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I'm having the strangest issue since updating to OS X El Capitan. My "Open File" dialogs show the sidebar but all my main (and useful) locations are missing. Take a look at this screenshot. This screenshot shows Keychain Access but this happens in Safari when I'm trying to attach a file to Gmail for example, or uploading an image to Facebook.

What I would like is for the sidebar to show my home directories, such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc.

Help?

enter image description here

kenorb
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Arno
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  • Only in file-picker dialogs, or in Finder windows too? – Tetsujin Sep 30 '15 at 13:14
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    Only in the file-picker dialogs @Tetsujin, Finder itself shows the sidebar content as it should. – Arno Sep 30 '15 at 14:26
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    I have this too - and it also does it in Chrome. Reboot temporarily fixes it. Seems like an El Cap bug. – niico Oct 08 '15 at 13:58
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    Same problem, you can go to Finder>Preferences>Sidebar and check them all, they will remain there in Finder... but NOT in any programs. For example, I open Photoshop CC 2015 and if you drag the folders you want into the Favorites area, they will NOT be there when you reopen the program. Same for ALL programs across the board. This is very frustrating. –  Oct 12 '15 at 12:44
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    This sucks.. same problem. Still here in 10.11.3. – Eaten by a Grue Feb 24 '16 at 03:04
  • There's a bigger problem somewhere. My sidebar is missing all drives, volumes, and the computer itself. All but the computer are selected for display in Finder preferences (and originally the computer was too). If I reactivate the computer's visibility using the checkbox, the setting is ignored and the checkbox clears itself. Sometimes it'll clear itself while the prefs dialog is still open. Finder = wholly defective – Oscar Mar 14 '16 at 02:54
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    problem still here in 10.11.5 for me... – Pier May 21 '16 at 19:58
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    problem still exists for me 10.11.6. reboot fixes it for a week or two – Scott Aug 18 '16 at 21:17
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    Same here, happens from time to time and a reboot is the fix. – malhal Oct 18 '16 at 08:50
  • Seeing the same issue on Sierra 10.12.6 after getting a new Mac and restoring it from a TimeMachine backup. – Alexander Klimetschek Aug 02 '17 at 17:27
  • 10.11.6. The one-liner removed all my bookmarks in Finder, did nothing for "file open" dialogs. Be careful. – Ilja Zverev Sep 27 '17 at 16:27
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    I added a working, simple solution at the bottom of this thread. Have a look at that. Unfortunately, due to the rank-based-on-votes system I guess many people won't see it until it gets more votes and "floats up". – d-b Nov 17 '17 at 06:40
  • A simple restart worked for me – marvin Apr 10 '19 at 15:54

7 Answers7

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  1. Go to your user library in Finder. Hold down ⌥ while opening the Go menu and click Library.
  2. Navigate to the Preferences folder.
  3. Remove any files that are or contain com.apple.finder.plist. (The removal of those files will very likely reset your Favourites list in Finder.)

  4. Restart or log out and log back in again then empty the trash and try again.

    Restarting might not be necessary. As madpoet says:

    You can also relaunch Finder if you don't want to reboot or log out. Right click on Finder icon while you're pressing ⌥ and you'll see the Relaunch option there.

    Relaunch Finder.

Alternatively, you can use this Bash oneliner by Christophe Marois:

