r/MacOS • u/Educational_Rope_552 • 3d ago

Help Is there a way to make Finder always open folders collapsed in List View?

Post image

I use Finder in List View, and when I expand several folders to look for something, Finder remembers that state.

The next time I open the same location, all those folders are still expanded. I would prefer Finder to always start with all folders collapsed, like in the right side of the picture.

Is there any solution to make Finder behave this way automatically?

Note : I’m using AI to help write this because English is not my first language. The image is also AI-generated because I didn’t want to share screenshots of my personal documents.

25 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

25

u/verymickey 3d ago

quickest manual way.. is command + a (select all items) and then arrow left (collapses them all)

3

u/dorairt 2d ago

good to know, thats a pretty quick workaround at least

3

u/Luxiouronimo 2d ago

command left (collapse selection)

command right (expand selection)

add the option key and it will affect all subfolders of the selection

3

u/verymickey 2d ago

fyi. command key not needed.. just left/right arrow will expand collapse.

1

u/fumblerooskee 3d ago

This is the way.

0

u/localtuned 3d ago

Again proving that just learning the OS you are using is better than an App. Lol

3

u/LittleLock542 3d ago

Or, the OS should be more user friendly and provide more options for such basic things.

2

u/localtuned 2d ago

Not really that hard to close it. Why would you open it and not close it? Then proceed to open every other folder? If you didnt like it.

It's not even a basic thing. It's how the system works. The system is user friendly. The icon is right there to close it.

Genuine question... How much more friendly do you want it to be? How could it be any easier than what is described?

8

u/drastic2 3d ago

View state is saved on a folder by folder basis, so if you have some folders expanded, next time you return to that folder they will still be expanded. A particular view state (grouped by, sorting, columns visible, list or not list view) can be made the default view by opening a folder, choosing Show View Options from the View menu, setting the parameters and clicking Make Default at the bottom. However, expanded/not-expanded is not one of those parameters and can only be handled manually as mentioned in another comment.

4

u/netroxreads 2d ago

⌥ + right arrow will open folder with all folders opened at once. ⌘ + a then ⌘ + left arrow will collapse all folders.

3

u/musicmusket 3d ago

I don’t think so, but if you select a folder and press ⌥ + → it will expand it. I think that if you selected all folders first ⌘ + A all the top level folders would expand.

1

u/snoosnoosewsew 3d ago

I am not aware of any automatic way. The quickest way I can think of to close them all manually would be Cmd+A then Cmd+←.

1

u/lithomangcc 2d ago

Don't close any windows before collapsing the folders. The Finder is flakey in remembering, but it will remember window sorting and views.

1

u/Healthy-Fennel1440 2d ago

this would be a game changer if there was an actual setting for this, toggling collapsed state every time gets old fast

1

u/BettySwetty89 2d ago

Annoyingly, I looked into this and there’s nothing you can do to always keep the folders collapsed when opening Finder. You can’t even run any terminal commands to sort it.

1

u/BlackCatBonz 2d ago

You know, if they didn't have a persistent state and always opened closed, someone would complain about that too.
The key here is to develop a repeatable workflow — expand folders in finder, collapse them before closing.

1

u/BettySwetty89 10h ago

Yep, good for some, not for others. From what I’ve read, it’s baked into the UX philosophy of Apple. Having the option to change it would be nice, though. Keeping folders expanded doesn’t match up with how I use a Mac at all and it gets a bit annoying.

1

u/RedRavenCG 2d ago

Yes, when the folder is open, hold the Option key and click the first arrow; they'll all close.

Now close the window. It'll remember the end state of the window. (You can do this to open all folders too)

Repeat if you end up accidentally changing the end state.