happening.

It's all good either way, and I appreciate everyone's insight and suggestions on what to try, if you guys might know anything.

THANKS SO MUCH! :) #MayTheForceBeWithYou

Gave it a try. Marginal improvement, but doesn't resolve the core issue. As soon as you click the red x and open Finder again even with this change, you loose all your tabs.

The lack of any kind of response from Apple on this is extremely disappointing. They've released two updates to Mojave recently and a fix for this issue has not been included.

dialabrain, My reality tells a different tale, sir.

When I hold the command key and press the 'Q' key, Finder terminates.

I could screen scrape, as evidence, if you wish;

but, perhaps it's my failure to use more succinct terminology.

It's really not worth arguing about - no disrespect intended.

Sorry to hear that Eagle's workflow doesn't suffice for some of you.

It worked beautifully for myself and 40 of my engineers, all running rMBP with macOS 10.14.3.

I see "Apple recommended" and i'm just shocked.

For WHAT reason Apple removed it? I just can't imagine what was wrong with this feature. And why there is no setting? It's so hard to give us choice? This is most stupid thing in Mojave. I'm so disappointed.

That's not a solution, finder will be reseted after you shutdown/reset the computer.

I can't believe Apple remove this feature...

Also I feel like Finder is a bit laggy after upgrading to Mojave, maybe because its behaviour changed? or because of the blurry transparent background?