Best Finder alternative

[MacGizmo]

New contender to the Best Finder Alternative list of apps:
Folders File Manager (foldersapp.dev)
Price is $5,99

Thanks for sharing the link. Unfortunately, the website is fairly light on features and screenshots. It appears that the only thing this does that Apple's Finder doesn't do is add the drop-down list functionality to the sidebar, and add a second column in the window when in list view. Also unfortunate is that there is no demo, and I'm not going to spend $6 to find out if there is more.

To me, while a nice little hack to the existing Finder, this is not a full-featured Finder replacement app, and certainly doesn't belong on a list of "the best."

 

[it wasnt me]

Ah, trees are rare on macOS.

 

[allan.nyholm]

Thanks for sharing the link. Unfortunately, the website is fairly light on features and screenshots. It appears that the only thing this does that Apple's Finder doesn't do is add the drop-down list functionality to the sidebar, and add a second column in the window when in list view. Also unfortunate is that there is no demo, and I'm not going to spend $6 to find out if there is more.

To me, while a nice little hack to the existing Finder, this is not a full-featured Finder replacement app, and certainly doesn't belong on a list of "the best."

For sure,, I might have been too quick when typing that in to my comment.

At least it's added to the list in some form or another. I couldn't not share it.

I spent the $6 on it because it might be updated and price increase over time. It's OK, but I don't think I'll use it all the time everyday.

 

[MacGizmo]

At least it's added to the list in some form or another. I couldn't not share it.

Absolutely. Often times these little gems go unnoticed unless someone shares them somewhere.

 

[dbrewood]

I quite agree I'd need to try it first and as a minimum check out the tabbed views.

 

[svenmany]

Ah, trees are rare on macOS.

This is a very interesting point. I find trees to be missing on Windows because I expect the expanding behavior to take place where the files are. Others find trees to be missing on Mac because they expect that behavior to be separate from the files.

Since even before OS X, the Mac has always expanded the tree with the files. I found a screenshot showing it in System 7.

It must be just how people use the Finder/Explorer which gives them their preference. I really struggle with the Windows approach.

 

[gilby101]

Ah, trees are rare on macOS.

This is a very interesting point. I find trees to be missing on Windows because I expect the expanding behavior to take place where the files are. Others find trees to be missing on Mac because they expect that behavior to be separate from the files

Macs are not consistent on this. In Safari, show bookmarks in the sidebar and the folder tree opens in the sidebar. I am not complaining about Safari, just highlighting the inconsistency. I would like Finder to open trees in the sidebar, but without changing other behaviour.

Edit: Mail does the same thing - trees in sidebar.

 

[svenmany]

Macs are not consistent on this. In Safari, show bookmarks in the sidebar and the folder tree opens in the sidebar. I am not complaining about Safari, just highlighting the inconsistency. I would like Finder to open trees in the sidebar, but without changing other behaviour.

Edit: Mail does the same thing - trees in sidebar.

It never occurred to me to look for consistency between programs that are serving different purposes, but I can accept that it could be disconcerting. Maybe Apple designed each program for how they expected them to be used by most people.

Safari's approach is the same as Finder's in the way that matters to me; the folders and bookmarks all appear together. That's the case in both the sidebar as well as the page where you go to edit bookmarks. Chrome, for example, doesn't do that; I find its bookmark manager hard to use for that reason.

For Mail, I rarely need to move messages between folders and navigate around looking for things like I do with Finder, so I'm not negatively impacted by the choice they made there. I think I might find the presence of folders within the listing of emails to be in the way as I work through the new arrivals. I tend to focus on a single mail folder at a time (even though one of them is "all inboxes"). I do wonder, though, whether I would want Mail to behave like Finder if I made more heavy use of its folders.

 

[Diskutant]

I never really used any alternative file managers, but as I have to use Windows more often now, the standard file manager there was going on my nerves and a coworker showed my OneCommander, which is so much better. So now that I know what's possible I want an alternative to the Mac Finder.

