Binarynights
The biggest addition to this new update are the Google Shared Drives inside Google Drives.
New
- Google Team Drives are available inside the Google Drive account after connection with ForkLift
Improvements
- Quick Open searches also in the middle of the words if at least three characters are typed in
- Descending order added to “Sort by” in the toolbar
- Option to extract Archives by dragging a file out of the archive when the archives are treated as folders
- Copy paste to copy items on remote connections
- Renaming items by dragging them over the rename favorite in the sidebar
- Adding remote favorites by dragging them over the sidebar
Fixes
- Fixes an issue that caused the application to crash when the Stop and Skip buttons were clicked
- Numerous minor fixes and improvements
I can’t seem to import my Forklift 3 favorites… I have a few ftp favorites that I’d like to bring to Forklift 4.
From other comments I assume this question is asked upon first launch, but I’m not seeing that.
I also entered defaults delete com.binarynights.ForkLift in terminal, but still, Forklift 4 does not ask to import my favorites.
Is there anything else I can try ? I’d rather not recreate all my favorites…
Because of an issue the following doesn’t work in the current ForkLift 4 beta version. So please download beta 6 from here first: https://download.binarynights.com/ForkLift/ForkLift4beta6.zip and do the following in beta 6. Make sure to quit all other ForkLift 4 instances. There is no need to move beta 6 into the Applications folder and you can delete it after importing the favorites.
Step 3 through step 6 are only needed if favorite sync to iCloud was enabled, if it wasn’t, then after step 2 you can jump to step 7.
If you reset ForkLift, then you will loose your other settings like keyboard shortcuts and graphical settings as well. If you don’t want that to happen, then go through the entire list. If you don’t mind loosing your settings, then only execute steps 1,2,8,9 (if favorite sync through iCloud is enabled, then steps 1-9 are needed).
1. In ForkLift 4 go to ForkLift > Settings > General > Sync Favorites to iCloud, and make sure that that option is disabled
2. Quit ForkLift 4
3. Choose Apple menu > System Settings > Your Name (Apple ID) at the top of the sidebar, and click iCould
4. Next to Account Storage, click on Manage…
5. Click ForkLift 4 in the list of apps
6. Click Delete All Data
7. In Finder go to ~/Library/Preferences/com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist and make a copy of this file into a place where you can easily find it later
8. Open the Terminal app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and paste this command and press Enter: defaults delete com.binarynights.ForkLift
9. Open ForkLift and make sure to import the favorites from ForkLift 3
10. Quit ForkLift
11. In Finder, go to the backup of the old plist file that you have created in step 9, and open it in a text editor app
12. Copy the entire content of the backup plist (Command-A and Command-C)
13. Open the new plist file in the text editor as well. (Location of the new plist: ~/Library/Preferences/com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist)
14. Select the entire content of the new plist and replace it with the content of the old plist (Command-A and Command-V)
15. Save the file
16. Open ForkLift
17. Enable the synchronization of the favorites via iCloud if you want to use that setting
Does it not work with just deleting the setupDone key?
defaults delete com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist setupDone
Thank you for pointing that out. Yes, that would also work and is a much better solution! That way you don’t need to mess with the plist at all, so steps 10 through 16 aren’t needed. I created a new list and I also added a new step in step 7 explaining how you can delete the existing favorites from ForkLift 4 if you don’t want to keep those and merge them with the ForkLift 3 favorites:
1. In ForkLift 4 go to ForkLift > Settings > General > Sync Favorites to iCloud, and make sure that that option is disabled
2. Quit ForkLift 4
3. Choose Apple menu > System Settings > Your Name (Apple ID) at the top of the sidebar, and click iCould
4. Next to Account Storage, click on Manage…
5. Click ForkLift 4 in the list of apps
6. Click Delete All Data
7. If you want to delete the favorites that are already in ForkLift 4, then in Finder go to ~/Library/Group Containers/ and delete the entire J3CP9BBBN6.com.binarynights.ForkLift folder (if you want to keep your Favorite 4 favorites and import the favorites from ForkLift 3 in addition, then this step is not needed)
8. Open the Terminal app (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and paste this command and press Enter: defaults delete com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist setupDone
9. Open ForkLift and make sure to import the favorites from ForkLift 3
10. Enable the synchronization of the favorites via iCloud if you want to use that setting
Many thanks Agnes for writing up the step by step list! That should also go into the Support or FAQ section.
Yes, you are right.
Hi Agnes,
Thank you.
It seems that all that was needed in my case, was to launch beta 6…
The dialog box came right up, asking to import Forklift 3 favorites… and all was well.
