Comments on: Mac OS X Lion – Remove “All My Files” from Finder

By: AP

AP — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:33:19 +0000

What was Apple thinking when they introduced this feature!

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 01:29:56 +0000

I also hate All My Files, Launchpad, monochrome icons and other wonderful features designed to make computers fit the iphone modus operandi. I have followed all the instructions to customize Finder and Sidebar preferences, but every time restart or I log out and log back in, there it is again. All the folders I have dragged into the sidebar are gone, all the ones I have gotten rid of are back – it doesn’t keep any of my settings. I have deleted the finder and sidebar plists in ~/Library/Preferences, restarted, customized it, and it’s fine until I restart or log out. If I save the old plist which has no longer existent folders in it and put it back, this will persist with a restart or log out, but any new settings I put in will not stick. I even reinstalled the system via the Lion restore feature, which took hours, and I got the same old sidebar I wanted to get rid of and couldn’t get new preferences to stick. I have done permissions repairs but that doesn’t change it. I have reset PRAM.

Things generally aren’t working as well since the release of Mountain Lion and IOS 6, I presume because everything is being modified to work with the newer systems. I have used 3rd party software like Cocktail at times to try to fix things up; some features are good but some seem to make things worse, at least for someone with my level of knowledge. If All My Files is the wave of the future for Apple, I may be switching to Windows sometime in my future. Was this really Steve Jobs’ intention, for the iphone to distort the Mac OS beyond recognition?

Anyway, if I erase and reinstall the OS, is it likely to fix it, or will the same old stuff be brought into the new OS from my backups? Would I have to completely start from scratch with my preferences, display calibration profiles, etc? Thanks for any suggestions.

By: gnormb

gnormb — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 20:48:50 +0000

This was helpful, thanks! Various other searches – including of apple support areas were not nearly as helpful or clear.

By: Scott Crittenden

Scott Crittenden — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:18:43 +0000

Thanks so much! That was driving me crazy….

By: Russell

Russell — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:24:17 +0000

Thank you kindly!!!

By: Richard Kettelerij

Richard Kettelerij — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 16:34:30 +0000

Great trick, the “all my files” view is slow as hell

By: Errg

Errg — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:27:06 +0000

uff, thanks

By: DropTheNerd

DropTheNerd — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 02:43:45 +0000

This is great! Thanks for sharing!

By: hey-ya

hey-ya — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:24:27 +0000

THANK YOU. I cannot think of one reason why All My Files would be useful.

By: Cody

Cody — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:56:21 +0000

All of Mac Lion’s new features for ease of usability are terrible. All my files = terrible; automatically opening all previously open windows upon restarting OS or program = worst idea in the history of an OS. It sucks that Mac has started treating people like Windows user of yore. It’s all downhill once a company gets too big of a market share. Too bad Apple started treating us like idiots!

By: deth

deth — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:03:58 +0000

It is still on the “GO” menu…

By: Mike Tippets

Mike Tippets — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:48:18 +0000

Thanks very much – this was completely annoying.

By: Daphne Schmaphne (@bythesheetstore)

Daphne Schmaphne (@bythesheetstore) — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:49:08 +0000

googled my problem, your response was first, easy peasy solution – THANKS!

By: Skylac

Skylac — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 22:16:56 +0000

Did you find a fix for this as it’s happened to a friend of mine?

By: Julian Profas

Julian Profas — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:11:20 +0000

thanks, very useless default display, changed it to my home folder ^^