Products · Pattern or everyday thing
File dialogs
Raised as a usability problem by 14 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 14 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 14 complaints
- Modal file dialogs add friction to creating, opening, moving and saving files2026-07-22
- Too many save destinations (cloud, filesystem, URLs, share-to) add confusing complexity to saving files2024-11-01
- File open dialogs are slow to appear, often from checking network drives2023-06-27
- Finding a note file via the Mac file dialog is slow and takes too long to locate the right note2022-11-07
- File dialog can open hidden behind the main window in full-screen mode2022-07-07
- Drag-and-drop into apps is hit and miss because developers avoid native file dialogs2022-05-09
- Reaching deeply nested folders is tedious; some custom save menus won't accept pasted paths2021-07-21
- Opens in icon view with hidden files, sorting needs 3 clicks, typing to find files fails2019-08-14
- Typing after filename is highlighted sends input to a search field instead2018-12-12
- File pickers are inconsistent and take far more time to select files2017-03-25
- Double-clicking a file crashes the program while clicking OK works2017-01-08
- Must awkwardly navigate the filesystem instead of dragging files into dialogs2016-09-13
- Navigating filesystems in GUI download dialogs is tedious and slows the download workflow2014-11-17
- Apps save files to inconsistent places and users can't navigate the Save As dialog2009-02-01