BTW, I’m really loving the new Forklift 4 refinements, you did a fantastic job !
I’m glad you were able to import the favorites, as it turns out, less steps would have solved the issue too:) We are glad you like ForkLift 4. We can’t wait to release it!
Szia, ez nem található az adott helyen: / Library / Preferences / com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist és a dropbox a 8-as verzióban se nyitja meg a file-okat újra csatolás után sem. Erről többször küldtem már hibalistát.
Üdv.: Péter
Azért nincs olyan file, mert nem az az elérési útvonal, hanem ez: ~/Library/Preferences/com.binarynights.ForkLift.plist a hullámocska számít az elején, az a saját home folderedet jelenti.
Ha lehet, akkor a dropboxos hibát, ne itt beszéljük meg. Elég hosszasan leveleztünk már róla. Próbáljuk kideríteni, hogy mi okozhatja a problémát, de egyelőre nem tudjuk.
Ezt nem értem, ha így is beírom a keresőbe, akkor sem talál semmit.
Nem a keresőbe kell beírni, hanem az “Ugrás mappához”-ba (Command-Shift-G). Be kell másolni az útvonalat, de ne legyen plusz space az elején vagy a végén, és az aktív panelben a saját homeodon belül legyél, ne a Dropboxban mondjuk. Ha nem sikerül így megoldanod, akkor kepcsold be a rejtett fájlokat, és navigálj a fájlhoz.
A new beta, an old keyboard selection issue. You have a mole in your team 😀
Yes, our investigation points to one perpetrator, the developer of ForkLift.
😀
Hi, I wanted to try using this version as default file manager on Mac, using the terminal command you share in the help section, changing the 3 by 4 version, Restart macbook, and it doesn’t work. What am I doing wrong? Thanks
defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string com.binarynights.ForkLift-4;
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure LSHandlers -array-add ‘{LSHandlerContentType=”public.folder”;LSHandlerRoleAll=”com.binarynights.ForkLift-4″;}’
Not sure if this will work, but unless you renamed the application to ForkLift-4, you need to remove the -4 from the Terminal command.
You are right, but even when you rename the app, that part doesn’t change, so the -4 is never needed.
You don’t need the -4 at the end:
defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string com.binarynights.ForkLift;
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure LSHandlers -array-add ‘{LSHandlerContentType=”public.folder”;LSHandlerRoleAll=”com.binarynights.ForkLift”;}’
it worked perfect
Thank Agnes and Jim.
defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string com.binarynights.ForkLift;
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure LSHandlers -array-add ‘{LSHandlerContentType=”public.folder”;LSHandlerRoleAll=”com.binarynights.ForkLift”;}’
Not working… 🙁
Macos Ventura 13.5
2023-08-16 12:20:12.275 defaults[8009:63721] Could not parse: ‘{LSHandlerContentType=”public.folder”. Try single-quoting it.
-bash: }’: command not found
Command – ok, but still not working, opening whith native Finder
MBP-KEA:~ evgeny$ defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string com.binarynights.ForkLift;
MBP-KEA:~ evgeny$ defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure LSHandlers -array-add ‘{LSHandlerContentType=”public.folder”;LSHandlerRoleAll=”com.binarynights.ForkLift”;}’
MBP-KEA:~ evgeny$
Copy and paste the command into TextEdit and make sure that the command contains 2 lines only. Both lines should start with “defaults write”. Make sure there are no additional line breaks. Make the TextEdit window so wide that the second line of the command is displayed as one line, and then copy the text again and paste it into Terminal.
Hi guys,
Would it be possible to have a keyboard shortcut to copy/paste or cut/paste from one window to the other?
Thx
Alex
Those commands are called Copy to and Move to and they have shortcuts. Open the Commands menu, and you can see the shortcuts.
ok, thanks!
Can we please just have an option to fix the destination FTP folder in the right side panel, like every other FTP I have ever tried. Living dangerously may seem cool, but not with http://FTP...
Also I have noticed that none of the saved views from Forklift 3 seem to have migrated over, so it looks like I would have to do them all from scratch.
Another suggestion is that it would be helpful if we could set a default local path folder.
In ForkLift the favorites always open in the active tab. It is on our feature request list to allow to always open the (first) remote connection in the right pane but there is no ETA for that feature.
As a workaround, you can create a workspace. Open the server in the right panel and open the local folder that you usually use with it in the left panel. You can open multiple tabs. Then select Favorites > Save Workspace. The workspace will be saved into the sidebar and you can easily open it from there, and the server will open in the right panel.
You can save a default local path folder when you create a favorite. Toggle the Show advanced setting and set a local path in the Local Path field. That will always open in the other pane when you connect to the server.
