OS X Mavericks :: Why Does Finder Make Alias Rather Than Move File In 10.9
Sep 4, 2014
Every time I try to move a file from my application folder and move it somewhere (e.g. desktop) it makes an alias of the file(or folder) rather than letting me move the file. I rebuilt permissions and all the other Voodoo.
Info:
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), Early 2008
When I have a folder open, say downloads, in a list view, and I delete a file, the scroll bar will automatically jump to the top of the list. It's absolutely non-sensical. One of the most annoying things ever when your trying to organize a long list of files. Happens in 10.8.5 and in Mavericks on two separate computers. It's worse in 10.8.5 as sometimes it will glitch out and do it even when I am scrolling down the list. . Kind of thing that makes you want to switch to windows.
I was dragging some files from one folder to another inside the (Snow Leopard) Finder and accidentally dragged them up into the top bar of the Finder window itself. How do I remove them from this position? I can't drag them off because as soon as I click on them, they open.
my iMac doesn´t allow me to move or paste things, i mean, before this, with the mouse, i click in a folder, or a file, and i can move it like that, clicking it, but now, i can´t, and it doesn´t allow me to paste text, or words?
I want to make the files on my desk top smaller with out having to move them into a compressed file. I just want them to look really small on my desktop.
I want a game to play my favorite song when the game is supposed to be playing its own theme song. The theme song is in a sound file that is located on my computer's hard drive. The theme song sound file is in the same format as the sound file that contains my favorite song, so I don't need to convert any files. What is the easiest way to make the game think that the sound file I want the game to use is the sound file of the theme song?
I can resize columns in list view and drag them to the order that I want, but that only lasts until I close the window. If I open that folder again in (list view is the default), the column widths and arrangement return to their original configuration. How to make changes in individual folder windows and make them permanent?
I'm having trouble making a DVD from an .mp4 file. Is it possible to burn an .mp4 file to a DVD? I need such a disc to be able to play in a DVD player. I could do it in previous Mac OSX's but can't seem to on Mavericks.
Info: Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)
I have a second hard disk in my G5 that I can access by opening a finder window and clicking on my G5 in the "shared" area on the left in the sources list. However I'd simply like to make an alias to that drive on my desktop. I can't seem to do it though. I'm sure this is easy, and I did it before, but for some reason I can't seem to figure out how to do it again...
10.6.3. When I make an alias on my desktop of a folder and then drag it to my dock it'll stick there but it will open like a folder. When I click it it will open Finder and then that alias. I want it to open like Stacks do, preferably in list mode with the flyout menus. Why can't I do this? I had it in Leopard but can't get it to work in SL. I checked all my settings and can't find anywhere to create a stack from an alias. Or from anything for that matter.
I downloaded skype and then deleted it because I did not like it. I drug it to the trash, but I then searched for it in finder to make sure it was gone and an alias comes up and says alias can not open because original cannot be found. How to get rid of this alias??? If I hit delete alias it just keeps coming back up to hit again and again??
Why are alias files so big now? Before (OSX 10.3), they were rarely bigger than 1 KB, but now (OSX 10.7), they're often up to 1.6 MB! Can we do something to keep them small? As I understand it, an alias is just a pointer or reference to another file. When you open or print it, the operating system actually opens or prints the original file referenced. All that needs to be stored is the directory path to the original file, either (or both) as a full reference or a relative reference, plus its file system ID and perhaps a drive ID (in case it's moved). This should take only a few bytes. On prior Mac operating system versions (e.g., 10.3.9), these alias files were just a few hundred bytes in size, rarely over 1,400 bytes total. But now I notice that, under Mac OS 10.7, newly created alias files are always hundreds of KB large, and can typically be as huge as 1.6 MB! The custom icon only accounts for a fraction of this size. However, sometimes they can still be as small as before (only a few hundred bytes). Old aliases from a prior OS version (usually but not always) still work in opening their original file, so apparently we don't need the extra size. So, what is in these files?! I know these are analogous to "shortcut" files under MS Windows, which are not that large. Having aliases be so huge defeats the purpose of a small file reference that can be used in multiple other places. One would like to use an alias so as to not have to keep a copy of a large file. But I notice that MB-sized aliases are often created even when the original file is a tiny 1 KB file. Moreover, a larger original file might create a smaller alias than that for a smaller original file, even when both original files are in the same folder. What gives? I use aliases extensively, so as to keep references to the same original file in multiple folders, since these files fall into the multiple categories that each folder contains. By using aliases, I ensure that there is only a single "master" version that is edited when a file is opened from any of those folders. Many of the original files are pretty small, yet their aliases are many orders of magnitude bigger. This is very discouraging towards using this handy feature. Is there something I am doing wrong to end up making them so big – perhaps a system setting? What is in these files that they need to be so huge? I suppose I can use Unix symbolic link files by using a command line in Terminal, such as 'ln -s originalfile linkfile', but these are less functional, since you can't move or rename the originalfile without breaking the linkfile's association to it.
Since some time I can't overwrite files in finder. When I try to copy a file from one to another window by dragging or cmd+v there should be a dialog window with the question if I want to overwrite them.
so I am using Dropbox to keep a backup of my Documents and Pictures folder. I read several tutorials about creating symlinks and I downloaded SymbolicLinker 2.0v2.