cd ~/Library/Preferences && sudo find com.apple.finder.plist* -exec rm {} \; && killall Finder
Community
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Moyo
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    This finally did it! I had to remake my favorites though, – benstpierre Nov 12 '15 at 21:48
  • That is pretty hardcore... lol. I clearly see why you're at 11.7k rep ;) – saphryn Nov 14 '15 at 07:19
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    You can also "relaunch" finder if you don't want to reboot or log out. Right click on finder icon while you're pressing "alt" key and you'll see the "Relaunch" there – madpoet Dec 03 '15 at 10:06
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    That did it. Bash one-liner: cd ~/Library/Preferences && sudo find com.apple.finder.plist* -exec rm {} \; && killall Finder – Christophe Marois Dec 06 '15 at 20:24
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    @ChristopheMarois That managed to just remove Favourites completely from Finder with no fix for the file open/save dialog. – Constant Meiring Dec 09 '15 at 11:13
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    @ConstantMeiring sorry about that, it did fix it for me – Christophe Marois Dec 09 '15 at 16:48
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    Works for me. I had to restart, relaunch finder was not enough. – Sébastien Gicquel Dec 16 '15 at 14:09
  • Yay! This worked. It brought back all my previous favorites. I also had to restart. – DA. Dec 18 '15 at 17:50
  • Worked for me as well (used the bash one-liner); also restored shortcuts to recent projects in Xcode. – Arnaud Dec 31 '15 at 08:38
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    Fixed for me but needed to log out and not just kill Finder! @ConstantMeiring the favourites disappered befor the logout, but then they came back as they were before! – Pincopallino Jan 05 '16 at 22:04
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    Keep your old com.apple.finder.plist around safe somewhere just in case this wipes out something you care about (e.g., all your Desktop settings). After doing this, you can restore the old plist and the fix seems to stick. – orome May 15 '16 at 20:39
  • The Open/Save dialogs are not a Finder function, so restarting Finder alone may not be adequate. The Items are set via Finder though, so I suppose it makes sense that they're stored in Finder's prefs. – Demis May 31 '16 at 20:32
  • the bash one liner doesn't work for me – niico Jun 30 '16 at 11:19
  • I usually solve the problem restarting osx, without removing anything. I was looking for something that doesn't require this restart. – Ricardo Martins Aug 11 '16 at 12:29
  • Used one liner from @ChristopheMarois - needed a full restart. (Not rebooted for ~2 months so was probably due ;)) – Rob Sep 09 '16 at 07:56
  • You don't need to do any of this. All you need to do is relaunch the Finder. Hit Cmd-Option-Esc, select "Finder", hit "Relaunch". That's it. – John Smith Sep 20 '16 at 18:32
  • One liner just removed everything, didn't solve anything, had to use answer below by going to preferences. – sMyles Oct 12 '16 at 16:45
  • This worked for me without rebooting. I did have to restart Finder. – LarsH Dec 09 '16 at 17:19
  • @SébastienGicquel Log out and in also worked for me (while relaunch didn't). – Franklin Yu Mar 24 '17 at 18:49
  • I have the same issue on Sierra 10.12.6 after getting a new Mac and restoring it from a TimeMachine backup, and this solution unfortunately does not help. After the Finder restart I get weird behavior, dragging stuff into the favorites gives the wrong icons, it doesn't show up in open file dialogs, the finder settings > sidebar > favorite checkboxes can't be disabled, and after another Finder restart all favorites are gone again. Maybe a new bug in 10.12.6 or deleting that plist file is not enough anymore. – Alexander Klimetschek Aug 02 '17 at 17:32
  • Only works for me temporarily. Eventually it reoccurs. FYI, there's also a tread I started re this issue on Apple forums... https://discussions.apple.com/message/32284043 -- none of us there found a permanent solution. – inspirednz Sep 27 '17 at 04:01
  • This is a known bug and should be solved in High Sierra, according to @jamarjus answer. – Dominik Nov 08 '17 at 11:07
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    There's a better solution below that worked for me. https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/305406/6378 – Pascal Polleunus Jan 08 '18 at 13:06
  • For those who don't know what ⌥ is, it's the Option/Alt key on Mac keyboards. – jvriesem Nov 14 '18 at 18:49
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I had the same issue and fixed it in the following way:

  1. While in a "Open File" or "Save As" dialog box (that doesn't show Favorites), drag any folder to the sidebar. This will create a "Favorites" category in the sidebar that only shows that folder.

