Binarynights
In the previous ForkLift versions we have added multiple new features. In this blog post we are going to show you how some of these features work. Make sure to update to the latest version to access all of the following features. To update, select ForkLift > Check for Updates from the menu and update if there is a new version.
Option to claim the upgrade bonus
In ForkLift 4.0.6, we have added the option to claim the upgrade bonus. The upgrade bonus is only available to users who own a license to a previous ForkLift version but weren’t granted or haven’t claimed an upgrade bonus so far. You can find a thorough explanation about that option in this blog post.
Calculate All Folder Sizes
It has been possible to tell ForkLift to always calculate sizes through the View Options Panel (Command-J) but always calculating all sizes can consume lot of resources. It has also been possible to calculate the size of the selected folders from the File menu. Starting from version 4.0.6, a new feature allows users to calculate all folder sizes by selecting File > Calculate All Folder Sizes from the menu. The sizes are only calculated in the current location, if you change folders, the sizes won’t be calculated again. Calculate All Folder Sizes shows up in the File menu only if no items are selected in the active pane. If an item is selected, you can deselect it by holding down the Command key and clicking the selected item.
Custom favorite icons
As a new feature, you can add custom icons to your favorites. You can add a custom icon when creating or editing a favorite.
Create a new favorite from the Connect Panel and select a custom favorite icon:
- Open the Connect Panel with Command-K or from the menu: Go > Connect
- Select the protocol that you want to use. – All protocols have their default icons, which you can see in the drop-down menu and which appear at the beginning of the first line next to the name of the connection.
- To change the icon, click the icon next to the name (placeholder).
- From the pop-up, select the icon you want to use. If you want to go back to the default icon, then click the “Use Default Image” button at the bottom. If you have chosen the right icon, click outside the pop-up.
- You can change the color of the icon by selecting a color label. To access that option, make sure to turn on the advanced settings by toggling the “Show Advanced” option.
- Enter the credentials of the connection and click “Add to Favorites”.
Edit an existing favorite:
- Right-click the favorite in the sidebar and select “Edit”.
- To change the icon, click the icon next to the name.
- From the pop-up, select the icon you want to use. If you want to go back to the default icon, then click the “Use Default Image” button at the bottom. If you have chosen the right icon, click outside the pop-up.
- You can change the color of the icon by selecting a color label. To access that option, make sure to turn on the advanced settings by toggling the “Show Advanced” option.
- Click “Save”
If you use Control-Click as the secondary click, then you can’t edit a favorite by right-clicking it inside the sidebar. In that case, select Favorites > Show Favorites from the menu. Select the favorite you want to edit and click the Pen button at the bottom of the pane to edit the favorite. After editing the favorite, you can close the favorite manager by pressing the ESC key on your keyboard.
You can also create a favorite by dragging an item into the sidebar or by selecting an item and selecting Favorites > Add to Favorites from the menu. During that process, you can’t select a custom icon. To change the icon of such a favorite, follow the above steps to edit the existing favorite.
Revert the custom favorite icon to the default icon:
If you want to go back to the default icon, then edit the favorite by using the above steps and instead of choosing a custom icon, click the “Use Default Image” button in the icon selector pop-up and save the favorite.
Print files
One of the new features introduced in version 4.0.7 is the option to print files from ForkLift. This is pretty straightforward, select the items you want to print and choose File > Print from the menu or use the Command-P keyboard shortcut.
Open with section
The addition of the “Open with” section has been highly requested in the past. We are pleased to announce its inclusion in ForkLift, enabling users to seamlessly change the default app without having to switch back to Finder. This feature allows users to specify the app they wish to use for opening selected files or file types.
The “Open with” section can be found in the Info Window, which you can either access in the Preview Pane of ForkLift by selecting the “i” icon at the top of the pane, or in the stand-alone Info Window, which can be opened with the Command-I shortcut, or with the Get Info command from the File menu or the right-click context menu of an item.
When there is at least one app on your Mac capable of opening a specific file type, a default app is assigned to that extension for opening it. But it is possible that you want to open a selected file or all files with the same extension with a different app. Now, you can select that app in ForkLift in the “Open with” section.
You can change the app which should open the selected file by selecting a different app from the drop-down menu inside the “Open with” section. If you click the “Change All…” button below the selected app, you can change the default app to open all files with the same extension.
Edit columns by right-clicking the column headers
Another new feature is the option to edit the columns by right clicking the column headers in list view. The column headers are below the path bar, on top of the columns in list view and tell you which info is displayed in each column, such as Name, Size, Date Modified, or Tags.
Depending on what info you want to see, you can add or remove columns inside ForkLift. In the past, that was only possible through the View Options Panel (Command-J or View > Show View Options) but now it is also possible inside the panes.
