Reset view preferences for all mac folders

Question

I would like to reset the preferences for all my Mac OS X folders. Is this possible?

Lri · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-23 20:52:55Z

20

This would find and delete the files storing view options under your home directory:

find ~ -name .DS_Store -delete

(And don't forget the -name flag — without it it the command would delete everything in your home directory.)

As far as I (and Wikipedia) know, the .DS_Store files mostly store information about folder-specific view options.

answered Nov 23, 2011 at 20:30

Lri

41.8k7 gold badges123 silver badges158 bronze badges

1

Do these files only contain Finder view preferences, or maybe also some other data (e.g. thumbnail caches?)
– Daniel Beck ♦
Commented Nov 23, 2011 at 20:32
1

@DanielBeck The Quick Look thumbnails are stored in /private/var/folders/*/*/*/com.apple.QuickLook.thumbnailcache.
– Lri
Commented Nov 23, 2011 at 20:55
4

Nice read about where they come from.
– slhck
Commented Nov 23, 2011 at 20:56
Read this if you want to get rid of .DS_Store files.
– Arnie97
Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 9:37
1

Correct but with some limitations: Finder caches the view preferences of "recently accessed" folders (I have no further details how many & how long, but it certainly does it). So even if you close all open Finder windows instances of "folder X", then delete that folder's .DS_Store via Terminal, then even relaunch Finder (in Dock alt-click Finder → Relaunch) then open "folder X", its old custom view preferences get restored. And if you ls -ldF .* before/after removal you notice that .DS_Store gets re-created with the exact same byte count.
– porg
Commented Jan 13, 2023 at 10:18

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Hanson · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-31 08:45:12Z

24

To restore a folder to the default view settings,

Open the View Options panel (Command-J, or View » Show View Options);
Then hold down the Option key and click the bottom button. With the Option key down, the ‘Use as Defaults’ button will change to ‘Restore to Defaults’.

answered Mar 31, 2014 at 8:45

Hanson

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Although the 'correct' answer is great (if you don't make mistakes in copying that dangerous command', this answer is excellent if you don't want to risk Terminal commands.
– LWTBP
Commented Nov 29, 2019 at 6:28
This IS the correct answer when doing this for a single folder for these reasons: + Fast and easy: ⌘J + click "Restore to Defaults") + The other approach (delete .DS_Store) does (sometimes) not work as Finder caches the view preferences in memory. See details in the comment thread there. + The other approach is beneficial for batch operations.
– porg
Commented Jan 13, 2023 at 10:05

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