Default Folder X 5.7.8 is available, largely thanks to a single individual. Default Folder X user Andrea Bornstein discovered that browsing Time Machine backups caused Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature* to stop working.
I’ve been getting sporadic reports of Finder-click failing for quite a while, but was never able to isolate the cause of it. I tried numerous fixes based on the information I could collect from people that reported the issue (and discovered a few weird edge cases along the way), but the reports kept coming. I didn’t know how to reproduce the problem on a Mac here, so I never had a way to test locally. And people that reported it said it would come and go, so I couldn’t rely on them to test potential fixes either. Very frustrating. 😡
Then Andrea’s careful observation gave me a reliable way to make it happen, and I could finally test and debug a true fix. Hurray for smart, detail-oriented customers! 😎
And what an odd bug it was (and still is) – not in Default Folder X, but in the Finder. Default Folder X uses the macOS Accessibility API to gather information from the Finder – it’s essentially a way to programmatically say “hey Finder, give me a list of your windows”. Normally the Finder happily complies, but if an app asks that question after you’ve been browsing Time Machine backups, the Finder just says “nothing to see here!” Luckily, there’s another way to coax that info out of the Finder, so I’ve sidestepped the bug entirely while waiting for a fix from Apple (the bug is filed as FB12199998).
So – all you folks who restore files and folders from Time Machine on a regular basis, you can reliably use Finder-click without resorting to hidden settings in Default Folder X. I’m sorry it took so long to get to the root of the problem, but honestly, it’s a pretty weird one.
And in other news, version 5.7.8 of Default Folder X also adds badged icons to the Finder-click interface. If you’re running ForkLift or Path Finder alongside the Finder, you’ll see an icon indicating which of those apps “owns” the window you’re currently hovering the mouse over. Like the ForkLift 4 icon on the folder in the screenshot above.
Choose “Check for Update” from Default Folder X’s menu in your menu bar to get the update, or download it from the Default Folder X “What’s New” page. Oh, and the update’s free, as usual.
* For those that don’t know, Default Folder X’s Finder-click feature is available in the Open and Save dialogs of any app. While in the file dialog, you can click on any open Finder window behind it, and the file dialog will switch to show the contents of that folder. This works with ForkLift and Path Finder as well as the Finder.
Version 6.0a3 brings a host of refinements to the new Quick Search feature, including support for non-roman languages and non-English-speaking locales. Searching is also more responsive, user interaction is much smoother – it just works better all around. Please give Quick Search a try and let me know what you think!
I’ve also addressed issues with the synchronization of Default Folder X’s settings between multiple Macs over iCloud. There’s still testing to be done here – mostly in terms of detecting and diagnosing iCloud configuration problems. I’d welcome more people who have an identical (or similar) file and folder structure on two different Macs and want to have your recent and favorite items up-to-date and available on both machines.
6.0a3 also brings bug fixes and support for the beta version of ForkLift 4, and support for older versions of macOS (I’ve tested as far back as Mojave so far, but it should work fine on High Sierra too). A full list of changes is on the Default Folder X Testing page, and you can download it directly here.
BinaryNights has ForkLift 4 in beta testing, and Default Folder X 5.7.7 includes updated support for it. When you’re using ForkLift, Default Folder X treats it as an equivalent of the Finder, showing ForkLift’s windows in its Finder-click feature and in its menu of Finder windows. You can also configure Default Folder X to open folders in ForkLift instead of the Finder when you choose them from its menus.
In addition, this release of Default Folder X addresses bugs, including a problem where file dialogs in the Brave browser would freeze if you were also running a Brave “shortcut” (Brave’s name for site-specific browsers that use its engine but run as separate apps). Other, less dramatic issues were also fixed, such as moving incorrectly through the history of recent folders after folders have been moved or deleted, a failure to recognize Finder windows immediately after your display has been reconfigured, and Default Folder X’s toolbar bezel not matching the light / dark theme of file dialogs on High Sierra and Mojave. Finally, several small problems in the version of Default Folder X available on Setapp have been fixed.
As usual, the full list of changes is available on the Default Folder X release page, along with download links for English, Japanese, French, German and Danish versions. Or if you’re already running Default Folder X, just select “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar to get it quickly and easily.
A new pre-release build of Default Folder X 6 is available for testing, adding Spotlight search as an option in its Quick Search window.
Quick Search will find files and folders super-fast in your recent and favorite items, but there are some occasions when you’re opening a file you don’t often access. In those cases, press Command+Shift+S and Quick Search will use Spotlight to find things instead. It’s not as fast, and matching file and folder names isn’t as smart, but you’ll be able to open what you want even if Default Folder X hasn’t seen it recently.
This release also smooths the flow of moving around and searching subfolders in Quick Search, refines the icons used in Default Folder X’s toolbar and Quick Search menu, enables Command+Shift+G correctly in Save As dialogs, and addresses other bugs in the previous alpha release.
Details and download links are on the Default Folder X Testing page. If you’re already running an earlier pre-release build of Default Folder X 6, you can just choose “Check for Update” from its menu to download the new build.
