Finder columns In List View Doesn't stay the same size after resizing

[nickcage49]

Just like I said, when I resize the columns in the list view in Tahoe finder, after I leave that folder and come back, the columns snap back to their old sizes.

Can these guys do an update without changing everything?

 

[mythgard]

I came here to search for this, because it has been driving me crazy! I hope someone will post a solution or Apple will fix it!

 

[artiefufkin]

I've been struggling with this for I don't know how many OS versions now, how many years. It is a maddening, stupid waste of time to have to resize columns every time I re-open the list view for a folder's contents. (I have a lot of long filenames and I want to be able to READ THEM goddamit!) What could be a more obvious user need? What could be simpler to fix?

 

[Mike Boreham]

AFAIK you will need a third party app like Path Finder or Forklift to automatically size column widths. Tinkertool has a setting to this but it doesnt work (for me). You can double click the little parallel lines in the slider bar to automatically right size the column width, or right click the same...maybe slightly quicker than dragging.

 

[artiefufkin]

AFAIK you will need a third party app like Path Finder or Forklift to automatically size column widths. Tinkertool has a setting to this but it doesnt work (for me). You can double click the little parallel lines in the slider bar to automatically right size the column width, or right click the same...maybe slightly quicker than dragging.

I'll look into it -- thanks for the reply!

 

[Mike Boreham]

I'll look into it -- thanks for the reply!

Have a look at these two threads:-

Finder > Column View > Column Widths

Best Finder alternative

 

[Petite messe solennelle]

This is the solution:

1. Close all Finder windows but one.
2. Resize the window.
3. Adjust the column widths while having the Option key pressed, so that all columns resize to the same width.
4. Force Quit the Finder, or if you have the 'Quit' menu item in the Finder's 'File' visible, press Cmd-Q.

You can permanently turn on the 'Quit' menu item for the Finder with this Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true; killall Finder

Note: if the Finder doesn't show up after these steps, press Cmd-Space for Spotlight and enter Finder.app, select it, and press 'Return'.

 

[Mike Boreham]

This is the solution:

1. Close all Finder windows but one.
2. Resize the window.
3. Adjust the column widths while having the Option key pressed, so that all columns resize to the same width.
4. Force Quit the Finder, or if you have the 'Quit' menu item in the Finder's 'File' visible, press Cmd-Q.

You can permanently turn on the 'Quit' menu item for the Finder with this Terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool true; killall Finder

Note: if the Finder doesn't show up after these steps, press Cmd-Space for Spotlight and enter Finder.app, select it, and press 'Return'.

Thanks very much for that @Petite messe solennelle, I knew about the option drag to equally widen but not tried it much and not with the quit Finder step. It does indeed set the column widths wider (or narrower) and applies the same width to all Folders systemwide and does appear to stick. Of course what is right for one folder won’t be right for another but it does give a means of choosing a wider setting to reduce shortening of file names. I havent tried it across reboot.

However it is not the holy grail of automatically resizing each column individually to the required width to match content in every folder, which I know from experience Path Finder does for instance. As I said in one of the links I have a love hate relationship with Path Finder and have never stuck with it long term.

This is what I hoped the Tinkertool setting would do:

After doing lots of Finder quits and testing Tinkertool does now seem to be doing this but not 100%. Many columns are resized to match but not all. This is what I found last time I tried it, not consistent.

Note Tinkertool also provides access to the “add Quit to Finder menu” option. As I understand Tinkertool it doesn’t add any functionality, but simply provides access to existing hidden macOS options.