On macOS 12.5.x here and it seems that TotalFinder will not start up at system start and stay running. If I pop it into Users & Groups → username → Login Items it simply disappears after several seconds each time.
I would like to be sure it starts automatically on reboot, but I just can’t seem to get it to do so anymore.
Anyone else have a similar problem and find a solution?
@ylluminate Hi — apologies for the severely late reply.
Does this issue still occur for you with the latest version of TotalFinder? (※ TotalFinder 1.15.0, as of this writing)
I have had no issues with adding TotalFinder.app to the Login Items preference pane on any version of macOS.
Same problem here. Oddly enough, if I open a MacOS finder and hit Cmd-Tab, Total Finder 1.15 opens. And not to pile on with strange problems, but at times if I close a tab in TF 1.15, I get a blank finder screen.
@Ken Which version of macOS and hardware is this occurring on?
To confirm, are you referring to the fact that TotalFinder apparently disappears from the “Login Items” preference pane on your system?
Or are you referring simply to the fact that TotalFinder appears to not take effect until you Cmd-Tab?
Additionally, and I do know this sounds stupid, but have you tried simply waiting? TotalFinder does take a bit of time to start up and properly inject into Finder — it would explain this strange behaviour you are explaining where “TotalFinder appears when I press Cmd-Tab”, since it’s possible that TotalFinder just so happens to finish initialising and hooking when you press Cmd-Tab.
Basically, TotalFinder will not instantaneously inject into Finder upon user login — there will always be a bit of a delay where you’ll just have the standard stock Finder at startup (especially as macOS also needs to finish starting up other things that aren’t TotalFinder.app).
What macOS version and hardware is this occurring on? Is it the same as the above?
And what do you mean by “blank Finder screen”? If you could provide a screenshot, this would be very helpful.
Additionally, if you can provide any information regarding how to reproduce this issue, that would be very helpful as well. (It’s okay if you can’t, or if the issue just appears to occur at random.)
(You can also try running the diagnostics script below in a Terminal session and sending me the resulting file, though I’m unsure if I’ll really be able to get anything useful out of it until we narrow down the cause more and enable some more debug logging.)
/Applications/TotalFinder.app/Contents/Resources/diagnose-totalfinder.sh
Mac Studio with 64GB memory running Version 13.2 Beta (22D5038i)
It remians in “Login Items” but does not start until I hit Cmd-T to open a tab in the MacOS finder.
You mean I have to learn to be patient? 
As soon as I finish responding, I’ll reboot and see if that is my impatience.
As above. I get a completely blank screen (no sidegar, no tabs at top, noting on the screen). I’ll grab a screen shot the nest time it happens. A hint is that if I have 3 (or more) tabs open and select one of the farthest from the sidebar, it happens.
I’ve saved the command and will run it and upload the diags when it happens again,
Okay, I opened 4 tabs, closed one at random, the problem appeared, I ran the debug script and as soon as I can figure out how to upload it, I’ll send the results.
Edited to add two screen shots:
Edited to add SIP config:
Again thanks for all of your hard work on keeping TF going.
Added initial post with screenshots for you (and yes, it TF did load after I waited a bit).
Hi, I’m still having this problem on 12.6.3 wherein I have to manually start TotalFinder. I’ve attempted to run the script, /Applications/TotalFinder.app/Contents/Resources/diagnose-totalfinder.sh, @akemin_dayo, but it seems to fail silently following my entering my password. When I enter the password it remains in this state for several minutes with no apparent completion, but when I hit enter to see if it’s doing anything it returns back to the prompt with no files/folders generated at ~/Desktop:
$ /Applications/TotalFinder.app/Contents/Resources/diagnose-totalfinder.sh
This script will gather some diagnostic information about your system, and store it in a file on your Desktop.
We do not collect any personal or uniquely identifying data, and the information is only used for diagnostic purposes.
You will get a chance to inspect the resulting file before sending it.
If you are familiar with the Bash scripting language, we encourage you to open this script in a text editor and inspect it yourself to verify its contents!
Press Enter/Return to continue, or CTRL-C to quit.
Gathering system info…
You are currently using an Apple Silicon Mac.
In order to determine your current BootPolicy security mode, this script must run Apple's BootPolicy utility (bputil) as an administrator (root).
Do you wish to proceed with this step? (enter y/n) y
Please enter your macOS login password at the following prompt. It is normal for nothing to be displayed as you type.
This script does NOT have access to anything you type in this prompt.
Password: <ENTERED PASSWORD HERE and PRESSED ENTER - and waited.......>
<WAITED SEVERAL MINUTES MULTIPLE TIMES HERE - ENTER SIMPLY RETURNS TO PROMPT>
$
I continue to have problems here and TotalFinder continues to just die spontaneously on me throughout the day repeatedly. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it is peculiar.
Any thoughts on this? I still cannot get TotalFinder to work continually without restarting it every once in a while (completely random - from 10s of minutes to a couple hours).
Apologies for the late reply.
As of this writing, what macOS version are you using?
Also, can you try running the diagnostics script again? (Make sure you’re using TotalFinder 1.15.1, as the script has changed a lot in that version.)
If the script gets stuck again, try answering “n” to the BootPolicy question — it is possible that something is going horribly wrong when attempting to dump your BootPolicy information (… which also should not happen, but there’s a lot of things here that should not be happening).
Hi @akemin_dayo this has happened both with the most recent releases of macOS 12 and macOS 13. I even went so far (due to a request from Apple) to install 13.5 beta now as well - all with the same behavior. I am indeed running TotalFinder 1.15.1.
Yes, still getting the hang. And yes, if I refuse to allow bputil it does execute. What else would you have me do?
Run the diagnostics script skipping bputil and send me the resulting file it generates on your Desktop however you prefer — hopefully this will shed some light on what exactly is happening.
For your macOS 12 and 13 APFS volumes, were they each clean installs? Or were they in-place upgrades?
Do you have a clean macOS 12 or 13 install somewhere and does it reproduce there too?
… Also, what exactly happens on your system when you manually try to run sudo bputil -d?