Something wrong with the Finder or an app, and you want to trash its preferences? Don’t: macOS will defeat you. Here’s how to do that so it works.
Finder
Apparently at random, my main working folder, on an external SSD, vanishes from the Finder. Is this a problem in macOS 11.1?
The answer could be anything from 15 to 32 GB. Maybe the Finder’s just having a wild guess? Numbers courtesy of Big Sur and APFS.
So convenient to use – edit them in the Comments: section of Finder’s Get Info dialog. But as reliable as loose scraps of paper, and as easily lost.
Unlike file data, metadata has varying persistence. Some is ephemeral, others sticky. macOS has inbuilt mechanisms for managing the persistence of extended attributes.
Easy to access, well-supported in the Finder and elsewhere, Finder tags are powerful tools which rely on extended attributes to do their job. All you need to know about them.
How can you create and resolve Finder Aliases at the command line? And two further utilities you may find helpful for working with Aliases.
Trying to discover the effective size of a snapshot proves baffling, particularly when the Finder claims it’s almost astronomical.
Strange moiré effects seen in some QuickLook thumbnails lead down another rabbit hole in what we thought was reliable code.
Five different classes of metadata, from file system attributes to embedded Info.plist files, explained and explored.
