Why can I no longer force file names starting with an ! to the top of a list of files? I can order folders using this system but when I look inside a folder the file names starting with an ! are at the bottom, defeating the whole object.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 12, iOS 18
It all depends on the sort order that you have in place.
Different folders can have different orders.
It is certainly not just the "!", is it?
The exclamation mark "!" comes before every letter in the ASCII order, so when ordered by name it might look something like this example:
!x
!y
A
B
but if you click the Name column it will reverse the order:
B
A
!y
!x
It is possible also that you have it ordered by kind, or by date, etc.
An example screenshot may clarify.
If I want files or folders to appear first in a folder, or even a sub-folder, I prefix them with an underscore. That character is UNIX friendly when one is in the Terminal, while a file preferenced with a bang (!) from the Finder cannot be directly accessed in the Terminal and must be escaped to be seen or accessed:
ls !foo.txt
zsh: event not found: foo.txt
ls \!foo.txt
!foo.txt
For more control over sorting, consider using third-party file managers like Total Commander, XYplorer, or Directory Opus, which allow custom sort orders and more flexible sorting options.
Why can't I force files starting with '!' to the top of a list in folders?
