Version 6.3.2 of Default Folder X is out! It adds a switch to turn off the new drag target that pops up below the menu bar when you drag files in the Finder.
Some people find it distracting, so you can now turn it off here:
The “I can’t use the menu” bug
This release also completely fixes a bug that I had apparently minimized but not eliminated in version 6.3.1. When clicking on a popup menu in Save As dialogs (usually one for choosing the file format to save in apps like Illustrator, Word and Preview) the menu would sometimes pop up and immediately go away. I wasn’t able to reproduce the problem here, so did the best I could to solve it in version 6.3.1. My “fix” resolved the issue for most people, but some Macs were still afflicted.
TL;DR
The bug is now truly fixed.
The long explanation
Fast forward to this week, and a very diligent and determined user experiencing the bug managed to narrow down the circumstances that caused it on his machine (thank you Sławek!!). And the culprit was… drum roll 🥁 … Apple’s Weather app.
Really?? Sure enough, I added the Weather icon to my menu bar, and I could finally reproduce the problem here.
Due to an interesting design choice by an Apple engineer or some sort of bug in macOS, the little app that shows the Weather icon in the menu bar actually posts redundant menu tracking notifications to the system whenever you click on a menu (yes, any menu, not just the Weather menu). As it happens, Default Folder X watches for those notifications and uses them to manage the contents of Save dialogs. In this case, it was basically being told that a menu had gone away as soon as you clicked on a popup menu button. And confusingly, Default Folder X’s response to that notification actually made the menu go away! So you’d just get a brief flicker of a menu when you clicked on “File format” in Word, Illustrator, Preview or any other app that used a popup menu.
With this now clear, I just changed Default Folder X to ignore those extra notifications being posted by Weather, and a really bizarre problem is finally solved. And to any other developers out there, watch out if you use the distributed notifications com.apple.HIToolbox.beginMenuTrackingNotification and com.apple.HIToolbox.endMenuTrackingNotification – you’ll be getting some extra menu tracking notifications if Weather is in the menu bar. Look at notification.userInfo to determine whether the notification is real or not.
Back to the Default Folder X update
Oh right, I was telling you about the new version of Default Folder X. It also works around an issue caused by a bug in Adobe’s support for the macOS Accessibility API. That resulted in Quick Look previews in file dialogs being obscured by Default Folder X’s toolbar and other controls.
As usual, this update is free for everyone who’s already bought a license for Default Folder X 6. You can get it by selecting Check for Update from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar, or by going to the What’s New page.
Version 6.3.1 of Default Folder X is ready! This release provides bug fixes on macOS 27 Golden Gate and 10.13 High Sierra (the newest and oldest supported systems). It also makes one of its drag-and-drop features more visible and easier to work with.
Whenever you begin dragging a file or folder, Default Folder X will show a little icon of a folder below the menu bar. Drag and drop the item onto this icon and you’ll get Default Folder X’s menu, letting you quickly choose a folder to receive the item you dragged.
It lets you drag and drop files without having to open a window in the Finder first.
A bug in macOS 27 Save dialogs which could make it impossible to select a file format from a popup menu has been fixed. Single-clicking on a folder in List View in file dialogs no longer opens the folder, and syncing settings over iCloud correctly updates pinned folders. Default Folder X’s Finder toolbar icons are also the correct size on Golden Gate, and a bug that broke navigation to folders on High Sierra has been fixed.
This update is free to users who have purchased a license for Default Folder X 6. You can see a full change history and download the update on the What’s New page, or by choosing “Check for Update” from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar.
Default Folder X 6.3 is available and ready for Apple’s impending release of macOS 27! This new version adds support for the Open and Save dialogs in macOS 27, as well as conforming to the many small (and welcome) changes to the macOS user interface after the debacle that was macOS 26.
This release also brings a number of new features and refinements to Default Folder X, along with some important bug fixes.
Pinning recent folders and files
You can now “pin” recent files and folders in their menus, making them stay there until you unpin them. It’s a quick, lightweight way to keep something as a “favorite” when you know you’ll only need it for a short time.
Just press the Shift key while an item is highlighted in the Recent Files, Recent Folders or Recent Apps menu. A little pin will appear next to the item (that’s what the red arrow in the image below is pointing to). The next time you use the menu, that item will be pinned to the top, and will stay there until you highlight it and hit the Shift key again.
