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I just batch edited some pictures with Preview and changed the name of one file in the Preview window. Minutes later, Finder still didn't show the changed file sizes (not even when opening the Info dialog) and changed names. Switching from list view to icon view or so didn't fix it.
I restarted Finder and then the names changed.

How come, is there an update or refresh command? Thought it'd be in the View menu but it isn't.

MrDaniel
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Ruben
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    There isn't an update command because users shouldn't be worrying about that kind of thing, it should "just work". And until recently this has been the case, though it seems like in ML there are some issues with this automagic updating. – kLy Aug 09 '12 at 09:04
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    TMK, finder refresh failures have been around since 10.6. I got one personal report. I experienced it myself in 10.7 a couple times, and now this in 10.8. Seems like they just solved some bugs in AddressBook from 10.5, so maybe 10.9 will solve this? But usually a finder relaunch (force-quit menu) and/or using the <Back/Forward> buttons in the finder window works. – NOTjust -- user4304 Apr 23 '13 at 17:37
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    The best answer, as far as my experience has been, is "Poorly, if at all". There are workaround hacks, but they tend to be equally touchy. Apple need to get over themselves, and just admit that a "refresh" button is occasionally needed, even if it's not supposed to be required. – Fake Name Aug 07 '13 at 09:23
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    Network files with multiple people editing them simultaneously is a particularly common situation that pretty much requires the ability to force a refresh of the current directory. – Fake Name Aug 07 '13 at 09:24
  • I think that the best answer so far is by @Joris Vanhecke. Please consider accepting it. – 0 _ Jul 29 '14 at 02:02
  • This just happened to me on El Cap 10.11.5. I finally got the files to update by toggling the view from List to Columns and back again. – eflat Mar 31 '17 at 00:06

4 Answers4

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Alt click and select "Get info." This will refresh the folder. I have this problem with ftp folders mounted as a drive via Transmit.

Kayle Sawyer
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  • Unfortunately this will not refresh the contents of the files mounted via Transmit. They will still be cached and I haven't found out how to refresh them. – Kayle Sawyer May 13 '13 at 18:24
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    This worked perfectly in my case for a network share that wasn't showing all of its files. It's worth a try in any case, takes two seconds. –  Jul 15 '13 at 18:01
  • I've found that this only works sometimes. What seems to work all the time is deleting a file in the folder and then undoing it. – nvrtd frst Dec 17 '13 at 23:27
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The Finder's information should be refreshing automatically and instantly as files and information is changing that is the goal and why Apple does not provide a "Refresh" option, although in practice things sometime don't work for whatever reason.

If the information is not automatically updating changes to files etc, it may be the result of a bug or Finder preferences corruption, or other corruption.

  1. Make sure you are running the latest version of OS X, as the issue may be a bug that has been fixed already.

  2. Additionally for folders where the contents are not updating properly it might be a good idea to try and remove the .DS_Store file for that directory, and see if that has an effect. (restarting the finder to verify)

  3. The next option would be to reset the Finder's preferences. Try removing the the file named com.apple.finder.plist located at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist (restarting the finder to verify)

  4. If the problem is consistently occurring contact Apple and show them the issue and how to repeat it, you may have found a bug.

