Finder window gone extra wide.

When viewing the finder window in the column mode ti is really really wide and is a pain to navigate across to folders.

Think there is a simple solution but can't find it.

Any clues?

Welcome to the forum.

By "extra wide" do you mean full screen? If all it is is that it's too wide, just drag the right side to the left. Hover over the edge of the window until the cursor changes to a two headed arrow, then click and drag to what you want.

If it's full screen, then move the mouse cursor to the upper left corner of the screen and the red/yellow/green dots appear. Click the Green.

Thanks Jake. I wish it was a simple answer like you describe but sadly its a little more complicated. Somehow or for some reason the finder window just appears super wide.
Normally when you open a new window with files etc you get several column you can navigate through but now each column is as wide as the window and you have to scroll across to get to the next column and so on until you're after the file you want.

I've tried attaching a screen grab that might explain my problem better visually but having issues with that as well.

Insert image menu won't work. Uploads image fine but then not.

OK, I don't use the columns view, but when I tried it, all I needed to do was grab the divider line between columns and move it to the left to shrink the column. Then do the same with the next column, etc.

However, to try to fix it, open Finder then click on the Go at the top bar, then hold down the CMD key and Library should open up. Go there. In the Preferences folder find "com.apple.finder.plist" and move it to the desktop or delete it. The goal is to have that file NOT be in the Library/Preferences folder. Now open terminal and issue the following command:

sudo killall Finder

then enter an admin password (It won't appear, just type it in carefully and then hit Return).

That will kill Finder, but it will then immediately restart and create a new plist file. That should solve the problem, I think.

I think I understand what is happening here because something similar just happened to me.

When finder windows are in column view the width of each column seems to initially be set by the length of the longest filename. Check to see if you have some file with a rather long name,.

Here's what I think will fix the issue. Go to one of the windows that is giving you problems then do the following:
1. At the top of the window are a series of column headings Name, Date Modified, etc. scroll slowly across the column heading until the cursor becomes an arrow.
2. Click the dividing line and drag the size of the column till it gets smaller. Note: Your mouse must stay in the column headings area for the to work.
3. Adjust each column size as needed. Close the window and reopen it to see if the changes stick.

Note: My file with the long name was due to accidentally saving a Word file without a filename. Word took a chunk of the first sentence as the fee name thus creating a really long filename.

Jake beat me to it. Good advice about killing the Finder preference. I had not thought of suggesting that.

Hi Jake, and Slydude, yes I know about grabbing the divider line but each column is very very wide and to get to a file say 5 columns away is tedious. Then it's the wrong file! It works fine when I navigate to a window say from Photoshop. The columns are normal, that being narrow columns. It would drive me crazy to have to do this every time I want something.

Yes I can use one of the other 3 options but you sort of get into your own mode of working and mine is columns.

So in finder mode, <command N> for a new window–same problem. If I can work out how to past a screen grab you'll see better whats happening.

Will try dumping finder prefs as you've explained.

Hi Jake, ditching prefs didn't work I'm afraid.

I'm having trouble uploading images. Any clues why this function is not working. Following all the leads but when the file uploads to the menu window it appears with an ! make and won't load?

Normally that means the picture you uploaded was too big. I don't know the file size limitations of the board, but I am running into that more as screenshots from a retina screen are much bigger. I may have to start using Preview to shrink the files.

One thing Sly suggested may be well worth looking at. The columns are autosized to fit the data, so if you have ONE file with a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG name, it will size the column to fit. But if you do a quick scroll down the list of files to find the one long name and change the name to be shorter, the next time you open finder the columns will (should) be better.

Speaknoevil said:

Hi Jake, and Slydude, yes I know about grabbing the divider line but each column is very very wide and to get to a file say 5 columns away is tedious. Then it's the wrong file! It works fine when I navigate to a window say from Photoshop. The columns are normal, that being narrow columns. It would drive me crazy to have to do this every time I want something.

Yes I can use one of the other 3 options but you sort of get into your own mode of working and mine is columns.

So in finder mode, <command N> for a new window–same problem. If I can work out how to past a screen grab you'll see better whats happening.

Will try dumping finder prefs as you've explained.

Click to expand...

What do you have set in Finder Preferences >General for "New Finder windows show:"? Try changing it, then restart.

Happens with any window regardless of what folder I start with. Thanks god I've got a mouse. Normally use a Wacom tablet but started using the mouse again which I'm enjoying the sideways scrolling etc.
My son set it up for really fast and I have a sneaking suspicion I hit something when things were flying all over the place when trying to come to terms with using a fast mouse.

Uploading file size 188kb.

ferrarr, I'm not quite understanding you suggestion sorry. "New finder windows show"?

Did you look for a long file name?

Speaknoevil said:

Happens with any window regardless of what folder I start with. Thanks god I've got a mouse. Normally use a Wacom tablet but started using the mouse again which I'm enjoying the sideways scrolling etc.
My son set it up for really fast and I have a sneaking suspicion I hit something when things were flying all over the place when trying to come to terms with using a fast mouse.

Uploading file size 188kb.

ferrarr, I'm not quite understanding you suggestion sorry. "New finder windows show"?

Click to expand...

In Finder, go up to the menu bar and click on Finder. Now select Preferences. When the Finder Preferences window opens, click on the General Tab. On the General tab there is a drop down box for "New Finder windows show:". Try changing that selection, and restart your computer.

Jake - no long file names. If I do move all the column widths narrower for that wind its fine but if I open a new window same wide columns.

Thanks for that ferrarr but alas didn't fix it.

Really surprised that dumping Finder prefs did not solve the problem!
I think it's time to try a different user account. Create a new one, and see if the problem persists.

Try changing the first column and then close the finder window. Have you also tried to Relaunch Finder?

Here are a couple of other ways to remove finder preferences. Hopefully something will help.

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/finder.html
http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/25/setting-the-default-column-size-in-mac-os-x-finder-windows/
http://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...nder-in-list-view-column-widths-keep-changing

Looks like toMACsh is on to something.

Tried a new user and new finder window and all good with narrow columns.

Will give dumping prefs again. May not have done it correctly.

ferrarr wins with http://osxdaily.com/2010/03/25/setting-the-default-column-size-in-mac-os-x-finder-windows/

A simple solution by resizing column width while holding option key. Who'd a thought.

Thank you all for your help and perseverance.

Now onto the random laughing baby noise!!