“Where From” metadata and sorted tags
When you download something in Safari, Chrome or Firefox, macOS sets a “where from” attribute on the file, indicating the URL from which you downloaded it. Default Folder X now shows that information in its Info tab below Open dialogs:
In addition, in the Tags pane you can sort recent tags by name or date so you can find them more easily, then drag them into the tagging field.
There are also usability enhancements to Finder-click, drag-and-drop handling, Default Folder X’s AppleScript interface and more.
Bug fixes
A number of important issues have been addressed in Default Folder X 6.3, including:
Hangs when adding folders in Settings > Folders
Problems clicking on grayed-out filenames in Save dialogs when in column view
Issues updating Default Folder X’s settings at logout and when syncing via iCloud
Significant slow-downs when running the LanguageTool app
These are just some of the new features and fixes in Default Folder X 6.3. For a full list of changes and download links, head over to the What’s New page. Or if you’re already running a previous version of Default Folder X, just select “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar.
As usual, this update is free if you’ve already purchased a license for version 6 of Default Folder X. If you haven’t bought your copy yet, now’s the time! Stop wasting precious minutes getting to your files and folders – Default Folder X puts them just a mouse click or keystroke away!
Apple’s latest macOS 27 Golden Gate betas contain an assertion that crashes apps intermittently. I’ve been patiently waiting for Apple to release a fix, but in the meantime there have been over 500 crashes logged in Default Folder X as a result of this bug.
The latest beta test release of Default Folder X, version 3.6b5, works around the problem by patching Apple’s offending NSRemoteView class (thanks to JyHu in the Apple Developer Forums for coming up with this solution). Those of you running a Golden Gate beta, please update to Default Folder X 3.6b5 so the crashes stop.
This release also fixes some graphical problems when running on High Sierra (yes, DFX still supports macOS 10.13) and eliminates the “automatically download and install updates” feature in Default Folder X’s settings. I did the latter because most people never quit Default Folder X and rarely restart their Macs – waiting for that to happen before installing an update no longer makes sense. And if Default Folder X doesn’t wait, that means that it needs to pop up an alert saying that it has to restart to install the update. At that point you might as well just use the regular update mechanism which pops up an alert saying there’s an update available (and as an added benefit, shows the release notes so you know what changed). So I simply removed the “automatically download and install” option altogether.
Release notes and download links for Default Folder X 3.6b5 are on the Default Folder X Testing page.
Version 6.3 of Default Folder X is in public beta testing, delivering support for Apple’s beta release of macOS 27 Golden Gate. If you’re running a Golden Gate beta, you need to use this version of Default Folder X because version 6.2.8 doesn’t support macOS 27.
If you run into any issues, please report them immediately. In particular, if Default Folder X crashes on macOS 27 developer beta 3, please send an email to DefaultFolderX@stclairsoft.com. I’ve gotten 3 crash logs, but don’t know the circumstances around the error – I’d love to be able to reproduce it and fix it with your help!
Pinning recent folders and files
Now onto more fun topics: Default Folder X 6.3 includes a new feature! Well, it’s actually similar to a really, really old feature that appeared in ACTION Files in the late 1990’s. You can now “pin” recent files and folders in their menus, making them stay there until you unpin them. It’s a really quick, lightweight way to keep something as a “favorite” when you know you’ll only need it for a short time.
Just press the Shift key while an item is highlighted in the Recent Files, Recent Folders or Recent Apps menu. A little pin will appear next to the item (that’s what the red arrow in the image below is pointing to). The next time you use the menu, that item will be pinned to the top, and will stay there until you highlight it and hit the Shift key again.
Other changes
Version 6.3 also shows the “where from” information that Safari and other browsers add to a file when you download it. And Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature will no longer obscure windows that float over Open and Save dialogs, allowing you to use other utilities while a file dialog is open. In addition, a number of bugs and issues have been addressed, so even if you aren’t running macOS 27, it may be worth grabbing this beta.
Version 6.2.8 of Default Folder X is available now, delivering a compatibility fix for the Finder-click feature when used with Path Finder 26 and a new Finder-click capability when used with Bloom.
The Finder-click feature, which allows you to click on a Finder, ForkLift, Path Finder or Bloom window to show the contents of that window in an Open or Save dialog, no longer worked in Path Finder because of changes that CocoaTech made in the latest Path Finder 26 release. The new version of Default Folder X accommodates those changes, making Finder-click work again.
