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Subj. Now it is set to Macintosh HD.

Please, help me to change it !

Update: it was noticed in TextMate at least

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I don't have my Mac in front of me at the moment, but perhaps changing the default "new window" folder in Finder's preferences will change the default save location for other programs. It's worth a shot! – jrc03c Jul 8 '10 at 19:18
Well, it points to my home directory, and I really wish File Save to have the same, but it doesn't. – Andrei Jul 8 '10 at 20:57
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4 Answers

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It seems to depend on the application. Just now, with 10.6.4:

  • iCal's Export dialog started in whatever folder I used the last time;
  • Safari and Firefox seem to start with ~/Desktop;
  • NeoOffice started with ~/Documents;
  • Console started with ~/Library/Logs.

So I'm not sure there is any system default; each application seems to have its own idea of where you are likely to want to save a file.

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Most apps remember the folder that either: 1. Was last accessed by the system's file dialog; or 2. Was last accessed by that application. – msanford Jul 8 '10 at 22:06
Hm, you are right, I have this problem with TextMate. Probably I should make my question more narrow. But I have such feeling that there was at least one more app offering the same useless location. – Andrei Jul 9 '10 at 16:32
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up vote 2 down vote

The location dialog boxes open to is determined by the application via a parameter they pass into the API call. If the application doesn't store the last used location, or always passes in the same location, there's not much you can do about it.

As long as the program is using the standard Cocoa API, there are many shortcut keys that can be used to jump around to mitigate this problem:

  • Command-Shift-D - Jumps to ~/Desktop
  • Command-Shift-H - Jumps to ~/
  • Command-Shift-A - Jumps to /Applications
  • Command-Shift-C - Jumps to the "Computer's" root and shows all mounted disks
  • Command-Shift-G - opens a prompt and allows you to type a (tab-completable) path
  • Command-Shift-. - toggles hidden files (typically).

Should work in both Save and Open standard dialogs.

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up vote 1 down vote

Perhaps you'd be interested in a third-party solution?

Default Folder X allows you to set the default folder on a per-application basis, or system-wide. It also enhances save dialog boxes, giving you folder shortcuts, favourites, etc.

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First of all, it is not free. Secondly, I still have some hope, that one can fix it in system preferences. At least, I expect it to be possible in good operation systems/apps. But thanks for the tip anyway! – Andrei Jul 9 '10 at 16:35
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up vote 0 down vote

Just discovered a great trick for dealing with this and other Finder dialogs, although I guess it may still vary from one app to another. In any case, worked for me when I was using an Upload File dialog from Firefox.

I found that if I simply browsed to the desired folder, then the next time the upload dialog opened it would always reset to ~/Documents folder. But if I selected a location under SEARCH FOR in the sidebar then the Finder dialog would reuse it. So I made a Smart Folder that simply pointed to the desired folder/files and had it saved in the sidebar.

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