Improved Handling of Text Encoding Issues in ForkLift
In ForkLift 4.3.1, we have made important improvements to how ForkLift handles folders and files with text encoding issues over FTP and SFTP connections.
ForkLift allows you to manually set the text encoding used to interpret file and folder names on remote servers. In most cases, this is set to UTF8, which is the modern standard. However, issues can still occur.
Why do encoding problems happen?
Sometimes, files are created on systems that use a different operating system or a different character encoding. In such cases, a filename might appear to be UTF-8, but it actually isn’t.
Previously, ForkLift couldn’t resolve these filenames correctly and would:
- Fail to connect to the server if the problematic file was in the root folder.
- Fail to open a folder that contained a file with a text encoding issue.
In cases like that, ForkLift displayed a “Text encoding error”.
This happened because ForkLift tries to interpret filenames using the encoding set by the user (e.g. UTF8). If the actual encoding doesn’t match, ForkLift couldn’t resolve the name.
This was technically the expected behavior, however, it wasn’t user-friendly, because the user had no way to access the folder or fix the issue if ForkLift couldn’t open it.
Example:
A file named Müller.txt, created using an incorrect or incompatible encoding, might appear as Müller.txt when interpreted as UTF-8. In previous versions, ForkLift couldn’t open the folder containing this file at all, so this garbled name wasn’t visible at all.
What’s new?
ForkLift 4.3.1 introduces a more robust approach. Now, ForkLift can:
- Connect to servers and open folders even if one or more items contain incorrectly encoded names.
- Display problematic filenames using the replacement character (�) in place of unreadable characters, for example, a file named Müller.txt might appear as M�ller.txt. This way, you can clearly see that there’s an encoding issue and fix it manually.
This means you’re no longer blocked from accessing folders just because of one badly encoded file. However, you still won’t be able to open the problematic file itself until the encoding issue is resolved.
How to fix encoding issues in ForkLift:
- If you see filenames with the replacement character (�) in their names, go to View > Text Encoding in the ForkLift menu.
- Try changing the encoding (e.g. switch from UTF-8 to Western (ISO Latin 1) or Central European (ISO Latin 2)) until the names become readable and you can open the file or folder.
- Once the filenames are readable, rename the file using basic characters (e.g. rename Müller.txt to Mueller.txt).
- Then, switch the encoding back to the encoding you normally use on your server and rename the file again if needed, using your preferred characters (e.g. change Mueller.txt back to Müller.txt).
Improved Visibility and Information Access
ForkLift 4.3.1 introduces small but impactful enhancements to improve visibility and ease of use. In List View, you can now double-click a column header divider to automatically resize the column to fit its content, helping you quickly reveal hidden information or eliminate wasted space.
Additionally, tooltips have been added to the Logs section in the Preview Pane. When filenames are truncated, simply hover over an item to see its full name, making it easier to identify files without needing to expand the column.
Enhanced Workspace Management
Workspaces have received multiple usability improvements to streamline your workflow. You can now open a saved workspace in a new window directly from the sidebar via the right-click context menu. You can also reveal a workspace in the Favorite Manager from the same menu.
Most notably, ForkLift now properly restores the saved view settings for all tabs in a workspace, something that didn’t always happen in earlier versions. This ensures a more consistent experience every time you reopen a workspace, with all tabs and views appearing exactly as you saved them.
Tag Sidebar Improvements and Fixes
Most of the fixes and improvements in version 4.3.1 focus on the new Tags in the Sidebar feature introduced in the previous version. One issue in 4.3. was that ForkLift always generated the default color tags in English, regardless of the macOS system language. This caused problems for users who don’t use English on their Macs, for example, a red tag might appear as “rojo” in Spanish or “rot” in German, and clicking the English “Red” tag in the sidebar wouldn’t show those files.
Starting with ForkLift 4.3.1, the app now generates color tags in the system language of macOS, ensuring they match the user’s tag names.
Please note: this change is not retroactive.
If you already have color tags with names in the wrong language, you will need to manually delete them. To do this, go to ForkLift > Settings > Tags, select the tags to delete, and click the minus (-) button. You can select multiple tags by holding the Command key while clicking. Then, use the plus (+) button to add new tags in your system’s language.
In addition, ForkLift 4.3.1 includes multiple improvements and fixes that enhance working with saved search-based tags in the sidebar. For example, selection is now properly reflected when you click a tag in the sidebar, among other refinements that improve clarity and usability.
Full list of changes:
New
- ForkLift can now open folders over SFTP and FTP connections even if they or their subitems contain text encoding errors. Items with encoding issues are displayed using the replacement character (�) to indicate unreadable parts of the name
- Double-clicking the column header divider resizes the column to fit its content
- Option to drag items from remote connections to Terminal to add their paths
- Displays a tooltip in the Logs section of the Preview Pane to show full information when hovering over an item
- Option to open a workspace from the sidebar’s context menu in a new window
- Option to reveal a workspace in the Favorites Manager from the sidebar’s context menu
Improvement
- Selection remains on the selected tag in the sidebar
- Displays the tag icon as the tab icon instead of the search icon when a tag is selected from the sidebar
- Inactive tags related to searches no longer lose their original tab icons
- Disables the Find command in the menu if the Search Bar is removed from the toolbar
- Workspaces now restore the saved view settings of all tabs in cases where this previously did not happen
Fixes
- Removes the “Clear” tag from the list of color tags in the context menu
- Fixes an issue where the path and icon of a folder were displayed incorrectly when opened from a saved search (for example, Tags in the sidebar) using the “Open in New Tab” command
- Fixes an issue with autogenerated tags where color tags are now generated in the language of the macOS instead of English (this fix does not apply retroactively)
- Fixes an issue that caused tags to appear in the Recent Folders section of the sidebar
- Fixes an issue where the Permissions section was missing in the Preview Pane when selecting items from search results
- Fixes an issue introduced in version 4.3 on Amazon S3 where a zero-sized file with an empty name could appear in the file list
- Fixes an issue with FTP TLS connections where editing an existing SFTP connection with active mode could result in active mode being used instead of the built-in passive mode
- Fixes an issue where search results could be added to Favorites, but the Favorites would not work as expected
- Numerous minor fixes and improvements
Download ForkLift 4.3.1