BinaryNights Blog

ForkLift 4 beta 9 is available

If everything goes well, this will be the last beta version before the final release of ForkLift 4. This version includes a lot of fixes and improvements. The welcome window appears again after you start ForkLift for the very first time. If you weren’t able to import your favorites from ForkLift 3 before because of the missing welcome window, then with beta 9 installed, you can do that. You can read here how you can force the welcome window to appear.

New

  • Option to create a Shared Drive on Google Drive
  • Imports workspaces from ForkLift 3
  • Path bar displays the available free space and the size of the selected items
  • Redesigned conflict window, which also shows the sizes of the conflicting items and indicates on which sides the new and existing items are located
  • Full German and Hungarian localization

Improvements

  • The popover, which shows the devices when clicked on the drive icon in the path bar, also shows the mounted drives of the shares
  • Creating a new folder with selection is faster
  • On some FTP servers, which aren’t set up correctly, the missing last letter of folders is displayed correctly
  • It is possible to make the Preview Pane wider
  • It is possible to copy the URL of Dropbox items when you are connected directly to Dropbox via ForkLift
  • Updated Compress with Options window, the Zip with Password option can be selected from the drop-down menu

Fixes

  • Fixes an issue that prevented the Welcome Window to appear and importing the favorites from ForkLift 3 through the Welcome Window
  • Inside a search, Show in Enclosing Folder opens the selected item in a new tab
  • Fixes a visibility issue in the Welcome Window in dark mode
  • Fixes issues that prevented the file list from updating in certain cases
  • Fixes an issue that prevented column view from remembering the column widths
  • Added longitude as a displayed metadata information
  • Fixes an issue that prevented column view from updating after deleting a folder
  • Fixes an issue that made the Group by toolbar button stop working in some rare cases
  • Fixes an issue that prevented the theme from changing inside the panes in column view
  • An item gets selected after an item gets deleted in column view
  • Go > Enclosing Folder works in column view
  • Fixes an issue where workspaces weren’t applied correctly in certain cases
  • Go to Folder selects the file in the file view when the path points to a file
  • Fixes an issue with the log in the Preview Pane that caused the log to show only 10 entries
  • Fixes an issue that prevented ForkLift from opening certain folders that had restricted items inside them
  • Fixes Open in New Tab in the path bar
  • Fixes an issue with the text color after an error message was displayed in certain themes
  • Fixes an issue with the selection color in the inactive pane in Icon View
  • Fixes an issue with the icon previews in Icon View
  • Fixes a file view update issue with the lock icon after locking an item
  • Fixes issues with the Compress with Options feature
  • Fixes an issue that prevented the sync update mode from being saved when editing a sync favorite
  • Fixes various issues with the Keep Both conflict handling rule
  • Numerous minor fixes and improvements

Download ForkLift 4 beta 9

65 thoughts on “ForkLift 4 beta 9 is available

  1. It’s Beta 9 and you fix most of displaying (ui) issues. But, what’s with the MAIN FUNCTION for selecting objects with keyboard? This is a absolut general feature the FL4 must support. Without that is FL4 not usable for pros. In FL3 it was a simple option “keyboardselection activate”. Where’s the problem to bring them back?

    1. I’m sorry but keyboard selection is not part of ForkLift 4 and the moment we don’t plan on adding it back again.

      1. Why do you keep rejecting/ignoring users’ requests for keyboard selection?! I really like FL but I’m not even bother to try FL4 without keyboard selection.

        1. The decision not to write that feature from scratch for ForkLift 4 has been made by the developer of ForkLift. We will observe how a broader range of users reacts to this decision, and we may reconsider it in the future. Currently, we do not intend to add that feature. If we decide not to include it, users who rely on keyboard selection will need to find an alternative app that supports this functionality.

          1. Thank you very much. This answer gives hope after all. I would like to add: Selection using space is not a “feature”, but a “must” for a split-view file manager. Otherwise the keyboard shortcuts make no sense! Just an advanced file manager with keyboard shortcuts are there to do file operations quickly and efficiently. This includes the main function of being able to select objects with the keyboard as well. It is welcome that you reconsider the decision. Thank you in advance for reconsidering the proven main features of FL3. Best regards, Dani

            1. Don’t have high hopes. If you read between the lines, no plans to implement for FL4, reconsidering in the future (FL5, 6, 7…?) and recommending finding an alternative app is a clear statement. No likely to have keyboard selection for FL ever again. Pity and stupid decision but it is how it is. Let’s face it and move on.