I don’t know exactly what you mean by saved views, but the graphical settings and the workspaces aren’t imported into ForkLift 4.
I first requested opening the remote connection on the right about four years ago and was told the same thing. If you manage a large number of websites, and sometimes work on more than one at a time, having the remote destination fixed on the right dramatically reduces the risk of error.
I have created workspaces many times, though they wouldn’t be needed if we could simply designate that right hand position for remote destination and just open the bookmarks normally. Also I have found that as projects are moved to other locations it often entails recreating those workspaces, which doubles the workload.
Clearly we can set a default local path when creating a favourite, but it becomes a little tiresome having to do so fifty times and for some reason they were all lost after importing from Forklift 3. My idea would be to have a general preference setting for this that could be used automatically for new bookmarks if enabled.
By saved views I meant workspaces and yes I can see they have not been imported to Forklift 4, so they would all need to be created again.
Please don’t think I am bashing Forklift for the sake of it. I really want this to be a solid no brainer upgrade, but right now it feels like small points are removing any incentive to change from Forklift 3. Changing the colour of the theme would be really low on my list of needs compared to these other points.
A couple other Forklift users I know noticed that Forklift mini is gone, which both found very useful and they stopped with the beta as soon as they saw that.
One feature I am happy about is the storing of bookmarks in iCloud. Although Dropbox works reliably for me I had reached a point where it is literally the only reason for me to maintain a Dropbox account.
Try command (Pin View) for the Right FTP Tab
I’m sorry that that feature hasn’t been added yet. It is still on our feature request list but it isn’t on our to-do list at the moment. The next beta version will most likely import the workspaces correctly. Please read the release notes and when that feature is added, then you can reset the favorites in ForkLift 4 and import the favorites from FL3 again, the way explained above. If you have added a lot of new favorites to FL4, then resetting and importing might not be the best solution.
This is becoming rather stressful. I just went back to Forklift 3 to upload some changes on a client website and found that all saved workspaces appear to have stopped working there as well since installing the beta, which is frankly a bit of a nuisance.
After a few attempts I suddenly had an error message from the server saying:
“The item can’t be opened
421 Too many connections (8) from this IP”
It looks like those workspaces are not working, yet still attempting to connect and my IP ended up being blocked in the process.
There was a deadline to upload the changes, so rather than contact my web host I tried with Fetch, which I hadn’t used in a few years and that connected without a problem. Afterwards Forklift started connecting as well, so it looks like the failing workspace created a temporary ban on the IP.
Javier mentioned that we can pin views, however I seem to recall this has to be done every time, which is the reason I had to create those workspaces in the first place.
To give you a car analogy, there is a reason why all cars have the accelerator on the right and the brake on the left. This is what drivers expect and making the pedals freely movable would be dangerous. The same applies for FTP without a fixed position for the remote destination.
I’m sorry for these issues but ForkLift 4 beta can’t do anything with the workspaces in ForkLift 3, so it is impossible that the FL3 workspaces aren’t/weren’t working because of the beta. If the workspaces hadn’t worked, then ForkLift wouldn’t have tried to open the server at all. I suppose that there was some temporally issue with the server, so ForkLift couldn’t connect to it and it couldn’t open the correct location in the tab where it should have opened it. It is possible that the server reacted slowly and you opened the same workspace so many times that the server blocked you as a result.
You are right, pinning the tab doesn’t help in your situation.
In ForkLift, the connection opens in the active tab. If you make sure that the right tab is open when you open a connection, then it will be in the right pane. And if it isn’t, then you can still switch them. Remote servers aren’t locked to the right side because ForkLift isn’t only an FTP client but more than that. You can for example connect to remote servers in both panes, and transfer items from one server to the other server. You can also open more remote servers in the same pane in different tabs. If you only allow the (first) remote server to open on the right, then you won’t be able to open more remote servers either on the left or in more tabs on the right side.
We understand your concern though, and it is on our feature request list to add an option to lock the first remote connection to the right, but that feature isn’t on our to-do list at the moment.
Yes I have copied files from one server to another myself, so I get that side of things.
The key problem here with multiple tabs without a fixed position is that web designers often do silly things like working on more than one website at 2.30am to meet a deadline. We also sometimes upload changes under pressure, while speaking to a client on the phone with an oblivious wife calling in the background to make them a cup of tea.
In situations like that I’ve had a few very scary near misses with Forklift that I never recall being a problem with some other FTP apps I used back in the day. This is particularly acute if you like to keep specific folders on the server that should not be deleted in error.
I really wish it was always relaxed with time to calmly assess everything, but sometimes things get really busy and mistakes can happen after a long day.
