TotalFinder status under OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

Thank you so much for the valiant effort to keep TotalFinder alive ! I have turned OFF SIP and running 1.7.8 and that is filling my needs. Awesome work mate !!

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Thanks for all your hard work - I waited a little while, did some reading on SIP, and then decided to turn it off when I realised none of the comparable products came close to the awesome workflow of TotalFinder. I hope you continue to develop it ā€¦ and if not in itā€™s current incarnation, perhaps itā€™s time to create a Finder replacement instead of an augmentation? I know loads of people who would buy that.

October 17. Using El Capitan with an iMac. Installed Total Finder (1.6.27) today, bought a license etc. It wonā€™t install. I keep on getting an error message, and when I exit the message I find my Finder has quit.
I tried your workaround http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/system-integrity-protection , following the instructions to the letter, and it hasnā€™t made any difference whatsoever. I keep on getting the same message.
In other words: I canā€™t use Total Finder. So for the moment itā€™s been a waste of time and money.
And yet the home page made it seem straightforward enough, and carried no particular warning.
Reading the posts on the subject is depressing, since I donā€™t understand most of them. I tried, until I realised that I shouldnā€™t have to read it all. Total Finder should just work, but it doesnā€™t.
Will there be a fix some day soon to make Total Finder usable by me, a member of the general public, without needing to understand the arcane comments on this page? Or at least, will you put a warning on your home page so that other unfortunates donā€™t have the same problem as me?
Thanks,
Xavier

Hi Xavier,

Iā€™m sorry for such a bad experience purchasing/using TotalFinder. You are using an old version which cannot possibly work under El Capitan.

I wonder if you saw some old version of homepage or bought the software via some third party site? Current TotalFinder version is 1.7.8 and it is compatible with El Capitan after disabling System Integrity Protection:

There is a red warning below the download button. Also you have a red warning in installer and you get another warning after installing the software. Also you are supposed to use 14-day trial version to test if the software fits your needs before purchasing.

Unfortunately version 1.6.27 is too old to contain any knowledge about El Capitan and its new system protection mechanisms. All TotalFinder users are encouraged to update TotalFinder as soon as possible because of nature of the software. It modifies Finder.app so it has to be kept updated for proper functioning. I believe all this is properly described in the documentation: http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/about.

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So, When you will be a total compatible version of TotalFinder to ā€œEl Capitainā€?

If by ā€œtotal compatibleā€ you mean working without requiring user to tweak System Integrity Protection, the answer is never.

Iā€™ve tried very very hard to use ElCapitan without TotalFinder but its no good, Iā€™ve done the SIP work around and Total Finder is back!!
I really donā€™t care what SIP does if it means I have to seriously compromise the way I work, Total Finder is essential to me, it was like loosing a limb without it.
I had to go look up my original order to see how long its been since I used OSX without TFā€¦27/09/2010ā€¦no wonder I felt so lost with out it, 5 years!!, and now I feel a bit guilty for having used it all this time without having to pay for an upgrade soā€¦

I just got another licence for the hell of it, its not much but it should get you coffee :slight_smile:
Thanks @darwin

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I completely agree with you. Iā€™ve been using El Cap for 2 days and thought after reading @darwin message about not maintaining the app anymore that I might try to live without it. FINDER is the worst. I remember almost 10 years ago when I made the switch from Windows to OS X, I thought that Finder was Apples biggest weakness in comparison to Windowā€™s file explorer. A couple years later a class mate was using TotalFinder and my eyes popped out of my head at how awesome TotalFinder was. I dropped some cash right then in there and have added TotalFinder to every single Mac I buy, and I show it and sell it heavy to every single Mac user I know and come across.
Iā€™m going to go through the work around of disabling SIP today so I can re-install TotalFinder and Iā€™ll drop some money on another license just cause. I hope that you can find a way around SIP, or even head over to Kickstarter and look for funding for just creating a full blown Mac App that replaces Finder.
ā€¢ I love the keyboard shortcut to bring up TotalFinder/visor
ā€¢ I love the Cut, Copy, Paste feature (how the hell does Finder still not have keyboard shortcuts to do this)
ā€¢ I love the split screen feature
ā€¢ I love Folders on top
As a fellow developer I know how it is to support a long term project and totally get with wanting to sunset something thatā€™s had a good run, but for me I cannot live apparently with out TotalFinder (And TotalTerminal, so Iā€™m hoping a disabled SIP letā€™s me have that Gem back), so hopefully you have enough people begging you to keep it going that you might re-think sunsetting the app.

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I feel the same way :smile: BinaryAge makes some of my favourite apps and I hope you can get them to work with El Capitan and/or create new ones that do :smile:

EDIT: Probably some other Hack had disabled System Integrity Protection. Original Post below is obsolete.

ā€¦

My TF launches fine since I manually added it to system preferences > users and groups > login items.

If there are no other problems, I think I can live with doing that after every (re)install.

TF 1.7.8
OS 10.11.1 (15B42)

Thank you @darwin for continuing to support it even for a little bit under El Capitan!

I just wanted to let you know that thereā€™s a small issue: When I ā€œReveal in Finderā€ from Xcode, whether itā€™s from the files list (Project Navigator) or from within the Preferences > Accounts > Team and then right clicking on one of the provisioning profiles and selecting ā€œShow in Finderā€, it only opens the top level folder but doesnā€™t go deep enough to where the file actually is.

