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Mac OSX Finder Refresh
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 11:40PM 
Note: Mac OSX 10.5.x “Leopard” may not need this - however some users have reported it still adds value. Apple seem to have made some changes in the way Leopard interacts with the file system making automatic refreshes far more instant.
A small but annoying thing about Mac OSX is that sometimes it doesn’t refresh itself when a file or folder is changed - especially when dealing with SMB (Windows) share drives.
In Windows you can hit F5 to refresh the current Window, but Apple seemed to have forgotten to add this feature to Mac OSX.
Well I searched the web and finally found an Applescript to do this which is here:
tell application “Finder”
tell front window
update every item with necessity
end tell
end tell
Now thats fine, but I wanted something that would tie into the Finder window. So I grabbed the refresh icon from a Firefox theme (GrApple) and made an Application Package in Script Editor. So here it is for people that want it:
Download Link
Version 1.4
To install:
1. Unzip to your Applications Folder *
2. Open a Finder window.
3. Go to Applications and scroll to “Finder Refresh”
4. Left-click & drag Finder Refresh to the Finder window toolbar - you should see the other icons spread out.
5. Let go of the mouse button and there you go - should look like below.
* If your web browser auto-unzip’s (ie Safari) then “Finder Refresh” will be in your download directory so you can skip Step 1
From then on just click the button to refresh the currently open Finder window. It works for me, and now one small thing no longer annoys me.
Uninstallation: To Remove from the Finder Window, Hold down the Command/Apple key, left click on the icon and drag off the Finder Window - you’ll see your mouse cursor turn into a cloud, at this point let go of your mouse button. Done!
1.1 Update Note: I have added the code necessary to make this script run in the background (so it’s more integrated) and rolled the version number to 1.1 . Thanks to this post here for the necessary steps.
1.2 Update Note: Thanks to commenter kristaps, the issue with the edit screen coming up has been fixed. I have added the change and rolled the version number to 1.2
1.3 Update Note: After way too much time and enough requests, I’ve updated the icon to a hand-crafted icon that I hope you like. It should now closely match the standard Leopard Finder Icons.
1.4 Update Note: Updates the icon again to a vector version made by Cicciokun from http://www.360fun.net/blogfun/. Thanks!
Regards,
Shane.
Finder, Mac, OSX in Technology 
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Reader Comments (96)
It's what I've been looking for, as even a simple file update is not reflected sometimes. Especially on a download that is continuously updating the file. No way to tell if the file is still being updated unless you move away from the directory and then move back. So this is a very good little addition to finder.
Awesome... just what I was looking for!
Question... any tips for refreshing the desktop when it doesn't see new items?
Erik,
The Desktop is a Finder entity too - just open a Finder window, select Desktop from the left hand menu then hit the Refresh button.
That *should* work :???:
Regards,
Shane.
This is awesome! Thanks!!!
That's just cool... Where have you been? You supposed to make this tool earlier.... I've been looking this kind of tool for long time ago :razz: :razz: .
Thank you.
hey, how did you build a site with easy changeable themes...i'm looking to do that with my site. thanks!
Rob,
I've replied via email re: changeable themes. Glad you like it :grin:
Regards,
Shane.
I should also say - thanks to everyone for the positive comments on my Finder Refresh tool - I'm glad others find it useful.
Regards,
Shane.
It doesn't work in my folders. I get this message: Fortfahren nicht möglich: . Any solution?
Bobby,
Google Translator tells me that means something along the lines of "Continuing not possible" (actually Google says "Do not continue possible").
I can only assume for some reason the Applescript is having an issue on your machine. Try using Disk Utility to repair permissions on your drive and see if that does anything. Other than that - what version of Mac OSX are you running?
Thanks,
Shane.
Thank you for your answer. I have a G4 Mac, maybe the Skript runs on Intel only? I later had the idea to restart the Finder via alt-appel-esc - not very elegant, but it helped!
This works in the finder (even when viewing the Desktop folder) but unfortunately not on the Desktop itself. Any suggestions? I'm running 10.4.9 on a MBP.
Well, really useful. Thank you!
Just found through google. I tried and it's perfect. I had to reboot to see the downloaded file though. :neutral:
Dear God, something very simple, extremely useful, and yet not included by default in the OS. Thank you!
This is great, I really miss the F5 feature of windows on a mac when using shared disks. Is there an easy way to map a function key (say maybe F5) to this script?
Great work on this simple fix!
Thank you for providing a solution to an obvious need!
The only problem is, it does not help in updating a smb logged drive (which is an external drive attached to a Windows XP machine). It seems I can make Finder update that only when I do a forced reload (or whatever that is in English as I use Finnish mac os x 4.9) of Finder in the Apple menu.
Great utility!
It seems to work as advertised for all of my local folders (Desktop, etc.). However, when I try to use it on a WebDAV folder (https://server/path/), I get an error window reading "Can't continue ." with an "Edit" and "OK" button.
When I select the "Edit" button, a dialog with the heading "Open Dictionary" contains the following informational message:
Unable to read the dictionary of the application or extension because it is not scriptable
Any suggestions?
Michael,
Glad it's working for you (in most cases). As for WebDAV folders I can't help there (as I don't use them) - this script was designed primarily to update internal volumes & local network drives. If any Applescript experts out there can let me know the code to add to support WebDAV I'll gladly update the utility to support it.
Regards,
Shane.
Try' d to uninstall, but leaves a quesionmark on buttons place... Can anyone help get finder in original state? Thanks.
Ferris,
If you've deleted it and need to remove it from the Finder window, just Apple-Left-Click and drag the question mark away from the Finder window and let go. It should then be gone.
Regards,
Shane.
Shane, thank you. The reason I tried youre script is to 'see' files again in my finder, I now only can find with spotlight... happen to know how to overcome this one?
I found a utility, Refresh Finder, that performs the same function. However, it appears to be an application (as opposed to a script).
http://www.soderhavet.com/refresh/
It seems to be able to refresh all types of drives, not just internal and local network drives.
Michael,
Actually it is also a script. I only found that utility in the last month by accident. Whilst I released mine over a month earlier, we both came up with a similar fix for the same problem.
Even though the look and feel is very similar, the implementation is almost identical and the timing of his release after mine is interesting, again in his own words to me after I contacted him about it; "If you want to claim some kind of intellectual rights to this little utility then by all means do so, that'd just be good fun. I won't give you any credit, though, since there is none to be given."
He has recently updated the script he uses from what I use above to this:
tell application "Finder"
repeat with i from 1 to count of Finder windows
update every item with necessity
end repeat
end tell
The main difference is this script updates every window you have open, not just the front window. Other than that it does the same thing.
Regards,
Shane.
Just in case anyone missed it, I've rolled the version number to 1.1 as I found a tweak in the building of the application that allows it to run hidden (and seem more integrated with the Finder).
Regards,
Shane.