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When I have a folder open in the Finder, in list view, and have several of the folders expanded (or as they say, the disclosure triangles expanded), sometimes I come back to the window and find all the triangles have been reset. In other words, various entries will be expanded/drilled-down, and then something happens, and then all of the folders have collapsed again.

This is particularly irritating because I often have a particular folder opened, one which has several levels of nested folders, and when this occurs I have to manually drill down using the disclosure triangles again.

Why is this happening? How can I stop it from happening? I am using Mac OS X 10.6.

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The disclosure state of subfolders in the current folder is stored in hidden .DS_Store files.

  • Make sure you have write permissions in these directories so that these files can be created,
  • don't have a utility (e.g. BlueHarvest)
  • or preference (e.g. this for network volumes) that prevents creation of these files.
  • If you're referring to network volumes with multiple people accessing them, it's possible that other users (e.g. Windows users) delete those files, or other Mac users change the disclosure state.
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Thanks for your answer. (1) I have permissions to the directories. If I expand a few disclosure triangles, close the window, and go back, it's still in the correct state. (2) I don't have that (3) I don't have that (4) This is a folder on a local volume. – Shaggy Frog Feb 4 '11 at 9:07
@Shaggy Repeat the (1) test, but Restart Finder in between. Option-Rightclick its Dock icon and select Restart Finder. Finder keeps some state on its own independent of .DS_Store files. – Daniel Beck Feb 4 '11 at 9:11
Relaunched Finder. No change -- I still own the directory, .DS_Store still present, etc etc. I can't get the behaviour to occur when I want it to. It is intermittent. – Shaggy Frog Feb 4 '11 at 9:26
@Shaggy Does it happen randomly with a different folder each time, a specific folder each time, or multiple folders each time? What do you mean by "come back to the window", do you have a Finder window open the whole time, or do you mean when you open a folder the next time after previously closing it? – Daniel Beck Feb 4 '11 at 9:36
Different folders at different times. The Finder window is open the whole time, sometimes at the top of the heap, sometimes at the bottom, sometimes moved around the screen with a few others here and there. I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't some keyboard combo "collapse all folders" that I am unknowingly hitting. – Shaggy Frog Feb 4 '11 at 19:04
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