To add a new column:
Right-click anywhere inside the column header and in the right-click context menu, click the name of the column, you want to add to ForkLift. (The currently displayed columns are marked with a check mark. Click one of the unmarked columns to add it.)
To remove a column:
Right-click anywhere inside the column header and in the right-click context menu, click the name of the column, you want to remove from ForkLift. (The currently displayed columns are marked with a check mark. Click one of the marked columns to remove it.) The Name column can’t be removed.
It might be useful to know that you can reorder the columns by grabbing them at their column headers and drag and dropping them to a new location. ForkLift remembers these changes and accordingly reorders the columns inside the right-click menu as well. The position of the Name column can’t be changed.
Default View Settings
When you change the columns in one tab/pane, then the columns don’t automatically change in all other tabs. You should either make the same changes in all tabs, or you should save your current settings as the Default View Settings and then restore those in other tabs as well.
You can do that by selecting View > Save View Settings as Defaults from the menu and then selecting View > Restore Default View Settings from the menu in a different tab. Saving view settings as the default view settings doesn’t mean that ForkLift opens new tabs using those settings. ForkLift always duplicates the view settings of the currently active tab when a new tab is being opened. If you want to use the default view settings, then open a new tab and select View > Restore Default View Settings from the menu.
Sorting order of columns
The default sorting order of some columns has also changed. The default sorting order of the Size and Date columns has become descending, which means that the biggest and latest files are displayed on top by default. ForkLift also remembers the last used sorting order and restores that after you order by a different attribute and then switch back.
Sidebar Editor
We have added a Sidebar Editor to ForkLift to allow users to hide or display individual favorites or favorite groups directly in the sidebar. You can enable the Sidebar Editor by selecting View > Show Sidebar Editor form the menu.
You can deselect favorites by unchecking the boxes in front of their names. This way, it has become possible to hide the entire Shares section or individual shares on the network. That is especially useful in big offices, where there can be hundreds of shares on the same network. Users usually don’t want to see all of those available shares, especially if those are constantly connecting to and disconnecting from the network, which makes the Shares section expand and contract, causing a visual distraction.
You can put back hidden favorites by checking their boxes again.
The Connections section can’t be hidden from the sidebar.
You can close the Sidebar editor from the menu by selecting View > Hide Sidebar Editor.
Since the introduction of the Sidebar Editor, it has also become possible to hide individual favorites from the sidebar (without opening the Sidebar Editor) by right-clicking them in the sidebar and selecting “Hide from Sidebar”.
New languages
We have added Spanish, Italian, Ukrainian and Polish localization to ForkLift. The language automatically changes following the order of the preferred languages inside the System Settings under Language & Region. You can also set a custom language for ForkLift under System Settings > Language & Region > Applications.
New theme
A new dark theme called “Polar Night” is available under ForkLift > Settings > Themes.
We hope these new features enhance your experience with ForkLift. Try them out today and let us know what you think!
Sorry, but it’s still not as good as FL 3.
I’m back to using Forklift 3.5.6, because on the same system and with the same settings Forklift 4 is just too laggy to work with.
I’m sorry that you are experiencing that but what does it mean exactly that ForkLift 4 is too laggy?
I had to rename a bunch of individual files and folders manually, and ForkLift was increasingly slower over time, and at some point I had to restart it, because it slowed me down.
Also, the search doesn’t always work correctly, searching for “C++” (without quotes) gives basically anything with a letter “C”…
Event this form is buggy, it won’t let me start a new line…
If ForkLift becomes unresponsive, then take a sample of ForkLift in the Activity Monitor and send it to us via email.
Edited to add:
You can enter regex into the search field of ForkLift and the plus sign is treated like a regex character. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsregularexpression
You can make a new line with Shift-Enter but the comment form is actually developed by WordPress, so we can’t fix that.
Hi,
I’ll taker a sample next time.
Shift-Enter doesn’t work either.
You should have clear distinction between plain text search and regex search, it’s utterly confusing.
Hi guys, you are missing an opportunity to add the flexibility that a lot of Windows users who need to use or switched to Mac need.
For example, if I select a folder or a file, why cant I choose the option “Cut” so I can paste it wherever I want? Or why not being able to use CTRL+X and CTRL+V to paste the files or folders?
This would be very nice to see as there is a lot of stuff that Windows users have been enjoying with Windows Explorer that would be nice to have on the Mac.
Thank you for your consideration!
I can use the keyboard shortcuts Command C (or Command X) and Command V or right-clicking on files/folders.
Actually, you can’t. You can copy and paste and you can copy and move but you can’t cut files or folders (and then paste them) in ForkLift.
Uh, it’s in the Forklift Shortcuts Preferences panel. I cut and paste files and folders all the time. As far as I know, it’s always been there.
