TotalFinder status under OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

TotalFinder has been an integral part of my workflow for years. So, since I don’t want to disable SIP, I spent the last few days looking for alternate ways of achieving at least some of the things TotalFinder did for me pre-El Capitan. And I decided to share my findings, here.

The TotalFinder functions I used the most:

  • Tabs: these are part of the normal Finder for some time now.

  • Showing/hiding hidden files using some keyboard shortcut: this (and a lot more) can be achieved using BetterTouchTool. It seems to set the corresponding Finder setting and then restart Finder. This takes 1 to 2 seconds, so I’d recommend clicking the ‘gear’ icon next to the shortcut and setting some HUD overlay so you know action is on it’s way. Should all Finder windows be gone after the action, you can fix that by opening Terminal and typing:

defaults write com.apple.finder NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool true

  • Cut/Copy/Paste of Files in Finder: I was surprised to learn this is actually possible in Finder. Just copy a file, then paste it somewhere to copy it there, or hold down the option key while pasting to move it there.

  • Copying the POSIX path of a file to the clipboard: this can be done holding down the option key while copying a file in Finder.

  • Dual Mode / Visor Window: I didn’t use these, but it should be possible to use BetterTouchTool to assign some keyboard shortcut to an AppleScript that makes use of El Capitan’s new fullscreen Split View to show/hide 2 designated Finder windows side by side. I could try to write one, should there be interrest.

I hope this helps someone. :slight_smile:

Is there a reason why you don’t want to install TotalFinder with SIP staying fully enabled? I did so and TF runs fine. None of the updates from 10.11.2 to 10.11.5 have destroyed the installation. As you seem not being afraid to use Terminal this installation mode should be an easy task for you.

You can find the instruction for this installation here:
http://totalspaces.binaryage.com/elcapitan-with-sip

Mike

The reason is: I didn’t know the instructions for TotalSpaces also applied to TotalFinder. So, many thanx for making me aware of that. :smile:

But I think I’ll stick with my new setup. Took me long enough to make things work and it doesn’t look like TotalFinder will receive updates for much longer (or is there yet another blog post I haven’t read?), so things are likely to get … chaotic in the (more or less) long run. Though I really miss the “Folders on top”. :cry:

You might want to check this one out :grinning::

Hi everyone!
Where can ask a question from the developers? or where can I make a wish?
Since I read a lot of comments and have some information about a lot of us have a problem with the opening and renaming shortcuts.
Will u guys doing a command please for the return (enter) button to open a selection, and f2 to rename a selection?
Please

Waiting for your kind answer and thanks in advance!

Hey Mark,

You can ask here, or you can always write support@binaryage.com.

Commander style shortcuts is a common request, so I’ll be sure to look into it.

Thanks for your answer Steve
Just really waiting for it hope it will be in cuz i really love what total finder makes for me cant imagine my working process without it thats the only thing what I miss.

That’s good news, indeed! :relieved: Thanks for sharing that information! :smile:

Not so much of a bug or issue but feature request. I’m a big fan of totalfinder and would like to put in a request that there be a “folders on bottom” as well as “folders on top” option when sorting in a given window.

Interesting request. The feature could have 4 behaviors:

  1. Default behavior.
  2. Folders on Top.
  3. Folder on Bottom.
  4. Folder based on sort order (Ascending puts Folders on Top, Descending puts Folders on Bottom).
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Has something changed in the latest versions of TF regarding SIP? I just did a fresh install of OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and installed TF as well and all functionality seems to be there. I didn’t restore any files from backup or anything. Also I am not getting any prompts about disabling SIP.

Nothing has changed that I know of. If you’re running with SIP disabled, then installing 10.11.6 should still honor that setting.

Okay. So even if I formatted my hard drive, somehow the SIP setting gets stored somewhere?. Again, I didn’t restore anything from backup. However, I have disable SIP in the past in order to use TF.

so, am I missing something?

is there a beta for totalfinder on sierra like TS has?

TotalFinder 1.7.12 under Mac Os 10.11.6 El Capitan

Items saved to the ~/Desktop no longer appear until I open a folder on the Desktop. Unsure if this is an Apple it BinaryAge issue. Anyone else experiencing this difficulty? Anyone have a workaround?

Only think I did recently was “repair disk permissions” on the System Disk.

I’m confused. I am a former user of TotalFinder who uninstalled it when El Capitan came out.

I logged on here for the first time for 6 months (as I thought TotalFinder was non-existent under El Capitan when running SIP). I read some positive news about it working now so I reinstalled it, followed this http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/system-osax but all I’m getting is “Troubles launching TotalFinder”.

I am using v1.7.12.

So this article is not correct?

Hi Paul,

under 10.12 it’s working with this steps:

Installation steps
1 Install TotalFinder (or update TotalFinder) *tested with 1.8.1
2 Reboot into Recovery OS
3 Open Terminal from Utilities menu
4 Mount your main system disk - this depends on your setup, see explanation below
5 Move TotalFinder.osax from /Library/ScriptingAdditions to /System/Library/ScriptingAdditions on your system disk
6 Fix rights on newly moved folder root:wheel
7 Reboot
8 reinstall the current Version

:wink:

Thanks landru. Appreciate the reply. I’ll give it another try (and let you know how I get on!)

I did this (move and chmod in Terminal from Recovery), and it worked. With v1.8.2 it seems it now works automatically!(?) :smile: I just updated, rebooted and it was working … (And I have not disabled SIP)
(I’m running macOS Sierra 10.12.2)