              1. Do I understand correctly that by keyboard selection you mean selecting files with the space bar? You can also do that with shift + down arrow, can’t you?

                1. Yes, select with space bar and yes, you can select with shift and arrows but only consecutive files. Try to select one file and move a few lines up or down and select another one…
                  There is a perfect two panel file manager, called Total Commander. Unfortunately, it is available only for Windows. Binarynights just needs to make FL as similar to TC as possible. And it was on the right path with FL3, then took the totally wrong direction with FL4… 🙁

                  I guess, they want to attract more (no advanced) users. But for those users, Finder is good enough, it’s free and built in.

                  In short, FL4 is neither for advanced users, nor for casual..

    1. We will add all languages that are available in ForkLift 3 and some additional ones as well, but the first version will only contain English, German and Hungarian. We will try to add all missing languages quickly.

  2. Please fix opening/viewing/editing files from inside archives. Currently it shows “File not found” for any file.

      1. That would be great, previewing files inside archives with space isn’t working as well.
        Also not working is editing symlinked files on a ssh server and after editing remote files FL3 gives me a notification upon successful updating of the file, FL4 does not.

  3. With FLBeta9 my sync tasks doesn’t work any longer – with Beta 8 it was ok.
    I defined a sync between two folders: one on my local SSD on my MBP, the other on my NAS via webdav.
    Result when pressing “Synchronisieren”: FLBeta9 crashes

    1. Unfortunately, this was a bug in ForkLift 4 beta 9 build 417. Please try to update again and beta 9 build 418 won’t have this issue.

  4. Just installed it. Using french keyboard layout, the capture of keyboard shortcut aren’t working properly, mostly with the 1 2 3 4 keys.
    Trying to register CMD+3 (which is ” in the french keyboard layout) doesn’t capture things properly.
    The hack I have in place ATM is, switch to US keyboard, start FL, switch back to FR keyboard. And from there it works fine (I captured my keyboard shortcuts in US layout).
    If I forget to switch to US before launching, all keyboard shortcuts are broken.

    Another issue I have is that upon startup, the right pane’s selected tab has the “name” column completely stretched, filling all the window width. Adding a new tab in that pane has the proper, saved width applied.

    All in all, it looks good, but the shortcut thing really need to be sorted out!

    1. Do you mean that when you set the CMD+” shortcut with the French keyboard, it changes to a different command after you restart ForkLift? Or is the shortcut not working right after you have set it up? Could you please send us a screen recording about this issue at support [at] binarynights [dot] com ?

      Please send a screen recording about the column width issue. Show in the recording if there are additional columns next to the name column and show the View Settings that you are using (Command-J).

  5. Why you killed the notice-field in favorites?
    And is it correct that I need to re-enter every password after sync my favorites with FL4?

    1. The note field is still there when you enable the advanced settings (Show Advanced). The passwords aren’t stored in ForkLift but in your Keychain. It is not needed to enter the passwords again, ForkLift 4 will have access to them through the Keychain.

      1. Thank you for your fast reply, I found the note field but its after sync with FL3 empty.
        And I dont know what went wrong but I cant open a single server without re-enter the password.

        1. The notes should be imported as well. We are not aware of any issues with the passwords.

          Make sure to move ForkLift 4 into the Applications folder. Quit ForkLift and move it into the Applications folder with Finder. Also grant ForkLift Full Disk Access in the System Settings.

          If the passwords don’t work after that, then here you can find how you can delete the ForkLift 4 favorites and force ForkLift 4 to import the favorites from ForkLift 3 again: https://blog.binarynights.com/2023/07/18/forklift-4-beta-8-is-available/#comment-2900

          You could try doing that to check if the passwords work as expected and if the notes are being imported if you import the favorites again. Also check if the passwords work correctly in ForkLift 3 before you import the favorites again. If you can’t connect in ForkLift 4 after the import, then try to edit one of the favorites to check if the password field is empty or not, and let me know.