When using Finder-click with Bloom, you can now turn on Bloom’s “Enable Precise Location Detection” setting (below) to let Default Folder X “see” multiple panes in each window. Clicking on a pane will take you to the folder shown in that pane rather than the folder in the pane that currently has keyboard focus.
Advanced Settings in Bloom
Default Folder X 6.2.8 also works around a bug in macOS Tahoe that often leaves column view scrolled all the way to the left in Open and Save dialogs. In order to see and select files and folders, you have to scroll to the right every . single . time. It’s a stupid, maddening little annoyance. Default Folder X works around this by automatically scrolling the columns to the right when a file dialog opens or when you switch to a new folder.
And because of another Tahoe bug, I’ve turned off playable previews of audio and video files. The system-provided AVPlayer controller, which DFX uses to display previews of these files, has been crashing frequently on Tahoe. The issue appears to be a problem with the player drawing SF Symbol images for the playback controls. When they can’t be displayed (it looks like the SF Symbol library is corrupted or unreadable on some Macs), the AVPlayer just aborts the entire host app – which means that Default Folder X just suddenly quits. To avoid the possibility of this happening, Default Folder X will just show static previews of audio and video files until Apple fixes the problem.
If you want to live dangerously, you can turn playable previews back on in Default Folder X by holding down the Option key and choosing Settings from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar. You’ll get this Additional Settings sheet – just turn on the “Show playable audio and video previews” checkbox and you’re good to go.
The rest of the changes in Default Folder X 6.2.8 are fixes for bugs that have been discovered in the past couple of months. These range from little annoyances to possible crashes, so I recommend that all Default Folder X users update – the update is free if you’ve already purchased a license for version 6.
All of the fixes are detailed in the change history shown on the What’s New page or when you choose Check for Update from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar.
Version 6.2.7 of Default Folder X was released a few days ago, fixing some nagging problems in Save dialogs. The widened edit field for entering filenames was misbehaving, causing all text in the text field to be selected after using Default Folder X’s toolbar. It could also lose keyboard focus, forcing you to click in it or press the Tab key to resume editing the filename. And if you started typing before Default Folder X’s controls appeared, it would occasionally lose keystrokes. All these issues have been addressed, and I strongly recommend that everyone install this update so things work smoothly again for you.
In addition to fixing Save dialogs, this release adds a new contextual menu to the Finder for creating aliases, and sorts the menus in the Actions pane below Save dialogs so it’s easier to find the right script, workflow or shortcut. It also fixes a compatibility issue with the text expansion utility aText, and addresses problems with Default Folder X failing to open folders in the Finder on some systems.
This update is free if you’ve purchased a license for Default Folder X 6. Please update by downloading the new release from the What’s New page, or by choosing Check for Update from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar.
What happened to version 6.2.6?
I neglected to post about version 6.2.6 last month, which also fixed a number of issues – my apologies for that. It basically corrected a number of bugs that occurred infrequently, as well as adding a “Skip” button when you run into duplicate items while copying or moving multiple files or folders. Oh, and it sped things up in Open and Save dialogs.
Those changes are all rolled into 6.2.7, along with its bug fixes, so you’ll hopefully see less frequent updates. At least until we have to deal with macOS 27 betas 🙄
Version 6.2.5 of Default Folder X is available. While the release notes are fairly short, there’s quite a bit of depth to what’s been addressed.
First the easy ones: Bloom‘s developer has added a way for Default Folder X to reveal files and folders in Bloom — the new release of Default Folder X takes advantage of this. If you hold down the Command key and select any item from one of Default Folder X’s menus, it’ll reveal that item instead of opening it. If you’ve got Bloom selected as a substitute for the Finder in your DFX settings, it can now do so in Bloom.
The other important change is that Default Folder X is once again capable of opening your Applications folder in the Finder. In the latest release of macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple changed the Finder so that if you give it a URL to the Applications folder (file:///Applications), it just ignores it. I’m not sure if this is intentional (some kind of security measure?) of if it’s a bug, since asking it to open the Applications folder by supplying the path in AppleScript still works. At any rate, Default Folder X sidesteps the problem by not asking the Finder to open it via a URL.
<RANT>
Another “fix” in version 6.2.5 is enabling the OK button in Default Folder X’s license entry dialog even if you leave the Name field blank. This was necessitated by the fact that Tahoe’s Liquid Glass UI has such poor contrast that it’s virtually impossible to see that there IS a box there to enter your name.
