[Jawbone54]

The problem:

I place shortcuts to folders into the Finder sidebar for quick access as I edit pictures. Recently, I moved a folder called "Shane" into the sidebar for several weeks, then deleted the actual folder. Now I cannot remove the shortcut from my sidebar. Any ideas as to how I can remove it?

[besson3c]

Lion?

[Jawbone54]

Si. It pre-dates Lion, however. The problem started with Snow Leopard and I never found a workaround. I thought maybe it would be resolved in Lion, but nope.

[besson3c]

I was asking because I've been experiencing a problem with the Lion sidebar where folders belonging to network shares that are mounted can't be accessed through the sidebar, so when I read your post I was wondering whether this was somehow related and that the Lion sidebar was just generally FUBAR.

[Jawbone54]

Sounds to me like the sidebar needs to die.

Actually, this problem is driving me crazy because I'm very, very organized in my folder/subfolder structure, and this useless folder is taking up valuable space. If anyone can help, please advise.

[angelmb]

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Careful editing the file above to remove that "Shane" folder might do it.

I guess you could do that with TextWrangler, please note I haven't tried it so take this advice just as what it is, a mere guess.

A more radical option might be to delete the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file and recreate it later, so you would have to take note of any sidebar customization.

[reader50]

Recreate the target folder, delete the sidebar shortcut, delete actual folder? If the sidebar still won't recognize the recreated folder, then restore it from TM instead.

[Jawbone54]

Found a strange solution:

- Click on the folder and drag it away from the sidebar
- Before you let go of the mouse button, hold down the Command (⌘) key
- Now that you’re holding down the Command (⌘) key, release the mouse button
- The icon should now finally disappear from your sidebar in a puff of smoke

Since when did holding down Command after clicking the icon do anything?

[Don Pickett]

Just right click on the offending folder.

[Jawbone54]

Don, that was the first thing I did. It doesn't work when the corresponding folder has been deleted.

[Don Pickett]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

Don, that was the first thing I did. It doesn't work when the corresponding folder has been deleted.

You sure? I ran into this problem at work and that fixed it.

[AKcrab]

In some version of 10.6 (10.6.6 maybe?) Apple made it so that you HAVE to hold down command to drag items out of the sidebar. It's now just like getting items out of the menu bar.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by Don Pickett 

You sure? I ran into this problem at work and that fixed it.

100% positive. You used to be able to drag it off, but then they switched it to right-click only, with this little "glitch" causing a bit of a hiccup for many users.

[Spheric Harlot]

Actually, they switched it to Cmd-drag, in line with the menu bar widgets and toolbar items.