Operation speed when using “New Folder with Selection”.
When selecting multiple files and using “New Folder with Selection” from the right-click menu, ForkLift 3 completes the operation in an instant, but FL4 beta requires a 2-3 second wait for the process to complete.
If you check the Activities while it is running, you will see “Creating Folders~~” indicating that the process is in progress.
I often repeat this process many times, so I am hoping that this waiting time will be instantaneous like in ForkLift3.
Other than the above, ForkLift4 works very well and seems to be getting very close to completion.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Thank you for letting us know. We have fixed this issue, in the next update this should work the same way as in FL3.
Hi guys, please add an option to hide Devices, Shares & Connections from the sidebar!
I have added this to our feature request list. You can collapse the groups right now too, but the group headers remain visible.
Hi folks! I recently discovered ForkLift after trying out a few file managers that support dual-pane file management. I like ForkLift best and am impressed that the beta has been quite stable for me after using it already a week or two.
Apart from the seamless functionality, that seems to cover everything I need, I really love how clean and neat it looks. There’s just one thing that would make it perfect for me – if you could add something akin to vertical padding configuration for the file lists.
The default for the list view is quite efficient when needing to work with a lot of files, but it can also be considered just a bit too crammed. I would love it, if I had the option to choose a bit more spacing between the items, similar to how Finder looks if you do a ‘Cmd + +’ in list view.
In ForkLift there are no big icons but adding them is on our feature request list. We will also try to add the option to toggle between small and big icons with the keyboard.
Thank you for the answer! Glad to hear it’s on your list! 🙂
Hi,
the files shown are not actual!
I worked with forklift 4 Beta 8 in Ventura. Menu and functions are good. But the worst thing is that what I see is not up to date. I don’t see the files which were moved or created by the applications. The short cut “cmd+R” fixes the problem, but honestly what am I supposed to do with a file manager that doesn’t show the current state? Forklift 3 has not these problem.
I have the same problem sometimes with remote SFTP servers. If I delete a directory and then immediately upload a new directory with the same name some of the old files are still in there. So I have made a habit to always refresh the content by using “cmd+R” before uploading a new version of the directory. Looks like a caching problem somewhere.
Can you send us a screen recording of this issue at support [at] binarynights [dot] com?
Please record the entire process, show what files are inside the folder, then delete the folder and upload the new one. Show the content of the new folder as well. Also use View > Refresh from the menu to show if the files that shouldn’t be there disappear or not. (Don’t use the keyboard shortcut but the menu item to Refresh so that we can see when you are refreshing.)
Nothing that can be recorded as it’s not possible to see what’s actually happening. I have a directory with about 1000 files on a remote SFTP server and when I delete the directory and upload a new version of the directory some files are missing or some of the old files are still in the directory. It started with one of the first beta versions and refreshing the content after deleting the directory and before uploading the new version seems to work. I have never had any problems with directories with smaller number of files but with large number of files it has happened sometimes. As you may understand it’s impossible to record this when it happens if it does. Is ForkLift using some sort of caching mechanism with such a large number of files? Is ForkLift doing some sort of internal refreshing of the content after files have been deleted?
Agnes, I have sent you a screen recording to illustrate the problem. Deleted files are still visible in the file list until refreshed. This example is with local files but it also applies to remote servers. Looks like a problem with files and directories I’m not the owner of.
Thank you
Are those local files that you move and work with?
Forklift 4 is great!!! Nice work
Something that I noticed is that when opening a HUGE s3 bucket, forklift consumes >32GB ram and notebook freezes
Please take a Sample when ForkLift is not responding or when it consumes such a big amount of memory. Open Activity Monitor, select ForkLift and choose Sample Process from the View menu, or click the Three Dots icon in the toolbar and choose Sample Process. Save the output as a text file and send it to us at support [at] binarynights [dot] com
It seems that disconnecting my external Timemachine SSD in Forklift 4 Beta 8 does not work as expected. Clicking on Disconnect the device bringing up selection window what to disconnect or cancel. Whatever I select there: after physically disconnecting the SSD macos Ventura brings up error/warning that “Data” was not disconnected properly.
Forklift3 is working as expected
Finder also.
Thank you for reporting this. If you can, could you send us a screen recording of this issue? Please include both FL3 and FL4 in your recording. support [at] binarynights [dot] com. If you have another external drive, then please try ejecting and disconnecting that drive too.
sent!
Hello Agnes,
since UI/UX is one focus for the next major release, may I add a feature request in this direction? I’m often switching theses days between single and double pane view and am a bit bugged by the fact that Forklift does not automatically adjust the window size, at least not for me. Since I know that others could have different needs, I would appreciate an option that enable automatic window size adaption. If enabled, the window would either shrink or grow by the size that the pane has/would have if blend out or blend in. Would love to see this in the future.