MrDaniel
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    Nr.3 rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist ; killall Finder was definitely the solution! After that my desktop icon sizes&grid&positions were broken, but with some pref tweaking + cp /Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/MacName/Latest/LocalDisk/Users/Name/Desktop/.DS_Store ~/Desktop/; killall Finder successfully restored. Then wrote test script! cd /path/to/refresh-dir/;mkfile 1000000 1mb;mkfile 0 growing;i=1;while [ $i -lt 1024 ];do cat 1mb >> growing; echo "$i mB";(( i++ ));sleep 1;done Finder now refreshes properly! ~Every 2-3 seconds. Prior only on leaving&reentering dir! – porg Oct 08 '13 at 21:12
  • Mac OS X Finder's refreshing behavior differs a bit depending the the occurring changes: Single file growing at kB/sec rates (instant), many new small files (1-3 secs), fast growing files (mB/sec) refresh a bit slower (max 3-4 secs). Full Finder Refresh Test Suite which for provoking different refresh behaviors in next post. – porg Oct 08 '13 at 21:20
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    Adding small files frequently: cd ~/Desktop/update/;i=1;while [ $i -lt 1000 ];do mkfile 0 $i;(( i++ ));echo "File Nr $i";sleep 1;done Slowly growing file: cd ~/Desktop/update/;mkfile 1000 1kb;mkfile 0 growing;i=1;while [ $i -lt 1024 ];do cat 1kb >> growing; echo "$i kB";(( i++ ));sleep 1;done Fast growing file: cd ~/Desktop/update/;mkfile 1000000 1mb;mkfile 0 growing;i=1;while [ $i -lt 1024 ];do cat 1mb >> growing; echo "$i mB";(( i++ ));sleep 1;done – porg Oct 08 '13 at 21:21
  • Btw, I am on 10.6.8. Sadly, the refreshing bug still occurs. Example of a current manifestation adb backup -apk -all -f ~/Backups/android.ab. android.ab constantly shows the same file-size although its constantly being written to. If I point my fast growing file script at this directory, both the file growing and the file android.ab regularly refresh their file size! It seems that some write operations trigger a refresh, while others don't. I don't know specifics. Maybe certain Services that I use cause that. – porg Oct 13 '13 at 14:47
  • Same effect in ~/Downloads. While downloading a file from Chrome, its size is not updated, although its written to constantly. A refresh is triggered, either by navigating our and back in again, or by creating a new or renaming an existing folder within ~/Downloads. When the download finished the size and timestamp are updated correctly. But not while the download progress. – porg Oct 13 '13 at 14:57
  • So as long as a file is actively written to (programmatically speaking: file handler open), the responsible process (writing app, kernel or possibly fsevents or similar fs monitoring processes) seem to not trigger Finder to refresh, only if the event "finished writing" occurs. Makes sense, as the Finder would need to refresh a lot otherwise (even if reduced to certain refresh intervals). I think this is by design. My script was a loop of consecutive open/write/close processes, thus triggered the refresh, whereas the other observed cases were open … write … write … write … close cases. – porg Oct 13 '13 at 15:14
  • I have the same problem the OP describes: Finder sometimes does not refresh folder contents. But I found a really simple solution here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/49543/is-there-a-way-to-refresh-a-finder-file-listing – Barranka Nov 14 '13 at 21:11
  • I tested this on the guest account, and there the bug does not occur! So Finder.app is definitely not corrupted, and the cause of the problem must be somewhere within my home directory. I had erased com.apple.finder.plist and the .DS_Store files in the troubled directories, and restarted Finder, and also logged out and in again, but the problem still persists. I can only assume that my file/folder permissions are not as supposed to be or that a 3rd party software integrated into Finder or Filesystem events causes the trouble. (Contextual Menu) Services? Dropbox? Any ideas? – porg Mar 06 '14 at 12:09
  • Finally Finder 10.6.8 refreshes properly again! Did so much within my user account, that I'm not sure what actually fixed it & am certainly not trying to reproduce the bug now that Finder works again! But to share some experience my hot guess is: From within the control panel Users I deleted unused accounts & the group access_bpf (needed for Wireshark network device), enabled, used, then disabled Fast User Switching. Besides this, within ~/Library I checked Services & Scripts, erased Contextual Menu Items (empty but who knows...) and LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions*. – porg Mar 06 '14 at 13:18
  • Only one restart later to find that the bug reoccurs :-( After that I killed UserEventAgent, and then refreshing worked fine, but Finder jumped to 100% CPU. Killed and thereby restarted Finder. Bug there again. Killing UserEventAgent again did not help this time. I am at the end of my testing for now. Think I'll do a fresh install somewhen... – porg Mar 06 '14 at 14:08
  • I was having a similar problem that was highlighted by the Sublime Text 2 sidebar not auto refreshing. After observing the problem in Finder, I figured out this solution. http://stackoverflow.com/a/23840606/1011746 – mindriot May 24 '14 at 02:04
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A "Refresh" feature can be added to Finder by 3rd-party software like XtraFinder (free).

Jojo
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    You can add it yourself: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/49543/is-there-a-way-to-refresh-a-finder-file-listing – Barranka Nov 14 '13 at 21:11
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    Adding it independently of XtraFinder indeed is the "canonical" answer that answers the original question in principle. Nonetheless, for people who haven't tried XtraFinder, please do so: it has many more (and arguably vastly more useful) features besides a refresh button. – 0 _ Jul 29 '14 at 02:03
  • This solution solved a long-standing problem I had with sshfs with OS X FUSE. For example running scripts on a server that generate image files (PDF, PNG, or other) used to not trigger any update in my Finder. This behavior is very irritating when you are developing code with file access to the locally mounted directory and running it remotely via ssh. – 0 _ Jul 29 '14 at 02:08
  • This doesn't fix all problems though. I'm looking at an NFS share in XtraFinder, where on the server I changed the name of one of the folders. The old name still remains in Finder. Terminal shows the new name. Refresh does not help. Getting XtraFinder to restart Finder for me, I get a directory listing with the correct name. A second after I click that folder, Finder changes the name back to the wrong one AS I'M WATCHING. FFS, I hate this f***ing Finder. Always been absolutely useless with network shares since my first OS X, Lion. NEVER EVER WORKED PROPERLY! – DanielSmedegaardBuus Nov 03 '14 at 12:56
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Just go to the parental directory and into the specific folder again and it refreshes the content. Or use the back and forward button.

Philipp
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