I tried a quick search, but I’m sure it’s been addressed before since it is a longstanding problem.
Why can’t the finder remember the size and shape of my windows? I’ve tried all the tricks suggested in various forums to set the preference but it always defaults back to the same stupid small rectangle in the middle of the screen.
I know I sound like an old geezer, but why doesn’t Apple ever fix anything that people have been complaining about for years? Hey, you kids. Get off my lawn.
Prioritization of work. Regardless of what you may think, Apple doesn’t have an unlimited number of engineers. They have a list of things they want to do, and have to prioritize what gets done using the engineers at their disposal.
Having dealt with software development organizations throughout my career, I find that suggestions that are not data loss bugs, security vulnerabilities, outright regressions that impact usage, new hardware support, or related to future products/directions for the product usually get pushed to the back of the queue.
Feedback to Apple (either through feedback or a developer opening a case) might help if enough people complain to raise priority.
I think it does remember, if you have write access to the folder’s .ds_store file. But it only respects this if you open the window, not navigate to it from another window. And when you navigate to it, that will update the folder based on the size and shape of the window you came from.
There’s two Finder view settings that I’ve never figured out exactly how they work: “Always open in x” and “Browse in x”. I’ve been waiting for a TidBITS article to explain them.
I’ve asked this question multiple times in the past. The bottom line of all those discussions was, basically, it just doesn’t so deal with it.
So I do. Each time the Finder gets restarted I have to run a little AppleScript that resets all the window defaults to the values I want. And column width (since my default Finder window is set to column view) I still have to set by hand every single time because, as it turns out, the Apple Script cannot tell the Finder how to do that properly. Sigh.
As usual, a clear and comprehensive video from MacMost, what a great site. But it shows what a mess Apple has made of Finder window management. I appreciate the various options, but they haven’t thought through how to stop position and size settings being accidentally overwritten. And the bugs where some windows just forget their view settings (including the ‘Always open in’ ones) makes it even worse.
I would always want the Application folder to open with large icons, but I don’t use that view anywhere else. Now I know why it is do difficult to make it stick. Will try to set things with the info window or may set up an AppleScript or Keyboard Maestro to see if I can get it to do what I want.
A decade ago, I asked an Apple enterprise rep if they planned to improve the Finder, and the gist of his reply was, We know that lots of our customers want different things from the Finder, but we have concluded that it’s absolutely and totally perfect just the way it is, and we don’t ever intend to change it just because some people don’t agree with us.
We all know that there is no such thing as “perfect” software. That is a totally arrogant answer, and if it were my business the people responsible for that assessment would have been fired on the spot.
It was a strange response that left me speechless. He managed to both acknowledge that they were aware of complaints, and nevertheless make clear that Apple did not feel the need to address them.
This was a long time ago, and in the last decade, Apple has seemed more willing to consider customer feedback.