So now you can enter your license number, click OK, and be scolded for not entering your name correctly. What progress! At least confused people won’t be stuck there wondering why the OK button is disabled.
</RANT>
Aside from enabling support for Enfocus Griffin, the rest of the changes in Default Folder X 6.2.5 are fixes for crashes that have come in through its automated crash reporter. The exciting bit is that a number of the crashes could be traced back to a couple of small bugs deep in Default Folder X’s handling of Open and Save dialogs. While the crashes were very few and far between (experienced by less than half a dozen users each), I’m very happy to have fixes in place to eliminate that little bit of unreliability.
As usual, this update is free for licensed Default Folder X 6 users. Just choose Check for Update from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar or visit the What’s New page to see the full release notes and download the update.
Default Folder X 6.2.4 is available, and despite the minor bump in the version number, there are some significant improvements.
New services in Finder contextual menus
There are new commands in the Finder’s contextual menu:
Default Folder X: Copy
Default Folder X: Move
Default Folder X: Contents
They let you use Default Folder X’s hierarchical menus to Copy or Move selected files and folders, or pop up a hierarchical menu showing the Contents of a selected folder so you can navigate within it. Here’s the Copy command in action (you may have to click on the image if your browser doesn’t auto-play animated GIFs):
These are really useful when organizing files or digging into deep folder hierarchies in the Finder. The one complication is that you have to explicitly turn the commands on before you can use them.
To enable these new Default Folder X “services,” go to System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services > Files and Folders, then look for the Default Folder X commands and turn on the checkboxes next to them:
If you’ve got fewer than 5 commands enabled in the Files and Folders category, they’ll be listed directly in the Finder’s contextual menu when you Control-click (or right-click) on a selected file or folder. If you’ve got 5 or more services enabled, they’ll be listed in a Services submenu. And yeah, I wish they weren’t so buried in System Settings – that’s a lot of clicks just to get to the place where you manage them.
Always-On Path Display in File Dialogs
In Tahoe and Sequoia, holding down the Option key in an Open or Save dialog briefly shows the path of the currently selected item:
Default Folder X now offers the option to have the path permanently displayed. Just turn on the option here:
If you use it, you’ll notice that the path isn’t actually always on – if you mouse over it to select something in the file listing, or if there’s a selected item underneath it in the list, the path will hide itself until it’s no longer in your way. On the other hand, if you actually want to click on one of the intermediate folders in the path to go to it, hold down the Option key to prevent the path from hiding.
More New Stuff!
If you’re an AppleScript user (which usually means you’ve been using a Mac for more than 20 years 🙄), the new menu-based Move, Copy and Contents services I described above are also scriptable. In Default Folder X’s AppleScript dictionary, you’ll find the new verbs MoveUsingMenu and CopyUsingMenu, plus the ShowMenu verb has been expanded to take a folder as an argument so that you can pop up a hierarchical menu showing that folder’s contents.
Also, keyboard shortcuts in Default Folder X can now include the Fn (Globe) key. And finally, if you hold down the command key while choosing a folder set from the Folder Sets submenu, Default Folder X will switch to the new folder set, then pop its menu back up so you can select a file or folder in that folder set.
Bug Fixes
I’ve fixed a slew of little issues that we’ve come across in the last month. Gone are the graphical glitches in the path menu at the top of file dialogs and the slightly jagged corners and incorrect corner radii on some windows (yeah, all those differently rounded corners in Tahoe are confusing for developers too).
Compatibility issues with PasteBot, Paste and other apps that pop up a window to insert text have been fixed. I worked around a bug in Adobe apps that was causing visual artifacts and strange behavior in Open and Save dialogs. And problems with Default Folder X “seeing” QSpace Pro windows will be resolved as soon as QSpace Pro is updated.
When you’ve got “Make the filename editing field wider” turned on in Save dialogs, you’ll no longer have to click twice on items in the sidebar or on the Delete button. Plus the numpad Enter key will work consistently and the Option key will display the path of the current folder as it should.
And finally, the built-in crash logging has uncovered a few rare (and some very weird) crashes that have been addressed in this update.
Getting the Update
As usual, this update is free if you’ve purchased a license for Default Folder X version 6 – just select “Check for Update” from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar. Or if you’re not already running Default Folder X (and are thereby wasting your time futzing with files and folders) go to the What’s New page for download links and a full change log.