I tried Fork Lift 3.5.8 and 4 Beta 2. But they have some problems:

When resizing a window in listview, Finder resizes the Name column with it. Fork Lift doesn't, and there doesn't seem to be an option for that.

In listview open a folder tree (the ">" button) often doesn't do anything, or makes Fork Lift load very very long before it actually opens the tree. I can just open the folder without a hitch though.

In listview when sorted by size, sometimes the sorting hangs, so everything is quite random. Like right now the largest is at the top, the 2nd largest at the bottom, 3rd largest below the largest. (see screenshot)

Now, to sort it again, I click on size, which will sort it ascending, then I click again to sort descending, but then it opens the folder that was selected in the list. It seems to recognize that double click as a double click on the selected line, even though I clicked on the header.


These are so obvious and dealbreaking that I wonder if this happens only on my Mac and I might need to repair something.


I guess the next ones I will try are PathFinder and QSpace.

 

[I WAS the one]

I never really used any alternative file managers, but as I have to use Windows more often now, the standard file manager there was going on my nerves and a coworker showed my OneCommander, which is so much better. So now that I know what's possible I want an alternative to the Mac Finder.

I tried Fork Lift 3.5.8 and 4 Beta 2. But they have some problems:

When resizing a window in listview, Finder resizes the Name column with it. Fork Lift doesn't, and there doesn't seem to be an option for that.

In listview open a folder tree (the ">" button) often doesn't do anything, or makes Fork Lift load very very long before it actually opens the tree. I can just open the folder without a hitch though.

In listview when sorted by size, sometimes the sorting hangs, so everything is quite random. Like right now the largest is at the top, the 2nd largest at the bottom, 3rd largest below the largest. (see screenshot)
View attachment 2189058

Now, to sort it again, I click on size, which will sort it ascending, then I click again to sort descending, but then it opens the folder that was selected in the list. It seems to recognize that double click as a double click on the selected line, even though I clicked on the header.


These are so obvious and dealbreaking that I wonder if this happens only on my Mac and I might need to repair something.


I guess the next ones I will try are PathFinder and QSpace.

DO NOT TRY PATHFINDER.

 

[it wasnt me]

WHY NOT?

 

[I WAS the one]

WHY NOT?

I have been a power user of Pathfinder since its debut during my use of macOS Tiger. It was a powerful tool that greatly improved productivity. However, Pathfinder aimed to become mainstream and set high goals that ultimately led to frustration. Apple began to create difficulties for Pathfinder, causing bugs and upgrades to severely impact the app's functionality. Over time, things only got worse, and despite a visual rebranding and subscription-based business model, Pathfinder's support and glitches remained problematic. Pathfinder is facing hurdles in offering a viable option due to Ventura's increasing obstacles, while privacy concerns have prevented the company from proceeding as planned. Sadly, CocoaTech seems to be at its end. I switched to Forklift, the second-best option during my Pathfinder days, and it has not failed me so far. I do not recommend Pathfinder as it can cause damage to Finder, leading to the need to reformat and reinstall your Mac. Instead, try Command Pro, Qspace (if you don't mind potential privacy issues), or any other alternative. I am sharing my thoughts based on years of experience to help you make an informed decision.

 

[MacGizmo]

Pathfinder's support and glitches remained problematic... Sadly, CocoaTech seems to be at its end. I switched to Forklift, the second-best option during my Pathfinder days, and it has not failed me so far...

This mirrors my experience. While Path Finder piled on the features, it got more and more buggy. And now it runs like a dog in comparison to Forklift, which started out light and added only a few features at a time resulting in a much more stable experience.

I currently can't use Forklift 4 betas (missing too many features for me yet), but version 3 runs like a charm!

 

[it wasnt me]

I currently can't use Forklift 4 betas

Ha! This comment actually made my aware of their existence.

 

[Diskutant]

Apple began to create difficulties for Pathfinder, causing bugs and upgrades to severely impact the app's functionality.

All other Finder alternatives have to deal with those difficulties too, don't they?
I can't understand how you are able to use Fork Lift with those deal breaking bugs I got after only a few minutes of usage.

