Cannot arrange finder files and folder by name

In OS X 10.9.2, I cannot arrange finder's files and folder by name and the files are sorted by random alphabetical order. Is that a bug or any work around?


Solution 1:

Finder offers two sorting methods: Arrange By and Sort By.

In column view:

  1. Click View > Arrange By > None
  2. Hold down the Option key and click View > Sort By > Name

Each folder has a hidden file .DS_Store that controls these settings, so when things don’t redraw correctly after you change a preference, consider trashing that file or making a new clean folder and moving things into a new store.

Solution 2:

Turn off "Arrange By."

For me sort was unavailable, including by clicking the column headers, til I did that.

But this page got me half the way there, the rest was a random brainstorm.

So thanks, denizens of whatever apple.stackexchange.com/questions is. :-D

Solution 3:

Click View > Arrange By > None.

Hold down the Option key and click View > Sort By > Name.

Solution 4:

Have you tried changing both the Sort By and Arrange By modes? The Sort By mode can be changed from the view options (command-J), or View > Arrange By turns to Sort By if you hold option.