          1. Okay, I did not move FL4 into the applications folder, because I dont want to lose FL3 at the moment.

            Every note is completely empty after importing from FL3.

            1. You won’t loose ForkLift 3. Move ForkLift 4 in Finder and Finder will ask you what to want to do with ForkLift 3, which is already inside the Applications folder. Choose the Keep both option.

              1. Thank you, this worked for me. But still some note fields are empty also like some passwords I need to re-enter.

  6. Another bug report (should I do those differently?):
    while connected to an SFTP server, the connection timed out – so any non cached navigation attempt resulted in a “timed out” msgbox.
    I would expect to get reconnected automatically in this scenario.

    1. ForkLift tries to reconnect in cases like that. Please provide additional info if available so that we can investigate this issue at our email address: support [at] binarynights [dot] com

  7. I use ForkLift sind version 1.7. V4 is a very good update in my opinion. I like, that the design is refined even more. I even tend to use it exclusively as a Finder replacement. The one thing I like more in version 3 is the icon—but that is just personal taste. Thank you for your continuous development!

  8. Hello,
    so far it was clear to me that because of the beta that there are maybe missing features. Currently we are, as written on the last beta.
    Forklift 4 cannot, compared to version 3, log in to SSH servers via public-private keys. Also proxy jump hosts from the condig (.ssh/config) are ignored. All this works fine with version 3.
    Is there any further info here?

    1. ForkLift 4 can log in to ssh via keys. If you can’t, then please send us a bug report at support [at] binarynights [dot] com. Proxy jumps aren’t supported at the moment.

      1. In general, this is correct.
        I have just made another test.
        Explicitly, if there are two public keys in the directory (id_rsa and id_ed25519), Forklift 4 uses only the first (id_rsa) and Forklift 3 also uses the second automatically. The operating system in the terminal behaves identically to Forflift 3.
        should i still contact support?

  9. Sorry for this awkward question, but I can not see iCloud Drive in the left sidebar..
    how can I activate it?

    Thank you for a helping hand.

    1. From the menu, select Go > Go to Folder and paste this path into the pop-up and press Enter: ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs

      Select Favorites > Add to Favorites

  10. I tried to uninstall an App from “Programs” using the “App Deleter” functionality.
    This caused FLBeta9 to crash.

      1. you’re right. I just tried to delete the app from appl.-folder and FL crashed. But I’m assuming that “App Deleter” has something to do with this.

    1. Sorry, for this issue. If you turn off the the “Detect application when deleting” setting in the Settings, then ForkLift won’t crash. We have already fixed this problem, the next version won’t crash even when that setting is turned on.

    1. Not at the moment, but that was possible in ForkLift 3, so it is likely that it will possible in ForkLift 4 as well if that is technically doable.

  11. When synchronising two folders and clicking on the “Activity” button to see the progress, the info window is so narrow that not all the information is shown. Could it be a little wider?

  12. The date and time is shown in the “Creation date” column, and also in the “Added on” column. But in the column “Date modified” it is only the date – here the time is missing?

  13. I’m new to Forklift, so perhaps this is expected, but…
    Cmd-I (Get Info) brings up a different screen than in Finder. The Forklift version lacks the ability to change the default for opening the file. i.e. you can’t change from, say, VLC to Vox for FLAC files.

    Because I hadn’t REALIZED it was a different screen – it does look different but I don’t go to it often – this took me quite a bit of time thinking Apple had hidden that option.

    Please put the ability to change the default file opener on the Info screen.

    1. Adding that option is already on our feature request list. Until then, please change the default app in Finder.

  14. Sorting of extended characters is correct, but quick-finding them is not.

    Example: Suppose you have a directory of music artists, including (from the 80s)
    – Motels
    – Mötley Crüe
    – Motorhead

    In both Finder and Forklift4 (Fourklift?) they are correctly sorted that way.
    But in Finder, you can type (from above) “motl” and land on Mötley Crüe.
    In Forklift, you get the bink-noise-of-frustration, as it can’t find a match.

    Expected: ö is treated as o for quick search, just as it is for sort.

    1. Thank you for bringing this up. This works the same way in ForkLift 3. I have added this to our feature request list and we will think about changing this behavior but it is not likely that this will be changed in the near future.

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