  2. Reboot.

After rebooting, all of the dialog box sidebars should show Favorites as it appears in Finder, synchronized.

highcool
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    This isn't a fix - it's a temporary workaround - it goes away again (for some reason). This is a bug in El Cap. – niico Oct 08 '15 at 13:58
  • Is the top entry in your Favorites “iCloud Drive?” If so, you might try moving another folder to the top position and re-booting. A non-default folder, for instance.

    I suspect that it’s something to do with iCloud Drive with respect to Favorites. I noticed that on one of my El Cap MacBooks, the fix stayed, but on another MacBook, it didn’t. The only difference was that iCloud Drive was the top entry in the one that kept disappearing. Now both are ok.

     – highcool Oct 09 '15 at 02:46
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    My top item is 'Devices' - iCloud Drive isn't listed so your hypothesis appears wrong and I predict both your machines will fail again. – niico Oct 09 '15 at 13:54
  • This worked for me, at least for now - will see if the problem crops up again! – Greg Annandale Feb 02 '16 at 10:52
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    Thanks! This is the best fix, the other one involving deleting the files will make you reconfigure Finder again. – Reda Lazri Mar 25 '16 at 08:50
  • This worked for me, and was a better fix than deleting prefs since I don't have to waste time trying to remember my settings. I wonder if it has anything to do with Parallels, which is filling my sidebar with copies of the same WIndoze drive... – Demis May 31 '16 at 20:43
  • Thanks, this is great! Rebooted, this worked for me. Will see if it holds. – Jeremy Carlson Aug 26 '16 at 21:57
  • All you have to do is relaunch the Finder. You don't need to drag anything to the sidebar first, and you don't need to reboot. – John Smith Sep 20 '16 at 18:34
18

I had the same problem. I resolved it by going into the Finder and making a change to the Favorites area (eg dragged a folder in Favorites up one position). After closing the finder window and reopening to make sure the change stuck, I rebooted. File/Open then worked as normal.

Jon
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  • This is a really frustrating issue. It's amazing how something so simple that causes so many headaches when it is not working properly. – RightHandedMonkey Nov 07 '15 at 13:07
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    that was great... I didn't even have to reboot, just restart Finder after moving one sidebar item one position up – davidhq Jan 31 '16 at 10:23
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    this killed my favorites from finder too, lol )) ok, fallback to cleaning preferences – zxcat Apr 03 '16 at 13:04
  • This one works for me, and even better is a) non-technical and b) doesn't nuke your favourites. I presume it works for everyone!? – Dave Stewart Apr 29 '19 at 18:36
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The solutions above are both complicated and do not work. Kill sharedfilelistd and restart Finder. Problem solved (at least for a week or two according to my experience).

  1. Launch the Activity Monitor,
  2. Kill as many processes called sharedfilelistd as you can,
  3. Hold Option/Alt key and right click Finder icon in the dock,
  4. Relaunch Finder,
  5. Enjoy.
nohillside
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d-b
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16

Go to Finder -> Preferences -> Sidebar, and put a check next to all your Favorites.

Finder - Preferences... Finder Preferences - Sidebar

Installing El Capitan might have reset a few of your original settings (it reset my desktop backgrounds). It comes with the territory when installing major updates, but this should fix it.

kenorb
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saphryn
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6

Open a Finder window; you can drag folders onto the sidebar, and they’ll appear under a badly-named “Favorites” section.

Weird, but I think I like it. Keeps the plebeians out of trouble, makes it mo’ fancier for power users.

EDIT haha it doesn’t have any memory… stuff dropped into Favorites disappears. What is going on here… filed in Apple Radar #22916266

Eric_WVGG
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3

Today I received a reply to this very bug report I posted in nov, 2016. It's resolved in 10.13 GM, according to it.

Issue is resolved according to apple

jamarju
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  • Holy s$^t. Like more than a year after it was first reported, and many iterations of OS X later... Apple thinks the new major update might fix it. Let's see. – inspirednz Sep 27 '17 at 04:05
  • My mistake... may that "nearly TWO years after it was reported here..." – inspirednz Sep 27 '17 at 04:10