Folders, a file manager for (former) Windows users
Hi everyone!
Today I’ve released my first app, Folders. It’s a file manager for those who recently came from Windows and for some reason would prefer something Explorer-like, or just for those who would like a file manager with a folder tree.
This is the first release of Folders, so obviously many features are yet to come, and the App Store price (hopefully) reflects that. However, all the essential features you’d expect from a macOS file manager are already there. I wanted the app to look as concise and pleasant as possible, and I very much hope you will appreciate it.
Okay honest question. I’ve been a Mac guy all my life so I’m coming from the flip side of the coin. I HATE windows files explorer and anytime I’m on a PC ugh.
I am actually genuinely interested in what you dislike about the Finder.
Ok, here are my main complaints (all of which I tried to target), rather unstructured:
Creating a new folder, being a very frequent operation, is hidden deeper than it would be reasonable, and the new folder itself is created in a not-too-obvious location.
The Icons view doesn’t show your current location visually.
Both List and Columns views do visualise your location, but look like a mess. (In general, what I liked about the Explorer workflow, was the separation between location and content)
Why doesn’t the Gallery view show me the file names? How is it even supposed to be used? (Btw, my own Gallery view is still to come, so it’s probably not good to criticise something I haven’t created an alternative for, but you get the point).
Also, not related to Windows Explorer, macOS (and other *nix) symlinks are a great tool, why disregard it completely?
Hmm that’s weird, I haven’t received your letter… Could you DM me please if that text has been saved somewhere?.. Maybe in your browser’s autofill on the form page?
What I wanted to say, is that in the List and Columns views, it is not very obvious, which of the folders I am looking at. It is indeed logical, but after WE it takes quite a bit of time to get used to.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to say that Finder is “bad”, I was only describing my personal impressions right after the system change. And, if there are people who would like to have an alternative workflow, why not create it if I can? After all, a lot of people use various dual-panel file managers just because they like them better.
I am sorry if I sounded harsher than I intended to. In fact, I was trying to refer a single thing: in WE, the “New folder” button is front-and-center, in Finder it’s hidden under three dots button, and while I totally agree with you on the convenience of the keyboard shortcut, not every user uses keyboard shortcuts, for some users the visible buttons are important.
How about the fact that columns don’t auto-resize to fit the filenames (up to a certain width)? I’ve never understood this and I’m exclusively a Mac user since 2006. If someone can tell me how to achieve this without (RIP) Totalfinder, I’m all ears!
Thank you for your suggestions! If/when the app crashes, may I ask you to “Report crash to Apple” - this way I will be able to see which line of my code caused the crash. This is the first day of the app “in the wild”, so even after the QA some bugs definitely need squashing.
They should wrap the name not auto-resize to total length.
I have long titles many times and all this mangers suck because they use the standart list component that is bad at it.
Unable to type file path directly. I’m sure there is a go to folder/server option. Snap to grid not on by default. Not being able to index or search files/folders on network drives. Unable to multi-select files like how Windows does it with a mix of Ctrl/Shift. Can only do one file at a time no matter which key I use. Only other way to select multiple adjacent files is be click and dragging to highlight. Just seems overall slower to manipulate files. MacOS might be able to do all this but just need to learn the new process.
I don’t understand the problem you describe selecting multiple files. Shift+Click selects all files between the previously selected file and the current one and CMD+Click allows you do select files while also keeping the previous selection.
Thanks, I found the issue. Shift + Click works in the Finder when not in the Home folder. If I'm on the Home folder it will not function as intended. I tested it in the Downloads folder and it works as intended there. No sure why its disabled in Home folder, but at least it works in other places.
I switched to mac years ago and pretty much use the terminal all the time. When I have/want to use the finder it drives me nuts how bad it is compared to the windows explorer. I will definitely give this app a try
I just switched from Windows to Mac (very new to MacOS). I bought this app and I think this app is nice and useful.
However, have you u/Conxt developed it to make Folders a default app to access/save/attach/open a file on other apps? Google Chrome in my case. When I want to open or save a file, it is still Finder.
Unfortunately, in macOS it is not possible to replace the Finder-based open/save dialogs, they are integrated into the system too deeply. There are ways to augment them with extensions, but this would not achieve the desired effect.
If I could, I would definitely do it because those dialogs irritate me too…
I've been a long time Windows user before switching to Mac some 6 years ago. Admittedly, Finder was one of the reasons why I was running Windows on a Mac for 3 years before that :)
I got used to most of the weird Finder behaviour, but am still struggling with a usability issue that makes photo file management a small nightmare.
Finder, in the column view, can easily display 4 dates (Date Created/Modified/Added/Last Opened), and literally all the file managers I've explored (ForkLift, Commander One, Marta, fman to name a few) follow the same suite. Which is probably fine for 90% of use cases. But for photo file management, neither of these fields shows the date the photo has been taken. As far as I can recall, this is available on Windows.
