The Finder is among the most customizable parts of macOS. Nonetheless, Apple’s two interrelated settings for a way folders open a Finder window don’t appear to have any impact and haven’t for years. Regardless of this, you’ll be able to take management to get the specified end result.
It’s your decision a number of of the next behaviors to occur if you double-click a folder inside a Finder window, which can differ relying on what you’re making an attempt to perform:
- Its contents substitute what you see within the Finder window.
- A brand new tab opens within the window with the double-clicked folder’s contents.
- A brand new window within the Finder opens, exhibiting the contents of the double-clicked folder.
The way it’s imagined to open folders
Should you search Apple’s assist paperwork, you discover that the corporate says you management this in two methods:
- By way of > System Settings > Desktop & Dock by selecting a worth from the “Favor tabs when opening paperwork” menu: At all times, By no means, or In Full Display.
- By way of the Finder setting in Finder > Settings within the Common tab labeled “Open folders in tabs as an alternative of latest home windows.”
The outcomes ought to be like this:
- With the Common setting “Favor tabs…” set to By no means, double-clicking ought to open folders in a brand new window; At all times, in a brand new tab; In Full Display, in a tab when you’ve gotten a window set to full-screen mode.
- With the Finder setting “Open folders in tabs…” checked, double-clicking ought to open folders in tabs, because it says; in any other case, in new home windows.
Discussion board posters and readers alike discover this isn’t the case and has by no means been. In testing, I can’t get the promised conduct to work in any respect.
However there are workarounds. Apple even hints at one on its assist web page, however its description of the way it works is inaccurate.
The way you open folders the way in which you need
No matter how you’ve gotten Desktop & Dock and Finder settings configured, right here’s how one can obtain what you need in a Finder window. It hinges on whether or not the Finder toolbar and sidebar are seen.
You possibly can change whether or not they seem through the use of View > Disguise Sidebar (Command-Choice-S) or View > Disguise Toolbar (Command-Choice-T). The sidebar can’t be proven if the toolbar is hidden.
With the toolbar and sidebar seen, right here’s how folders behave:
- Substitute the window’s contents: Double-click a folder throughout the window.
- Open the folder in a brand new window: Maintain Command and double-click a folder (Finder settings “Open folders…” unchecked).
- Open the folder in a brand new tab: Maintain Command and double-click a folder (Finder settings “Open folders…” checked).
- Open a folder in a brand new window and shut the earlier one: Maintain Choice and double-click a folder. The present window disappears, and a brand new one opens with the contents of the double-clicked folder. (The brand new folder has no energetic Again button within the toolbar.)
This adjustments if you conceal each the toolbar and the sidebar. Right here’s what your actions lead to:
- Open the folder in a brand new window: Double-click a folder throughout the window (Finder settings “Open folders…” unchecked).
- Open the folder in a brand new tab: Double-click a folder throughout the window (Finder settings “Open folders…” checked).
- Open a folder in a brand new window and shut the earlier one: Maintain Choice and double-click a folder. The present window disappears, and a brand new one opens with the contents of the double-clicked folder. (The brand new folder has no energetic Again button within the toolbar.)
The “Favor tabs” setting doesn’t appear to have any impact within the Finder.
I’ve additionally discovered that the Finder generally loses monitor of those settings. When testing the toolbar proven/hidden choices above, I found that the anticipated conduct stopped labored. I needed to maintain down Choice, click on the Finder within the Dock, and select Relaunch. Solely after forcing the Finder to relaunch did the folder conduct resume functioning as I clarify simply above.
This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Jeff.
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