I had been using Path Finder since version 3.0 came out years ago. As a power user, I loved the extra features. Tab browsing was big, and being able to move files around without duplicating and dragging was great.
However, Path Finder and Mojave haven’t been playing too nice together recently. The biggest issue is that Pathfinder doesn’t seem to update windows or the desktop when files change. For example, if you delete a file from the desktop, it still appears in Path Finder. Since displaying correct file information is the main task for file browsers, I stopped using Path Finder until this particular issue resolved.
I’ve been now using plain ol’ Finder and I find that I really don’t miss a lot of the power features of Path Finder. Over the years, Finder has improved. Many of the must have features that brought me to Path Finder (such as tabbed browsing) are in Finder. Others, like Stuffit integration no longer seem so important. Then there’s other important features such as iCloud folders and Dropbox integration that just don’t work very well in Path Finder.
I was wondering what your experience with Finder and Finder alternatives such as Path Finder has been over the last year or two? Is Finder good enough for power users? Or, do products like Path Finder still fill in a niche that the Finder cannot?
Path Finder was unusable in High Sierra for me. It constantly crashed. But it’s been working very well in Mojave. Commander One also seems to work in Mojave, but I don’t think it’s been updated in a while. I’ve noticed it’s very slow.
I run Finder add-ons Total Finder and Xtra Finder. Yes, I run them both. You must disable SIP to run Total Finder, but I understand you can enable SIP in the newest version of Xtra Finder.
That’s been my recent experience too. Paid fort the Path Finder upgrade but after a month or two of frustration I too deleted it and am satisfied with the evolved Finder.
I love Path Finder, and although it’s been very buggy at times in the past I haven’t noticed any issues with Mojave.
Things I’d find it hard to live without are auto-adjusting widths in column view, powerful options to rename files, and all the contextual-menu stuff: get an item’s path, compare files in Kaleidoscope, checksums and so on. A lot of those features could certainly be done by installing separate Services, but having them in Path Finder saves work.
Still, thank you for the reminder that sometimes simple is best. I’ve gone back to both Calendar and Contacts after using third-party apps for years.
I use Fantiscal for both the Mac and iPhone. However, the lack of time travel meant that I had to go into the default calendar app to set it. Then, I discovered that even though I can’t duplicate appointments in the default calendar app, when I started typing an appointment, I could select it from history which pretty much did the same thing.
I use fantastical for the Mac because of the convinient pull down calendar, but use the default app on the iPhone, so I can set travel time.
It’s amazing how a single feature or bug can make or break an app. For Path Finder it was the inability to update the desktop and browser windows.
Another frustrated former Path Finder user here. I was a fan of it for years, but the last few its unreliability has driven me to distraction at times! While I have a few gripes with the default Finder (lack of colour in the sidebar, in particular), it does the job well enough. I did get A Better Finder Rename for those instances where I want to clean up a lot of filenames in one go.
I am still a happy Path Finder user with one big caveat. I like the latest version, 8, and the ability with modules to set up exactly the features I wish for. I use the Size window regularly when I’m clearing my drives. I own ABFR but my first port of call for general renaming is Path Finder. I’ve no issues with Mojave.
The one fly in the ointment… iCloud drive. If a file or folder is in the iCloud drive but not locally present, it doesn’t show in PF while in the Finder it is there with the download icon in the file listing. The gang at Cocoatech will have to come up with a way to match this behavior. At the moment you have to grant full disk access to view such files and folders but there is no indication that you have to download the file, it appears as if present.
It’s worse in relation to the Documents folder if you’ve chosen to store documents in iCloud. That folder only appears in the sidebar and operates as normal, but if you click on iCloud Drive it is not listed. You can turn on Show Invisibles and it then turns up. This is a bit of a mess frankly. The workarounds are easy but you really shouldn’t have to.
That’s interesting – I hadn’t noticed because I don’t use iCloud Drive. But I do use Dropbox, where the Finder also has better integration (icons to show sync status).
I’ve just realised with shock that it’s possible to hide Finder windows (though only with ctrl-H, not by option-clicking the desktop). Has that been the case for a long time? One of the things I originally liked about Path Finder was the ability to hide its windows. IIRC that did not used to be possible in the Finder. If it was, I feel very stupid.
I can’t recall a time when it wasn’t possible to Hide Finder.app (Windows, not Desktop items) using Command-H (not Control), unless Finder is the only open app, in which case the command fails silently.
I can’t recall a time when it wasn’t possible to Hide Finder.app
Aaaargh! For some reason I almost never use the keyboard to hide apps, so I guess that’s why I didn’t discover it. Anyway, thanks for putting me straight.