Dragging a file to Open dialog moves the file

[Simplicated]

File this under the "wtf Apple" category, which includes the loss of puff of smoke and the removal of the star field effect in Time Machine.

Instead of selecting the file when you drag a file to an Open dialog, which has been the behavior since OS X 10.5 (the first version of OS X I've used), now it moves the file into that folder, Windows-style.

The Open dialog shouldn't be used for file operations like this after all? That's Finder's work. I usually don't post rants like this, I'm disappointed that Apple once again takes away one of the features which many of my friends and I liked and used every single time there is an Open dialog.

Did you use this feature in prior versions of OS X? If so, do you mind the change? If you didn't, do you welcome the new behavior?

 

[ps3zocker]

They had this in one beta version of Mountain Lion (I think) and reverted it in the next beta. I think it's only a bug.

In the meantime you can drag the file to the bottom part of the Open panel (below the files) and it behaves as always.

 

[adamfishercox]

File this under the "wtf Apple" category, which includes the loss of puff of smoke and the removal of the star field effect in Time Machine.

Love that you're categorizing a major shift in behavior that will impact workflows with 2 aesthetic changes. The removal of the poof is an improvement anyway. People just don't notice it or know what it means. "Remove" is unambiguous.

 

[drmacnut]

Drag To Open Dialog Box Problem

You are exactly right, Simplicated, this definitely caused a "WTF" moment for me as I unexpectedly moved a file from an open Finder window right into the folder in the Open Dialog! And then I did it again and again, just to see if I was somehow in a bad dream.

Thanks much, ps3zocker, for showing how it can be made to work the way we all expect.

I second the call that it should NOT be possible to make any Finder file operations in Open dialogs (including rename, which I have even thought might be useful once in a while, but then came to my senses and decided "not!").

Let's hope the good folks at Apple who are actually writing/using Yosemite beta have noticed this and got it on a fix list. I think it must be a bug, simply because (1) it is very inconsistent with normal Mac behaviour, and (2) there are other transient bugs I have seen with drag-into-Open-dialog where folder names seemingly become deleted, and dragging into a folder always allows a drop, whereas dragging into the top directory of the Open dialog does not always allow a drop operation to happen.

Would it be helpful to submit some sort of feedback about it?

(BTW re: missing "poof" puff of smoke, FWIW, I also miss it in Yosemite beta. Why can it not happen after the "Remove" label is shown (great idea btw) and the mouse is released? It seems too "silent" of a removal for me now, both visually and aurally.)

 

[chrfr]

Let's hope the good folks at Apple who are actually writing/using Yosemite beta have noticed this and got it on a fix list.

This is exactly why https://bugreport.apple.com exists! File a bug.

 

[Chris Grande]

Dup rdar://17758098

 

[TD912]

Ah, glad I wasn't the only one that noticed this. Installed the public beta and wasn't sure if it was an intended change or a bug. Was annoying as heck to drag a file and have it moved to a totally different location. I reported it via the Feedback app thing, and I guess from this thread other people have filed bug reports too.

 

[sjn419]

what is this open and save dialogue people keep mentioning? I cant figure it out

 

[The19th]

what is this open and save dialogue people keep mentioning? I cant figure it out

The open dialog is when you try to open a file, for example, in Textedit -> File -> Open…, a dialog window opens up to ask you what file you want to open up.

In Mavericks and earlier, you used to be able to drag the desired file into the window, then it would "home in" on that file, and you would simply click open/press return to open it. Or if you wanted to save to a folder on a flash drive, you could drag the folder to the window and it would allow you to quickly save the file in that folder without having to navigate to it in the dialog window.

However, in the Yosemite betas up to PB1, you would drag a something into the "Open" or "Save" dialog box and it would move/copy the item into whatever folder is currently displayed in the dialog box.

 

[The19th]

Just an additional note! This issue was fixed in DP5. You can now drag a file into the navigation area of the open/save dialog window and it will re-target. It no longer copies/moves the file as in DP1-4/PB1.

 

[grahamperrin]

Drag and drop, sheets and navigation

They had this in one beta version of Mountain Lion (I think) …

I didn't use Yosemite enough to notice the feature, but I recall liking its potential when it was tested in an earlier OS.

A few times I did accidentally drop in the wrong place, but I soon learnt. The effect of drag and drop was debatably more logical, from the viewpoint of things being relatively restrictive/limited in earlier systems.

It might have worked (with far less likelihood of accidents) if the GUI had given clearer hints of:

• what would happen if you dropped in a folder
• what would happen if you dropped on an element of the navigator

– and that element could have been made more clearly a primary target for dropping.

The bright blue that's recently the norm for folders in Finder could have been used, instead, for emphasising a change in drag and drop behaviour within sheets. Just a thought.

 

[grahamperrin]

In Beta 5 and earlier, if you opened a choose or upload dialogue box (like in Safari) and you dragged a file over from an open Finder window it would MOVE the file to the folder that was currently showing. They have fixed this (as it was in previous versions of OS X) so that it correctly just opens the folder where the file resides so you can easily choose the file for uploading or selecting.

Clear as mud?

It was an enhancement that some users naturally misinterpreted as a bug.

If Apple had not trashed its "timeless principles" to create the Mashemite mix of appearances/interfaces that is simultaneously beautiful and terrible: I'm around seventy percent confident that a more refined Apple approach to introducing the drag-and-drop enhancement could have succeeded – and could have made Apple operating systems more immediately appealing to potential switchers.