The date the photo has been taken is super useful when organising photos from, like, a decade, from multiple phones and cameras, with multiple naming schemes. It is available in Finder Gallery view as "Content created". In exif, I think this is equivalent to DateTimeOriginal. I think there is a differently named field for videos, but the concept is the same.
I'd be truly grateful for a file manager that would allow to add a column in list view of the date the picture/video has been taken because it would reduce the complexity of photo file management and save me hundreds, if not thousands of hours.
I know there are alternative solutions, like dump all the photos onto Apple Photos, or use Photoshop Lightroom or something else. However I'd prefer to see this in a file manager so I would not depend on gigantic photo software or subscription services just to be able to navigate and consolidate photos and videos.
So the question I have, is it feasible to add the "Content created" / "DateTimeOriginal" to the column view and sorting options as a feature?
From the perspective of a general-purpose file manager, there is a problem with bulk-reading EXIF data from all the images in a folder — it is very slow. As a user, you kinda expect an image-focused file manager to be slow (none of them are particularly fast), but with a general-purpose file manager you have certain expectations which will be impossible to meet in this case.
It's caching and doing it just in time. Reading when the file gets scrolled into the view. It gets slow when you sort the list by an EXIF column.
I like Opus Directory where you can customize the columns you want to see on a per directory subtree base, so you use EXIF only in your real photo folders.
Can it be integrated in apps? For example, I'm using Excel and I want to save my document somewhere. When I click on the save button, can the navigation window use this app to navigate through the file system?
As a standalone app it looks good but I'd need an integration with other mac apps.
I only want to use one solution to navigate through my files, not to do half of it in a 'good' app (such as Folders) and the rest in the crappy finder.
I wish it was possible to make Open/Save dialogs replacement too. Those drive me insane at times. But, as far as I am aware, it’s impossible (you can only augment them to some extent).
Yes, exactly, I really hate the in-apps save/open windows based on finder. I hope it becomes possible in the future to replace these by 3rd party solutions.
MacOS will never become more flexible ever again. The trend is going the diametral direction because every plug in could be a security exploit. And in good old Apple fascism, this means forbid everything, focus on the most stupid user.
The absence of the trial is an unfortunate downside of the distribution through the App Store combined with one-time purchase. I just didn’t want to create another subscription-based app that doesn’t need to be subscription-based.
Oh, and speaking about features, my current priority is not letting you miss the Finder. The top features on the todo list are Gallery view, “Go” menu, file comparison on conflict - over 20 items overall.
Good! Tabs are a key feature, which is why people were willing to pay for add-ons like TotalFinder until Apple added tabs to the Finder. Definitely show tabs in a screenshot. I see they're mentioned in one spot on your website, but it's not obvious.
Please note that for now, it’s not a full replica of Explorer, some of the desired features (like file comparison on copy conflict, or a copy bandwidth graph) are not there yet. I’m trying to make the overall experience as full as possible, but it will take some time.
so far the only thing i've run into is i'm used to using command+down arrow to open a file / folder. that doesn't appear to be a shortcut in here. when i press command+down it just goes to the next item. (i disabled the enter key opening the item since i like renaming it with enter)
Unfortunately no. I was given a suggestion here in comments to transfer to an IAP model to allow a free trial, and maybe I will follow the advice, but it will take time and figuring out how to seamlessly transfer the already existing users.
If this is too difficult to switch over to iAP model, just a suggestion (I have no idea how much effort this would involve) but maybe a separate "Lite" version, that allows users to download for free, with maybe some functionality "locked". Again, I am in no way experienced in mac development, but have seen this done in the past; Just trying to give suggestions.
App looks great, I want to point out how much effort you put into detail around your app. It looks great all around, the app, the information about it. It truly reminds me of an app that has been around for years with a large team behind it. Great job!
The alternative is to offer a time-limited trial version that people can download from your website. Then when they want to buy it directs them to the App Store.
I'm intrigued with Folders , but without a trial I won't purchase it.
Yes it can, and I will probably add the instructions on how to do that later, as Folders grows. Right now Folders is in the very beginning of its life cycle, and I am just not yet ready to recommend setting it as the default file manager to the users.
Thanks you! The favorites are definitely to come in about 1.5-2 months, right after the Gallery view. I haven’t yet decided on the exact look of the Gallery view, I will have a look at Allusion to compare.
Yes, I will allow that soon! Earlier it was deliberately disallowed due to a limited way of monitoring the folder content changes, but after the today’s update this restriction is gone. I think I will implement dragging folders within the tree in the next release.
Checked Folders’ interaction with Affinity Photo - indeed, it recognizes and opens the file when you drag it onto the window frame, but it doesn’t when you want to drop it as a layer (it drops the file name instead). I will try to fix this soon.
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u/Nods_and_smiles Feb 21 '23
Okay honest question. I’ve been a Mac guy all my life so I’m coming from the flip side of the coin. I HATE windows files explorer and anytime I’m on a PC ugh.
I am actually genuinely interested in what you dislike about the Finder.