Version 6 of Default Folder X is gaining steam! I just posted the first alpha release, meaning it’s close to being feature-complete. There’s now a dedicated page explaining the new features, so I won’t rehash them again here. I do have to say I find the Quick Search feature and expanded filename fields to be essential now that I’ve been using them 😁
HistoryHound 2.3.4 is available, updating our “personal web search” app with support for the Arc browser. This release also improves the contextual menus shown when you Control+click in HistoryHound’s search results or index window, and fixes an issue with indexing the content of some websites.
If you’re not familiar with HistoryHound, it’s an app that allows you to search the content of web pages you’ve visited or bookmarked. It creates a search index based on your web browsing history (even if you use multiple browsers), letting you find pages you’ve seen before while maintaining your privacy by keeping all data and searches on your Mac.
Version 5.7.6 of Default Folder X is available for download, offering a number of fixes and improvements.
A new addition is its ability to match the light or dark theme used in the current file dialog. If you’re running a photography, video or design app that offers a custom ‘dark mode’ even when the rest of your system is running in light mode, Default Folder X’s toolbar will no longer pop out at you in glaring white – it now matches the look of the dialog it surrounds. Yeah, it’s about time 🙄, but it took a – um – “creative” approach to finally get it implemented.
Other improvements included fixes for a number of little annoyances. Finder-click was broken in a few rare scenarios and that’s been fixed, folder switching is improved (yet again), and compatibility issues with SPSS, Raycast, SpeedDock, GraphicConverter and Luminar Neo have all been corrected. And the error that could occur when creating two new nested folders in a file dialog in quick succession has finally been eliminated.
A full list of changes is available on the Default Folder X release page, along with download links for English, Japanese, French, German and Danish versions. Or if you’re already running Default Folder X, just select “Check for Update” from its menu in your menu bar to get the latest and greatest.
I’m pretty excited about this preview release of Default Folder X 6 – it includes two new features that have really boosted productivity for me personally.
First, you can now drag and drop files and folders onto Default Folder X’s icon in your menu bar to copy or move them anywhere. Default Folder X pops up its main menu so you can show it where the dropped items should go. Select a folder from your Favorites, Recent Folders, or anywhere in the filesystem by navigating with DFX’s hierarchical menus. Once you choose a folder, the item is moved or copied, and the destination folder is opened to show you the item’s new location.
Dragging a Read Me file to Default Folder X’s icon, then using its menu to move it to the Sample Files folder.
Second, Default Folder X’s new keyboard-driven mode has gotten smarter. To review a bit, there’s a “quick search” window that pops up with a keyboard shortcut. You type in a few letters, and it shows you all your recently-used folders, files and apps that match what you typed. For me, this gets me to 90% of the items I want with a couple of keypresses.
Now, however, the list of results shows a “>” button next to folders. Clicking on that or hitting the Right Arrow key on the keyboard “drills down” into that folder to show its contents, and then typing a few more letters matches items within the folder.
As before, hitting the Return key opens whatever is selected, but now you can also Control-click a result to get a contextual menu so you can Open, Reveal or Copy the item’s path. If it’s a folder, the contextual menu also includes a Contents submenu that lets you more rapidly descend into subfolders using Default Folder X’s hierarchical menus.
Honestly, the best way to understand it is just to try it for yourself. Download the latest build and launch it. The accompanying Read Me file contains more details on setting up and using the new features, though they pretty much just work. Hit Command+Option+Spacebar to invoke the quick search window – that’s all you really need to know.
I released a quick bug-fix of Default Folder X a week ago (sorry for not posting then, but I’ve been sick). Version 5.7.5 fixed two bugs:
The Finder-click feature wouldn’t recognize open Finder windows in some Mac configurations. This was due to a change I made in a previous update where I refactored an underlying library and made the criteria tighter for “matching” an open window to its underlying Finder window. The change made no difference in my test cases, but there are apparently a few Desktop configurations in which the matching didn’t work. So now we’re back to the way it was.
Folder switching in Open and Save dialogs would sometimes fail on macOS 13.2 Ventura (and would stay stuck in that failure mode until you quit and relaunched Default Folder X). This was due to the fact that a bug in Ventura always returns an error for one API call, making it impossible for DFX to tell whether that call has succeeded or not. I worked around this the best I could, but Default Folder X would sometimes think the call had succeeded when it hadn’t, causing it to get stuck in an error state. This is now fixed in v5.7.5. And happily, Apple has actually fixed the underlying bug in Ventura for macOS 13.3, so the whole mess won’t be an issue in another month.
If you’re already running Default Folder X, just choose Check for Update from its menu in your menu bar to get the new version. If not, you can grab it from the Default Folder X release page.
The latest addition to the DFX6 preview is a rewritten Drag Zone, the drag and drop “shelf” that sits on the left side of Open and Save dialogs. You can now select and multi-select items, drag them to reorder them, insert new items between existing ones, etc. Previews pop up if you hover the mouse over an item. Double-clicking an item will open it. Control-clicking on an item brings up a contextual menu with options to reveal the item in the Finder, open it in the file dialog, or remove it from the drag zone.
There are also a number of fixes for issues in the previous DFX6 build – if you’re curious about all of the changes, check out the Read Me file that accompanies the app when you download it. The Read Me also includes instructions for setting up other new features, such as the keyboard-centric quick entry window, syncing preferences via iCloud, running actions after saving a file and more.