Thank you and best regards,
Erik
Thank you for your suggestion, but we don’t think that we are going to implement it. Usually, you use the one pane layout because you want to have more space to either see more columns in list view or column view, so shrinking the window when the one pane layout is being enabled, would be counterproductive.
The term ‘usually’ is the key. You usually do that for this reason, I don’t. I have large monitor and use a window manager to full screen the window for a moment if I need to see more. My use case for single pane is to focus on one volumn. That is why I was asking for an option and not a hard behaviour change. Would be great if you can reconsider this.
It is not likely, that we will add this option, but we will consider it.
Hi there,
We are in the process of moving from AWS S3 to Google Cloud Storage (not Google Drive). Any plan to add it to Forklift 4?
Thanks,
Phil
You can connect to Google Cloud Storage with ForkLift 4. Google Cloud Storage is an Amazon S3 compatible service, so you can connect to it if you set the protocol to Amazon S3.
1. Log into Google Cloud > Storage > Settings > “Enable interoperability access”
2. GC Storage: Create access key and secret: “Create a new key”
3. ForkLift: Create S3 connection to “storage.googleapis.com” with access key and secret
Magic, thank you very much Agnes!
Is there anything that was removed in Forklift 4? Or can you do everything that was possible in Forklift 3?
Things that have been removed are:
– Keyboard selection
– The option to choose between Finder and Commander style shortcuts (Setting up the Commander style shortcuts is still possible manually).
– ForkLift Mini – In the future, we want to improve ForkLift Mini and make it a stand-alone application.
– Because of the limitations of SwiftUI, you can’t control-click to make a secondary click in the sidebar and in the Favorite Manager.
– ForkLift 4 uses a new framework to connect via ssh, which doesn’t support ProxyJump by default. We will try to add support for that in the future.
Second question: Where ist the status bar at the bottom of the window? I need visual confirmation that I can see the bottom edge of the window.
Uh!!! That is a very bad decision to combine the path bar and the status bar! I don’t need a path bar. But for me the status bar is an important tool. Now I can see only the number and size of selected files if I activate the path bar… 🙁
In the next update, all the missing info that was previously in the status bar will be available in the new path bar / status bar, so you will be able to see everything as before but in a new location.
Hello,
Thank you for the impressive filer. I’m usually operating remote files with SMB. Forklift4 has more remarkable performance than 3. But I cannot rename the file name with the following procedure.
1. Search file on SMB remote drive.
2. Rename folder name searched
Then I cannot rename the folder name properly. Is it bug?
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the official release.
Please send us a screen recording of this issue at support [at] binarynights [dot] com Please make sure that it is obvious what steps you take to rename the file and how ForkLift fails to rename it. After you have tried to rename the file, exit the search and search for the new name as well.
Greetings to the entire ForkLift team, they do an excellent job.
This is my request to facilitate communication between applications.
SCENARIO:
I want to drag selected files in ForkLift to Safari to be processed on the web.
CURRENTLY:
Considering that I work with ForkLift full screen, I have to move it to clear,
and then drag the files to their destination. Then I have to re-order the ForkLift window.
MY SUGGESTION:
Select the files of interest in ForkLift, and execute a command, which for example could be called “Drag Out”,
which allows minimizing ForkLift, while showing only the selected files in a small window,
to then be able to drag to the selected destination place. Once the operation is finished,
this window is closed, and ForkLift is maximized.
MY SECOND REQUEST:
Is to be able to see the path of the file by clicking on it after a search, that the result appears in different folders of the system.
CURRENTLY:
To know the path, I have to do it through “Get Info” (Command + i).
This would allow us to have more knowledge of which files we are looking at.
Thank you very much.
1. Start dragging the files that you want to drag and hold down the key of the mouse to hold on to the items.
2. Use the Command-Tab keyboard shortcut to switch to the app that you want to drag into. If you use the Command-Tab shortcut very quickly, then you be switched to the app that you used before you switched to ForkLift. If you hold down Command key and then use the Tab key, then you will see the icons of all the the running apps in the middle of your screen in a container. Keep the Command key down and press the Tab key as many times as needed to select the app that you want to drag into.
3. Eelease the keys and you will be switched to the window that you need.
4. Continue dragging with your mouse.
5. After you are done, you can switch back to ForkLift with Command-Tab
If you enable the Info Panel inside the Preview Panel, then you can see the paths without opening the the stand-alone Info Window. Displaying the paths in a separate column is on our feature request list but not on our to-do list.