Filed under: Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard quirk prevents opening groups of recently downloaded files
Reports of an odd bug affecting downloaded files in Snow Leopard have been circulating Apple's discussion boards recently. As reported by TidBITS, the issue appears to be affecting all computers running Snow Leopard.While different users have reported varying symptoms and differing circumstances, it essentially boils down to this: if you download a group of files, and then attempt to open the entire group of files at once (rather than opening each file individually), chances are either some or all of the selected files will not open.
My initial response to this was that it could possibly be one of those "it's not a bug, it's a feature" ordeals. We have already seen some indications that Apple is working on enhanced security and virus protection in Snow Leopard, so it stands to reason that the operating system may be simply trying to prevent what it thinks is malicious activity by imposing restrictions on what you can and can't do with a newly downloaded file.
Of course, that's just my theory, but I'm apparently not the only one who has explored that possibility -- a reader on the Mac OS X Hints forum discovered some hard evidence supporting that theory. In OS X, newly downloaded files are flagged with a "quarantine" attribute, which remains until the file is opened. If this attribute is set when the file is launched, and the file is an application, you would receive the typical "This application was downloaded from the Internet" confirmation before the application is allowed to continue launching. This is nothing new in Snow Leopard, but it would seem that the additional protections and scanning that were added to Snow Leopard most likely prevent opening multiple files so that each file can be individually checked before it is launched.
Whether or not this is a serious bug or a minor inconvenience depends entirely on your workflow. Personally, I find that I don't often open multiple files from Finder, as most of the applications I use have the ability to select multiple files from their Open dialog. I can easily see where this might pose significant problems, however. For example, if you do a lot of work with graphics, you might download a several photos from a client, highlight them and open them with a custom tool that automatically resizes and processes for you. With this bug in play, that task would become much more difficult if you had to open each file individually.
So what about you? Is this bug bugging you, or is it a non-issue? If you are affected, feel free to chime in with your experiences on the discussion boards, and be sure to let us know in the comments!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ABCNEWSER said 6:21PM on 11-04-2009
You gotta love new media. Who would have thought ten years ago we would hear our news source say something like, "As reported by TidBITS..."
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x23 said 7:31PM on 11-04-2009
TidBITS is one of the oldest internet publications around. it has existed right close to 20 years now.
hardly "new media". so yeah... 10 years ago i knew of TidBITS as TidBITS had already existed for 10 years at that point and was pretty well established.
so 10 years ago i wouldn't have given it a second thought as i am fairly certain i *did* hear it 10 years ago and *didn't* give it a second thought.
"TidBITS has been published weekly since April 16, 1990, which makes it one of the longest running Internet publications."
i guess if you just got online last year and are still surfing around in doe-eyed amazement you might think that... though i doubt many other people will.
The More You Know™
ABCNEWSER said 7:37PM on 11-04-2009
Okay, 10 years ago for regular people, 25 for you.
A
Better
Community™
joe said 12:21PM on 11-05-2009
ABCNEWSER: stop trolling. And uh... check your math there buddy.
Toni said 6:22PM on 11-04-2009
YES! I was ready to rebuild thinking it was something I did along the way. I experience this when I'm importing mass files into Transmission or iTunes.
A workaround for original workflow would be wonderful!
Thanks!
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Michael said 6:30PM on 11-04-2009
Set up a folder action for your Downloads folder that runs:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine *.*
on every file, that should fix it. That being said, you'll have no protection from anything naughty that Snow Leopards quarantine might have stopped.
darkpaw said 6:40PM on 11-04-2009
I thought it was just me. I daily need to crop a lot of files in GraphicConverter, and in Leopard this was a simple matter of selecting the 100 or so files and dropping them on the GC icon in the Dock. In Snow Leopard, however, only 7 or 8 files will open at any one time, and they won't be contiguous so it's difficult to work with this bug.
Definitely a massive productivity issue for me.
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steve said 6:41PM on 11-04-2009
while it doesn't really bug me for files off of the internet, try using a server at work... we basically had to change workflows to accommodate this.
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Dan Lewis said 7:17PM on 11-04-2009
Been having this issue even on files that I have created. Specifically dragging a group of images to Photoshop in the dock results in only one of them opening. Huge PITA!
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Ratkat said 7:30PM on 11-04-2009
I have the same issue, can't drag a group of images from the finder to Photoshop icon in the dock anymore, only one opens.
Also noticed I can't drag an image out of safari to the Photoshop doc icon anymore either
btblomberg said 11:21PM on 11-05-2009
I have had this problem with Photoshop and Vuze (bit torrent). Acts the same if I drag to program icon or use Open With on selected group. Usually I only get one file opening and with Photoshop they are almost all image I have made. Quite irritating.
NoAndThen said 7:12PM on 11-04-2009
Haven't done it too much, but I've no issue opening batches of .torrent files in safari DL window
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Jordan said 7:22PM on 11-04-2009
More Leopard 2.0 bugs. Did this OS even go through testing?
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mark said 7:43PM on 11-04-2009
this is driving me batty. it even affects images that are sent to you via email. if i drag a few images from mail.app to my desktop, then later highlight several images and double-click (to open in graphicconverter), now only one image will open.
it's as if each item has to be opened individually *once*; then, after it's "blessed," it can be opened as one of several items being opened at the same time.
this quarantine crap to "protect" users -- with no built-in way to disable such "features" -- is getting absolutely ridiculous.
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Mike said 8:21PM on 11-04-2009
I've noticed this problem many times and I've been wondering what was causing it. Now comes the most important bit: is there a way to turn it off?
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Andrew said 8:53PM on 11-04-2009
have this problem too, at least i think i do - i've noticed it with preview and PDFs.
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cheetahkayak said 9:29PM on 11-04-2009
Bought a Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger and it works great with my iphone. totally recommend.
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cheetahkayak said 11:26PM on 11-04-2009
opps sorry for that previous comment. I am getting the same issues you all are having with preview.
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Katalina said 10:26PM on 11-04-2009
This is a security feature. It makes total sense. It could say, "There are five files you've recently downloaded. Would you like to review them?"
But beyond that, I don't see a solution.
--Sam
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gtdavemac said 12:26AM on 11-05-2009
Funny... I noticed this yesterday when I downloaded 60 photos and then dragged them all to Preview to open them for a slideshow. Only two or three opened. Tried a couple of times, then I shrugged it off.
Now i guess I know what happened.
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