I know there’s been lots of debate about Finder Info comments and I also know Howard Oakley doesn’t like them. I still find them a very low-bar place, not to mention the canonical location, to store brief reminders about an app or what it can do.
But… The utility of that depends drastically on such comments being preserved across app updates. I’m not sure about that myself, my (admittedly limited) search skills have not rendered a satisfactory definitive answer, so rather than set out to do an experiment myself, I’m hoping somebody with more insight here can comment.
If an app updates, will my Finder Info comments be preserved? I would assume this also depends on the type of update: MAS vs. something like Sparkle framework. And what about updating when I drag and drop in Finder a newer version I got off the web myself?
It appears that they are preserved through MAS updates.
I saw an update available for an app managed by the app store. I added a comment to the version on my computer and then updated it via the app store. The comment was preserved.
First question is, where are the Finder comments stored? They are stored in the hidden .DS_Store file, in the parent folder to the item you’re applying the comment to. This would be in the same folder as is holding the application.
When you delete an item that has a Finder comment, the comment is also deleted… if you use the Finder to delete it. If you delete it from the Terminal, for example, the Finder doesn’t know to remove the comment from the .DS_Store file. If you then add back the item with the same name – either through the Finder or outside of it – the comment is still there. (I’d consider this to be a bug.)
Which means, you’d expect that Finder comments should persist across most updates, regardless of how the update actually is applied. For example, if the update is changing files inside the .app folder, or if the update is deleting the old .app and adding back a new one. it should work.
But they won’t persist.
The problem is macOS updates, both major and minor. When you do a macOS update*, it blows away the .DS_Store files for both the Applications and Utilities folders. So, any Finder comments you have applied will be lost. Unless, that is, you backup and restore the .DS_Store files after every update. Which I’m now doing because I don’t like how the updates remove my carefully set up application icon positions.
Also, another consideration is security. Try setting some comments on items in the Utilities folder, then reboot. Are they still there? If not, that’s because another thing macOS updates do is change the security on the Utilities folder so that you don’t have write access. This means while it can appear that you’re saving comments, those updates are only in the Finder’s memory. It can’t commit them to the .DS_Store file.
Which is why after every macOS update I change the Utilities folder back to group=admin, with g+w security.
I use Hookmark to attach notes to files and documents. It’s an excellent app that works well but is a bit overkill for my needs. I used to use Ghostnote but it broke several OS releases ago.
Is there any other app that can attach notes to files and documents instead of using comments in the Finder?