Snow Leopard Finder bug?!? [Not really but almost]

[FMiguelez]

Hello.

This has happened twice today already, and I really don't like it...

I do a Finder search (using ⌘F), search by "Name" "Ending With" " .db" on Folder X.
I get all the results. Then I press ⌘A and ⌘⌫ to send them to the trash. Then nothing happens... Hmmmmm.... strange. Upon further inspection, I notice they remain VISUALLY in the Finder window even though they are on the trash AS WELL.

Kinda like Quantum Mechanics... these files are in two places at once!
Even if I dump the Trash, the found files can't break this quantum entanglement. They remain stubbornly and confusingly there (at least visually). Only after closing the Finder window do they go away. Hmmmmm..... this makes me trust the Finder less, which is quite serious, I think.

Has anybody experienced this? Or could someone make a quick test exercise to confirm/deny?

Thanks!

[mikehalloran]

This is not a bug.


When you Show All, it does exactly that shows all - including files in the Trash. Moving the file to trash will still show because it is still on your machine - one of the "all" as it were. If you do a Get Info, you will see that the location has moved to the Trash. When you Empty Trash, the files will disappear.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I would have expected them to have disappeared once you emptied the trash. That's what happens here... I think...

[FMiguelez]

This is not a bug.


When you Show All, it does exactly that shows all - including files in the Trash. Moving the file to trash will still show because it is still on your machine - one of the "all" as it were. If you do a Get Info, you will see that the location has moved to the Trash. When you Empty Trash, the files will disappear.

I see.

If it's a user mistake then woops... my fault (not Apple's, as my OP suggested).

But if this is what you say, then you've got to admit it is confusing, to say the least. There was no indication that the files had "changed places" (from wherever they were -all scattered around a disk image- to the Trash). A simple change to grey color would've made this more obvious (I had the volume muted, so didn't hear the sound).

What confused me the most is that, most un-intuitively, they didn't seem to go away even after the trash can had been dumped. If I empty the trash I expect to at least don't SEE what I just dumped (even if it's really still there).
I mean, I consider myself an experimented Mac user, but I was thrown off by this nevertheless...

Now that I think of it, it would've been interesting trying the Secure Empty Trash command to see if it made a difference. Then at least I could've seen the machine writing 1s and 0s like mad.

But your explanation makes perfect sense from a logical POV (except for the still seeing them after dumping the trash part).

Thanks for the quick responses

[FMiguelez]

I just reconfirmed by doing a little experiment (and you were right about point 1, Mike Halloran):

1.- If I delete the files and get their Get Info window, the location reads they are in the Trash.

2.- If I dump the Trash, the location of the files disappears (not even a field for it shown anymore!). But the files remain visible in the Finder window.

So it all makes sense except for the second result. Or what do you guys think?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I think it has everything to do with the search feature not releasing its contents until you shut the window or do a different search.... THAT makes sense to me.

[FMiguelez]

I think it has everything to do with the search feature not releasing its contents until you shut the window or do a different search.... THAT makes sense to me.

While I agree it makes sense, I wish it updated the window automatically to reflect what just happened, not only to be consistent with the rest of the normal Finder windows, but to just be more intuitive (Mac-like).

Ok. That's it. I'm switching to Windows. Windows Vista , baby

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Cut out the middle man, just switch to Lion. AKA Lion Kink!

[FMiguelez]

Cut out the middle man, just switch to Lion. AKA Lion Kink!

That's what I've heard... that Lion is Apple's Windows Vista. Or MOTU's DP6 perhaps? (sorry, I couldn't help it).

I'm not so surprised Lion is not working as expected. I know whatever is wrong with it will be fixed soon (Apple's reputation is in play). What worries me is the GUI... I hope Apple doesn't continue this dumb-it-down trend. A lot of people are saying Apple is forgetting about their PRO user base. I want a computer, not a glorified (and expensive) iPad-like workstation.

I don't know why I'm rambling about this. I think it's way past my siesta time

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Not sure the 'Apple's DP 6' is a good one. They would have to have taken out all the plugs and the ability to record... oh wait, maybe it is a good one... LOL!

[bayswater]

I just reconfirmed by doing a little experiment (and you were right about point 1, Mike Halloran):

1.- If I delete the files and get their Get Info window, the location reads they are in the Trash.

2.- If I dump the Trash, the location of the files disappears (not even a field for it shown anymore!). But the files remain visible in the Finder window.

So it all makes sense except for the second result. Or what do you guys think?

When I do this in SL, they do disappear in the second case, but only after a delay. Seems the window does not refresh quickly or often. Maybe this is to deal with situations where files are being created and deleted in background by an app.

But here's an interesting aside. I tried it in Lion, and the files disappeared from the search window results immediately on being moved to Trash.