Here’s a screenshot of my Forklift 4 Shortcuts Preference Panel:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g29s7125o4kngot9h2zb5/Screenshot-2024-03-18-at-6.16.54-PM.png?rlkey=24vuhpvs4fdxl236l0cqdcgge&dl=0
That cut command isn’t there to cut files but to cut text when you are editing the name. If for some mysterious reason that works for you to cut files, then use it:)
You can copy and move files, which has the same result as cutting and pasting. Command-C and Command-Option-V. The idea behind that is that there is no time when the file “doesn’t exist” on your Mac, you copy and move it without making it disappear.
It would really save a lot of headaches to many of us using Windows and Mac to have a native Cut and Paste functionality that could be simply enabled on the Settings of the app. A lot of us would really appreciate it.
Unfortunately, the developer of ForkLift doesn’t want to enable the option to cut files, he believes that copying and moving is a better solution. I will show him the reddit post that you have linked.
Hi there, I understand if he thinks that that is a better solution. But having the option to have an alternative way as an option, it would be very welcomed by everyone. Then by default it would work like he wants, and we still have the option 😉 thanks!
Reassign in Shortcuts
+—————–+———–+
| Commands | Shortcuts |
+—————–+———–+
| Copy | ^C |
| Move Items Here | ^V |
+—————–+———–+
Copy ^C
Move Items Here ^V
By the way, if you would like to see more in detail some of the things a lot of people would love to see in Finder….so Forklift 😉 check this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1bgskst/finder_evolution_12_key_upgrades_for_a_modern/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Thank you for this. ForkLift supports some of these things, some other things are also possible in Finder.
I am sorry, but isn’t the idea to have a complete replacement of Finder plus added functionalities?
I would be more than happy to discuss further if this helps, but the intention is to share with you further ideas on how to enhance forklift. 😉
I only meant that there are things in that post that even Finder can do, the writer of the post just doesn’t know how he should execute them, and there are things that ForkLift can do or can do better than Finder. ForkLift can’t do everything that Finder can and it is impossible to do everything that Finder can because they don’t share everything with 3rd party developers, there is no API for everything. We try to add useful features to ForkLift but we can’t please everybody, just because somebody is requesting a feature, we won’t necessarily add it. There are many things that we should consider before adding a feature and there are cases, where the developer has an idea how his app should work and he sticks to that idea. You can share your ideas and we will add them to our feature request list, and we consider if we want to add some of them to ForkLift in the future. Please write them in an email at support [at] binarynights [dot] com.
Hi there, I am the author of that post. I hope you can take nice ideas from that post and implement them in Foklift to make it the ultimate Finder alternative to burying all the other competitors. I am confident that people would become even more interested at a quicker pace. There have been so many half-baked solutions leaving so many opportunities on the table, name them all: TotalFinder, XFinder, PathFinder, Commander One, Nimble Commander, muCommander, Transmit, etc. I think Forklift is the closest one to fulfilling all the needs of all users.
Maybe implementing a public roadmap idea portal (like a user voice), so people can vote up on the functionalities they would love to see the most, could help steer the product development besides the interest of the developer. Product Lift lifetime deal is still available on AppSumo, you might want to consider getting a license to deploy it for Forklift 😉 Happy to help on anything thats required to improve the product. Thank you!
Still no keyboard selection of files and folders? Bummer.
I’m sorry but we won’t add that option.
Which is simply ridiculous for a file manager not to have. What a pity.
And that feature existed in FL3! I have never seen such a stubborn developer that completely ignores users’ opinion and sticks to “his app should work”. I mean, I can understand that but the app it’s for users, not for developer personal usage only.
Anyway, good luck with such an inflexible approach.
Hey, is there any chance to have the option to change the (list) fonts?
I’d like to have my lists in monospce. 🙂
That is not possible at the moment. We will consider adding that option.
Yes, I also would find this to be useful.
Any chance you’re going to fix the “Show Two Panes” bug, where the right pane (if selected when enabling “Show One Pane”) jumps to the left pane and the _new_ right pane defaults back to the “Starting directory”, losing it’s ‘back button’ history? This is incredibly frustrating, and has been there since Forklift 4 launched. I need to use this in 4 a lot more than 3 becuase the UI elements are bigger and less text is available throughout the app… so it’s necessary to move to a single pane just to make better use of visibility within the pane.
It seems the updates for my family license has ended, so i’m currently stuck on an older version of Forklift 4.. which sucks given many of us are playing the waiting game on bug fixes introduced with the app rewrite (version 3 –> version 4). I’ve gone back to Forklift 3 because of the limitations I kept running into with Forklift 4… guess i’m going to stay on this older version until it stops working with macOS, whenever a system update breaks it. Honestly really had high hopes, but it even looking through comments on your blog posts, it seems that there are customers regularly waiting for solutions that existed in previous versions of this exact software, which simply cease to exist, or are simply too buggy to rely on. I’d love to continue giving you support, but the lack of fixes for issues (which i have emailed directly) make it harder and harder… and this updated licensing model just makes the whole thing frustrating. I’m sure i am not alone here thinking that new features should be purchased, where bug fixes aught to be provided to paid customers.