If I quit TotalFinder and do the same ā€œReveal/Show in Finderā€, it picks up the correct file location.

Note: This is after disabling the SIP as described by you.

<3 TotalFinder!

Thanks. Please use the latest beta. The issue should be fixed by 1.7.9 release:
http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/beta-changes#latest

TotalFinder has been a godsend. I canā€™t imagine Mac life without it.

Iā€™ve looked over some of the other options and Iā€™m unimpressed. Mostly because they donā€™t sync directly with Finder itself (I realize this is why were are now having this issue.) Cut, Copy and Paste, as others have mentioned, is great.

Definitely willing to pay for an upgrade should you be willing to take on a new version.

If this is the end then I understand and thanks for all the hard work thus far!

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Me, too!

Can I just check that SIP has to remain changed. I canā€™t do the SIP change install Total Finder (which Iā€™ve tried living without) and once installed turn SIP back on?

SIP has to remain disabled.

If you have to enable it again, you can try to follow this article:
http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/system-osax

t worked like a charm to me. Thnx!

I am amazed, or maybe not, at the level of denial coming from many of you. One poster even went as far as to say, quote ā€œI simply do not believe youā€¦ā€ in reply to Darwin when he said there is no way to make TF work with SIP enabled. Most of the misunderstanding is because of a lack of understanding how TF works. Comparing to programs like PathFinder, and saying why canā€™t TF do that, etc is irrelevant. Those apps are separate apps, they launch and run independent of Finder. TF is not independent of Finder, it uses code injection, it LITERALLY seeks out and INSERTS its own code into Finder IN MEMORY at runtime. This is no different than what a Trojan or malware program does, Trojans and malware insert themselves into running code to change behavior. The only difference is intent, malware does it to accomplish undesirable behavior; TF does it to accomplish desired behavior. The technical process of replacing the program code is identical. And this behavior is exactly what SIP is meant to prevent, because if TF can do it, so can any other program/developer. Apple CAN NOT judge intent, it can only prevent outside programs from trying to circumvent the operating system, not the reason why.

I do not blame Apple, the reality is allowing code injection is an open invitation to malware, and frankly, it is AMAZING it has gone on this long without major infections on the Mac platform. but OS X can no longer fly under the radar and hope malware developers donā€™t target Macs. Without SIP in place, ANY DEVELOPER could write a program that can change pretty much anything in OS X, once the user puts in their password during install. People criticizing Apple or calling SIP stupid, are IMO naive. I get it that techies and people who tweak their systems (i.e. people who use TF), feel SIP is dumb, but that is because as techies we understand how to practice safe computing. The other 99.5% non techies donā€™t understand, and dontā€™ need to understand, they need to be protected from themselves, and that is why SIP was implemented.

For TF to work without disabling SIP, would require a COMPLETE and FUNDAMENTAL rewrite and design of how TF works, basically TF would have to be rewritten as an app, like PathFinder or ForkLift. This would not be trivial, but a huge undertaking. Itā€™s not just changing a few lines of code here and there, it is a completely different approach and design, and Darwin understands that it isnā€™t worth his effort to enter into a market space that is already crowded, with products that have years head start, but yā€™all wonā€™t listen.

Some people have said why canā€™t Apple keep SIP, but just allow certain ā€˜trustedā€™ programs to make changes. The SECOND you go down that road, you have totally defeated the purpose and security of SIP. Who decides what is ā€˜trustedā€™? How will you enforce? Hackers can already spoof app signatures and security signatures, so having an app signed is still no guarantee. EVERY developer in the world is going to request an exception be made for it, EVERY developer in the world is going to insist its programs are ā€˜trustedā€™. Once you open a ā€˜back doorā€™ then you open a back door to potentially anybody. Do you expect Apple to test every Mac app to see if it can be trusted, and every upgrade and update for all time? And once ā€˜trustedā€™ status is given to a developer, who says that developer canā€™t start inserting ā€˜badā€™ behavior into his program? What if a spyware company pays a developer enough money to use his ā€˜trustedā€™ status to bypass SIP and add code to do nasty things to your Mac?

As a developer myself, I understand Darwinā€™s position. I love TF, but the writing is on the wall. Turning off SIP is a stop gap, and even though I may turn off SIP personally because Iā€™m technically savvy and know how to protect myself, I will NOT turn off SIP or recommend it for my non technical friends and family and co workers. Itā€™s precisely those kind of users that SIP is most intended to try to protect.

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Hello Darwin,

I came across this bug while trying to show how dual mode in TF is much better than Split view (considering finder windows management). First I had dual pane mode and tried to use split view and it didnā€™t allow me to select another application. Then I tried, while in split view to ā€œreleaseā€ the tabs from dual mode and TF crashed. I realize this is a very specific situation, and I believe hardly anybody will use it like this, but it caused TF to crash so I believe it is relevant.

I am not sure if you are still maintaining TF, but I figured to report it here regardless ā€¦

Thanks for all the hard work.

Are you guys planning on shifting your scope to other platforms or other app ideas? Really curious to what you guys can come up with.

Regards,

TD

Michael1, if you were going to use another app which one would you choose (suggest) at this point?