The one problem I have is that Finder keeps telling me it's an Alias. How do I know that it's a real symlink and not just an alias?
I am creating 2 AppleScripts to automate mounting Windows shared drives on Lion Macbook Airs. The first creates an alias on the user's desktop to the user's shared drive. This is functional and doing what I want it to do. The 2nd script attempts to create a favorite to the alias in Finder's sidebar. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get this script to work.
I am attempting to create an alias on a user's desktop to a folder in a Windows network share.Here is my applescript: set user_name to (short user name of (system info))tell application "Finder" activate set myFolder to ((home as text) & "Desktop:" & user_name)select myFolder tell application "System Events" keystroke "t" using command down end tellend tell The script runs, Finder opens to the user's folder, but nothing is added to the side.
I updated my circa 2013 Macbook Air 13" to OSX Mavericks and a strange issue has started. Every time I open Finder it takes literal minutes to load the file listing, and while it loads it freezes the section where the file listing loads with whatever background it was opened over. This happens all the time, and once it finally loads, it will do the same thing if I try to go to a different folder. This renders Finder essentially useless and I have had to add a third party (forklift) app to browse and manage files.
I have a problem that when selecting a file that is either an attachment in email or is in my finder, double clicking on it fails to load the associated application successfully. For example, selecting a pdf file results in the pdf reader logo appearing on the lower bar on the screen, bounces up and down as if it is doing something, but just continues to bounce. I have to force quit it, then go to my application folder to load reader directly, and from within the reader I can then go and select the file. This isn't an application specific issue (It does it with Excel, Word etc).
It only started recently. I'm using a MBP summer 2010 with Mavericks 10.9.4. Everything else seems to work.
how to make finder NOT to show files from a specific folder in "All My Files"? See the attach - I recently installed Civilization 5 from Steam and now I have a lot of unneeded files (*.log and *.ini) shown in All My Files colder in Finder.
Does making an Alias of my movie files to point to Front Row doubles the files and take up more space in the HD? I don't understand what Alias really is.
I do a home photo editing business. One of a my clients sent me a disc that she zipped to compress because there were a lot of pictures on it. When I try to open it on my Mac Book Pro I keep getting an error message that it cannot find alias and what program do I want to use to open it. It also gives me an option to "fix alias" but it doesn't seem to work. What am I doing wrong? Why can't I open zip files on my Mac Book Pro? I should probably mention that the client also uses a Mac Book Pro and her pictures were in her iPhoto before she zipped them on a disc.
I want to create stacks for my Applications and put them in the dock by type. Utilities, Music & Video, iLife, etc. I think what I will do is make aliases for all the applications and put them in subfolders separate from the Applications folder, so then I have these 3-6 subfolders in my dock as stacks that I can display in Grid or Fan mode. And I don't have to see all my applications in one jumbled Grid and search for them.
Yes, I know Spotlight or QuickSilver could access them differently.
My question is, when I have created this duplicate system with the aliases to the apps, how do I remove the Alias (arrow) portion of the icon so that they look just like the actual icon down in the stack (or in my subfolders, etc)?
I'm trying to restore a file that was backed up last August via Time Machine. The file is a Pages document and indicates such when I find it in TM. However when I go to restore it it won't restore. If I double click on the file it just shows a blank document. I also tried to restore it by going directly in with Finder into the Time Capsle drive. Finder indicates it's a broken alias. I noticed a large number of my older back-up files have the same characteristic, not just this one file. However there are some files that look just fine. I've done a Repair using Disk Utility on the Time Capsule and it came back with "no problems".
Info: iMac (24-inch Early 2008), iOS 7.1.1, Time Machine
Why does Mac OX 10.6.8 keep making copies of a file anytime I download, copy, or move a file? It will copy, dowload or move the file, then begin making copies until I reboot. This makes it impossible to deal wit hfiles unless I want to spend a lot of time rebooting after every time, then deleting all the redundant copies.
I upgraded my MacBook Pro quad core 2.5 from Lion to Mavericks. Since then I get a LOT of beachballs when I'm using Finder. I repaired permissions, deleted com.apple.finder.plist (twice) and finally reinstalled Mavericks over the first one. Still painfully slow and lots of beachballs.
03/06/2014 18:10:13.994 launchservicesd[53]: Application App:"Finder" asn:0x0-1c01c pid:277 refs=8 @ 0x7fc8b870d950 tried to be brought forward, but isn't in fPermittedFrontApps ( ( "LSApplication:0x0-0xeb0eb pid=12980 "SecurityAgent"")), so denying. : LASSession.cp #1481 SetFrontApplication() q=LSSession 100005/0x186a5 queue [code]....
Info: MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3), Quad core 2.5GHz
I want to move Pages, Keynote and Numbers form their default location in Finder (/Applications/iWork '09) to /Applications, and still be able to update them. (When you move them, they don't update!) I want my Applications folder stack to look pretty.
Is their a .plist I can edit or something so that Software Update will recognize my iWork install and let me update?
(I know, I know, I have OCD. I'm a 'desktop perfectionist' )