Issue with empty folders in Finder.

Hi all.

I just discovered what I think is a bug, but I would like to hear if anyone else can reproduce it before I report it to Apple.

It seems there's a problem with opening folders with no content. If, for instance, I make a new folder and then open it, it should show op with just a white background (because the folder is empty), but it doesn't. It just stays in the previous folder. However, the title bar will change to the empty folder's name.

See this screenshot:
http://cl.ly/image/2c3c0d3U0b2e

In addition, it might be worth mentioning that if I change to list view, I am taken to the new folder as expected. So Finder does actually change to the empty folder, but it just doesn't update to actually show the empty folder. I was able to confirm this by dropping a file in the Finder window, and it transferred to the empty folder, not to the previous folder whose content was showing. And after transferring the file there are no issues when opening the same folder.

Can anyone reproduce this?
I'm on 10.8.1.

- Thanks!

That's strange. It happens invariably for me. But I just found out it's only in Icon view. List, Column and Cover Flow work properly.

Do you have any idea what might be causing this? Or any tips for solving it?

I only just discovered it today, so I don't know if I had it on 10.8.0 as well.

EDIT: I just checked the other Mac in the house, and it works fine on that as well...

PeterHolbrook said:

It happens for other people as well. Look here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4139732?start=0&tstart=0, here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19031372#19031372#19031372 and here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19079128#19079128#19079128

A temporary "solution" involves pressing Command-2 Command-1 after double-clicking on an empty folder in icon view.

Click to expand...

- Interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. One user in the first thread you linked to offers a temporary solution that's more viable than your suggestion I think: Enabling "show icon preview" in Finder. This solves the problem completely, and I actually think I prefer Finder with icon previews.

I will report it to Apple.

PeterHolbrook said:

Unfortunately, I don't think that solves the Finder bug at all.

Click to expand...

- No, of course it doesn't. I should have been clearer.
Enabling the "show icon preview" setting prevents the problem from appearing, so it can be used as a temporary solution until the real problem is fixed.

PeterHolbrook said:

"Show icon preview" shows previews of icons, but doesn't keep the empty-folder Finder bug from appearing. I've just checked it and, no, it doesn't do anything for me.

Click to expand...

- Hmm. Well, it does for me. It seems there's a lot of variables here...

PeterHolbrook said:

After checking again, it seems I was applying the Show Icon Preview to the parent, non-empty the folder, the one containing the child, empty folder. After applying the Show Icon Preview setting to the child folder, Finder does work as expected in Icon View. Thanks for the hint.

Click to expand...

- Well, I'm glad. In case you don't know, to apply the setting to all folders, click this button (in Danish, but you should get the idea):