Finder Displays Folders As Files

[dfrugg]

I've come across an interesting issue with Finder that I find ridiculous, but my googling/search skills are failing me. If the name of a folder includes dots/periods and ends in certain word/extension, Finder treats it as a file rather than a folder.

For example, if I name a folder "my.project.plugin" Finder will convert the view of that folder to a file icon and remove the expansion arrow(Note: I have Adobe Soundbooth installed and the directory becomes a Soundbooth file type). Terminal still shows it as a directory but Finder is all confused.

Believing it was due to extension mapping, I've looked at lsregister dump and it shows the binding between Soundbooth and the .plugin extension, and tried to remove the mapping with lsregister and the RCDefaultApp preference pane, to no avail.

My question is how do I stop this ridiculous behavior in Finder and always have it show a folder as a folder, as it affect the ability to open child files within the folder from other applications. BTW, I've looked at the com.apple.finder.plist to see if there was an obvious property to control this, but no luck.

Thank you in advance.

 

[GGJstudios]

The solution is simple: Don't name folders with file extensions. It's not necessary. You can easily substitute another character for the period, such as a comma or underscore or dash.

 

[dfrugg]

I could limit the folder name to only use a subset of legal characters that other OS's and software has no problem dealing with, but I'm looking to change the behavior of Finder, not the name.

 

[Gregg2]

You're wanting to customize the OS in a way that is difficult, at best. The simple solution offered above is superior. Change your expectations, and your icons will look the way you want them to look. If you did find a way to "hack" in what you want, it may cause other problems.