 

[MacGizmo]

All other Finder alternatives have to deal with those difficulties too, don't they?
I can't understand how you are able to use Fork Lift with those deal breaking bugs I got after only a few minutes of usage.

I don't find any deal-breaking bugs with Forklift. Pathfinder, on the other hand, is loaded with bugs, slow-downs (like scrolling through network directories), and a variety of other issues that force me to quit the app every hour or so.

I love Path Finder's features, I just wish the app was stable enough to use in a professional environment.

 

[svenmany]

All other Finder alternatives have to deal with those difficulties too, don't they?

Good point. I just think that the Path Finder developers are less competent or overworked. The Apple induced bugs might be hard to address, but the Path Finder developers cannot even manage other problems.

When resizing a window in listview, Finder resizes the Name column with it. Fork Lift doesn't, and there doesn't seem to be an option for that.

I do see that behavior and I can understand why you don't like it. On the other hand, I prefer ForkLift's choice in this.

Regarding the other bugs you mentioned, I've not experienced them over the many years (since 2011) I've used ForkLift. Well, my memory is not perfect, but I've certainly not experienced those issues with the current version 3 release.

ForkLift 4 is a work in progress; it's not a beta, even though they call it that. They're still just coding and adding features. They put it out there to get feedback. I know that Apple also calls that kind of release a Beta, but it ain't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

If they hadn't called it a beta, and set proper expectations, then you wouldn't even have tried to use it. Assuming you're seeing these bugs in version 4, then I think they did themselves a disservice and pushed away potential future customers. I tried version 4 for 15 minutes or so and encountered bugs in that short time, but I still expect high quality in the final release.

 

[Diskutant]

I don't find any deal-breaking bugs with Forklift.

Regarding the other bugs you mentioned, I've not experienced them over the many years

so, you say those bugs I mentioned aren't happening on your site? Any ideas what might be wrong on my site?
I tested with Version 3.5.8, and with 4 Beta 2, both have the same bugs for me.

 

[svenmany]

so, you say those bugs I mentioned aren't happening on your site? Any ideas what might be wrong on my site?
I tested with Version 3.5.8, and with 4 Beta 2, both have the same bugs for me.

I think you've given me a hint. You said "site". Did you mean that to refer to a remote server that hosts your website?

For quite a long time, I've only used ForkLift as a Finder replacement, managing local files. Some years ago, I used it to manage files on a web host, but haven't tried that in quite a while. Perhaps it does have the bugs you reported when managing remote files.

 

[dbrewood]

It works just fine when managing my forum. That is hosted on my NAS though.

 

[Diskutant]

I think you've given me a hint. You said "site". Did you mean that to refer to a remote server that hosts your website?

uh, no I just mean your Mac. Isn't that your site ie. place? Or have I always misinterpreted that word?

 

[svenmany]

uh, no I just mean your Mac. Isn't that your site ie. place? Or have I always misinterpreted that word?

I’ve never used “site” to mean my computer. I might be alone in that.

I looked at your screenshot. Do you have "Calculate all sizes" checked in your view options? I don't have that checked, so I usually don't see the folder sizes, which would be used in sorting, unless I manually request the calculation. I did a quick test just now; I didn't get any delays with that set, but one quick test doesn't mean that I wouldn't eventually see the delays you're seeing. You did say it's random when it happens.

Unfortunately, I no longer use ForkLift (for completely unrelated reasons), so I won't be able to do a more thorough test.

 

[dbrewood]

Unfortunately, I no longer use ForkLift (for completely unrelated reasons), so I won't be able to do a more thorough test.

Can we ask what you use instead?

 

[svenmany]

Can we ask what you use instead?

Finder

I'm kind of devastated that ForkLift 4 omitted one critical feature that I need; I was so looking forward to moving off of Finder. But, I've yet to find anything that does a better job for how I use the app.

 

[dbrewood]

Heck. I find Finder to be so limited, I just can't use it. Mainly as to how it interacts with my NAS.