I’m sorry that you are not satisfied with ForkLift 4 and went back to ForkLift 3. I’m not sure that this is a bug or a missing feature but the result is the same, the behavior is different from the old behavior and it is not optimal. We will try to change this issue soon.
Forklift 4 still ignores ssh public key config file in ~/.ssh/config and therefore the app is still not usable for SFTP. 1Password as ssh agent is not working as well as I run into “Too many failed authentications” because I store tons of ssh keys in 1Password…
For now, I will not renew the license…
ForkLift reads the ssh config file and can work with keys stored in the Keychain. Please contact us at support [at] binarynights [dot] com and send us the content of your config file and the way how you have stored the keys in 1Password.
I purchased a Forklift 4 license today and gave it a try. I hadn’t considered that features of Forklift 3 might simply no longer be available in version 4, unfortunately. Because I rely particularly on Forklift Mini, I have found it necessary now to go back to using version 3 after brief experiment with version 4. I hope there will be a way to stay up to date with the product and also continue to have the functionality I really need from it.
Unfortunately, ForkLift Mini is not part of ForkLift 4. We want to develop it into a standalone app in the future. You can keep using ForkLift Mini to mount servers and work with those in ForkLift 4 but if you wish, you can request a refund.
Has there been any progress on realizing Forklift Mini as a standalone app?
Unfortunately, ForkLift Mini or a simliar app is not under development at the moment.
Thanks. I hope this will change. I’m stuck still using Forklift 3 for now. I’ll need to find an alternative solution before long.
How to fill in the S3 parameters, prompting the following error.
“`
Can’t get bucket region
“`
Please contact us in an email and send us a screenshot of your connect panel where we can see how it is filled out and a screenshot of the error message: support [at] binarynights [dot] com
What happened to the CSS rendering on the version history page?
https://binarynights.com/versionhistory
It uses the old css, we will look into that.
I’m on the hunt for a Finder replacement, that allows me to either:
1) Put my own icons on sidebar items or
2) Group things in the sidebar.
It’s nice that Forklift has the option of icons, but odd that it isn’t fully customizable. A temporary solution would be an icon of the character ⌞ (U+231E). That’s a bottom left corner, and can be used to indicate that one favourite is nested in another.
I forgot: Custom colours. I don’t want distracting colours, but I like the idea of different, muted, colours for different groups. The ones you’ve chosen are very in-my-face.
You can customize the icons of the favorites. You can do that while you are creating the favorite or by editing it. You can edit a favorite by right-clicking it and selecting Edit from the menu. To change the icon, click the icon on top of the Connect Panel/Favorite editor and you will be able to select a new icon. You can restore the default icon by clicking the “Use Default Image” button. As you have mentioned, you can change the color of the icon too. The colors you can pick from are the default color tag colors. It is possible that we will add the option to fully customize the color.
Grouping the favorites is possible but not into nested favorites. You can create favorite groups from the Favorites menu and you can save favorites into those groups, you can expand and collapse those groups by hovering over the group title and clicking the arrow at the end of the line in the sidebar.
I’m ForkLift user for 8 years now. Still on 3.5.8
Dowloaded 4.1.5 to test if to upgrade.
Sad to say but you degraded functionality.
Main featue I use is Sync.
Comparing to 3.xx
– I can’t fold sub folders, scrolling 500 files tree is a joke
– I can’t manualy switch off particular file to be excluded from sync like in 3.x
– The one who brought idea to make animation with file details moving other list items should take proper UI/UX course. Forklift is workhorse tool not fancy toy. I want to see file position in a folder tree not annoying animation that takes time and move thing around. Wrong Sync settings cost a lot of time. Overlay window is the way to go.
– folders like .git or .vscode are synced even they are marked hidden and ‘Syncronize hidden items” option is set to off.
There are of course other things I like and bug-fixes in 4.xx branch, but when fundamental feature gets degraded it is no-go for upgrade, especially paid.
Regards
Thank you for using ForkLift for so long.
We want to make it possible to collapse the folders in the future. We will also consider displaying the additional info differently or allow users to turn that setting off.
You can turn off the synchronization of individual items by clicking the green plus icon. You can also turn off the synchronization of hidden items. We are not aware of any bugs that would change the expected behavior. Please send us a screen recording of the synchronization if the hidden files get synced over when that setting is turned off. It is important that we see all the settings that you use. Please send the recording at support [at] binarynights [dot] com