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Date Modified in finder wont update

N

ninjured

macrumors member
Original poster
May 29, 2005
38
0
ok so my first mac is a few days old now. and something thats really bugging me with os x is if i update say 5 files from a folder that contains 30 files using bbedit.
then go to finder so i can upload those 5 files to ftp.
it doesnt sort the most recent at the top. the only way to get the file to move to the top is if i highlight it, it then decides to jump to the top.

Can this be fixed at all ?
Windows 2000 did it all fine. and in windows xp i noticed u just had to reclick the sort by date modified tab to reorganise them. but i cant seem to find an easy solution in tiger. Any ideas ?
 
so this problem must
A) only happen to me
B) not be seen as a "problem" by mac users
C) to advanced for this forum
D) posted in the wrong section
E) been answered before
 
I don't understand the problem...

On my iBook I can sort the files in a folder window by modification date. Choose View -> as List (cmd-2) and click the top of the Date Modified column and the last modified should appear at the top (or bottom if you clicked the top twice) of the list...

If you don't have a Date Modified column, choose View -> Show View Options (cmd-J) and check the appropriate boxes...
 
Hi,

I'll try and explain a little clearer.

I can open up finder fine and sort by date modified no probs.

So lets say i have finder open and I am sorting by Date modifed.
I then open up a file about 10 down the list in my favourite editer (bbedit) and continue to edit this file.
Then i save this in bbedit and jump back to my finder window.
Now i would expect this file i just saved to jump to the top of the date modifed list as it was the most recently mofied file.
But not so :(
so i would then asume maybe just resorting the columns may bring it to the top. still not working. jump up a folder then back might work. no go.

the only way i can get it to move to the top without a totaly new finder is to actually highlight the file itself in the finder window. and when u have like 50 files in the one dir finding the last 5 you modified is a pain.

hope that explains it better.
 
Ok... I think I understand, I actually do this myself quite often, updating some of the files in my Sites folder, using one of my favorite text editors SubEthaEdit or TextWrangler ;), and use the list view sorted on date modified to just upload the newly modified files and not my entire site... and even if Finder can be a bit slow updating itself I've never had as big problems as you seem to have...

But, a quick and dirty workaround, since you said it will update when the file/files is/are highlighted is to select all (cmd-A). Then the modified files should gather at the top... :)
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Ok... I think I understand, I actually do this myself quite often, updating some of the files in my Sites folder, using one of my favorite text editors SubEthaEdit or TextWrangler ;), and use the list view sorted on date modified to just upload the newly modified files and not my entire site... and even if Finder can be a bit slow updating itself I've never had as big problems as you seem to have...

But, a quick and dirty workaround, since you said it will update when the file/files is/are highlighted is to select all (cmd-A). Then the modified files should gather at the top... :)
Click to expand...
Hiya
thanks for your reply unfortunatly select all doesnt seem to work only when the file is singly selected. so the only thing i can do is hit the arrow down key to scroll thought the entire folder to sort them properly. and i have left finder open for 3mins with no update occuring.

only had my mac for about 5 days and installed all updates so it must be a generic problem with the os. but i dont know anyone else that owns a mac with tiger to check :(

ud think itd have a refresh button :(

ah well
 
I have noticed a related bug. When you rename a file in a list of files, Tiger does not instantly sort the list alphabetically. You have to close the window and re- open it to get the updated list.

Have a go yourself. Rename the top item in the filelist with a 'z' in front of it. The file will remain at the top of the list. Close and re- open the window and the file will be sorted correctly.




aussie_geek
 
aussie_geek said:
I have noticed a related bug. When you rename a file in a list of files, Tiger does not instantly sort the list alphabetically. You have to close the window and re- open it to get the updated list.

Have a go yourself. Rename the top item in the filelist with a 'z' in front of it. The file will remain at the top of the list. Close and re- open the window and the file will be sorted correctly.
Click to expand...

lol i dont seem to have that problem i renamed aa.txt to zaa.txt and it jumped straight to the bottom :confused:
 
aussie_geek said:
I assume you are using list view. It only happens when in column view. ;)

aussie_geek
Click to expand...

mine seems to do that instantly on all views even renaminfg it from terminal it updates in the background window. straightt after i hit enter
 
I am still having this problem in 10.3.9 and people I have spoken to (users of 10.4.8) are still enjoying this constantly crippling issue. There MUST be a fix for this.

Any workarounds? (other than clicking each file in the window?)
It sure has been hard to find anything out about it.

It makes the Mac pretty useless. In addition to having to click on the updated file to get it to update, if you double click on the updated file; the 1st click sends it to the top of the list and the 2nd click opens the next oldest file!
 
5+ YEARS AND APPLE STILL HAS NOT FIXED THIS (among others)

over 2-1/2 years since this post; but it's been around since 10.3 Jaguar (at least) and now it's gone thru Tiger 10.4 UNFIXED and into 10.5 Leopard - so that's what at least 5 years?

Way to go by the incompetent lazy @ss coders at apple (children who get hired on the cheap who prefer to play games and eat snacks rather than learn performance enhancing streamlined coding that works for actual users). thanks mainly to steve jobs who prefers to be worshipped while getting richer and can make things look pretty all the while lying and failing to deliver on actual performance. (but hey like con artists and frauds prove every day, they look nice on the surface don't they?)

lots of unresolved, unanswered posts all over the apple discussions -- tons of them banished to the archives -- regarding this and other similar unfixed bugs (stalls, disconnects, dropped internet/network connections, leaky memory, spinning beach balls, slow sluggish performance and this one failure to refresh or update after file changes/modifications)

luckily some other aspiring helpful people have created attempted options to workaround the refresh/update failure in finder -- attempts to fix this single instance of laziness and incompetence by apple coders (these don't always work but they're better than the resounding deafening silence from apple and their redmond rejects)

Refresh Finder (2007)
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/24714/refresh-finder

Nudge (2007)
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14014/nudge

Refresh Windows (2006)
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20795
 
MyG5MacVerySLOW said:
it's been around since 10.3 Jaguar (at least) and now it's gone thru Tiger 10.4 UNFIXED and into 10.5 Leopard - so that's what at least 5 years?
Click to expand...
Wow.
This bug has bothered me since I began using Tiger in 10.4.3, and I kept expecting it to be fixed in each update, since this is so basic to what an OS should do, but now it's still a bug in 10.4.11. I've been using Macs since 1987 and am a loyal fan, but is it really that difficult to fix this?
If these external programs are the only fix (wow), does one of them work better than the others? Do any of them do bad things in any way? Are there any simple fixes WITHIN 10.4.11?

Here is a partial answer to my question, in a review of Nudge:
"However, i am staying with old Nudge version 1.0.1, because I do not want an artificial change of Modification Date to today, as is now done by Nudge 1.1 all the time. I rely on the file Date of Mofication to be real - that is, when file content was last changed."

update:
I just downloaded Nudge 1.2, and it seems to work fine. It doesn't change any dates except the ones it should (perhaps a fix of the 1.1-bug) and it works automatically, not requiring any action by the user. Why couldn't Apple do this?
 
I'm currently on 10.4.11 but it's driven me mad since Panther, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was happening even before that.

I'll make a change to some files, save them, then go to my folder (list view) and click on the Date Modified column header so that I can see the most recent files on top.... but they don't show up there unless I scroll down and single-click on each one.

Veeeery frustrating.

Is anyone with the latest version of Leopard able to tell me if this problem has been fixed by Apple yet?
 
Still Occurring?

So I'm in Snow Leopard.
I am in list view of Finder - looking into one folder.
I have a huge pile of files in it.
I have just updated one, saved it and I now want to find it.
I sort the files by Date Modified expecting it to appear at the top.
Loads of other files appear before it at the top - even though I have only just modified it.
Am I in the right place to post this? Is this a bug? Am I doing something wrong?
been a Mac user for years and I've always worked around this - but why does this happen? I just want the things I have updated the most recently to appear at the top of a last modified list. It sounds easy to me!
 
spiketrain said:
So I'm in Snow Leopard.
I am in list view of Finder - looking into one folder.
I have a huge pile of files in it.
I have just updated one, saved it and I now want to find it.
I sort the files by Date Modified expecting it to appear at the top.
Loads of other files appear before it at the top - even though I have only just modified it.
Am I in the right place to post this? Is this a bug? Am I doing something wrong?
been a Mac user for years and I've always worked around this - but why does this happen? I just want the things I have updated the most recently to appear at the top of a last modified list. It sounds easy to me!
Click to expand...

Finder behaves correctly in this regard on all my OS X 10.6.4 machines.

Try this:

1) Move ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist (where ~ denotes your Home folder) to your Desktop.

2) Open Terminal (in Utilities) and enter

Code: 
killall Finder

to quit and relaunch Finder.

Any change in Finder's behavior?
 
LPZ said:
Finder behaves correctly in this regard on all my OS X 10.6.4 machines.

Try this:

1) Move ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist (where ~ denotes your Home folder) to your Desktop.

2) Open Terminal (in Utilities) and enter

Code: 
killall Finder

to quit and relaunch Finder.

Any change in Finder's behavior?
Click to expand...

Thanks LPZ.... and apologies for response time!

Yeah, I just took your advice and it didn't change anything. This happens to all the Macs in the house - and all through the years of owning and using Macs of every kind. I think us PC converts tend to notice this more than other Mac users. It must be endemic in the structure of file sorting - and continues to drive me mad!

Perhaps renaming a file doesn't constitute "modifying". Like if I were to take a file and modify it's actual intrinsic data it would allow the sort to make sense and correctly represent it at the top of a Finder window.

However If you just rename a file in Finder, I'm not sure Apple would recognise this as an actual modification per se and therefore it keeps it adhered to a previous date.

There is a Terminal / Coding kind of way to adjust a file's modified date I discovered - but I'm not about to wade through the lengthy logistics of this for a feature I need every day, many times - and done instantly.

I happen to call a renamed (or moved) file "modified" by definition of the modification and so does Windows. The fact that Apple don't seem to comply here is very annoying - but it's not enough for me to go back to the ways of MS!

I will research further - there must be other ways around. I use Pathfinder a lot at the moment (it has a cmd X / cmd V cut and paste - another missing aspect of Finder) but this won't sort files by date modified either...... one day I'll find a fix for this!
 
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