Force list view on every Finder folder on Mac

Setting the default view fixes new folders but leaves the ones that already remember icon or gallery view. To force list view on all of them: click Use as Defaults in View Options to cover every folder without its own setting, then open each holdout and press Cmd+2 to overwrite the view it saved. Here is how macOS decides, and how to win every case.

Why "all folders" is two problems

macOS keeps view settings at two levels, and only the second one blocks a blanket change:

• A global default used by any folder that has never been given a view of its own.
• A per-folder view that Finder saves the moment you change a folder's view by hand, stored in that folder's hidden .DS_Store file. A saved per-folder view always overrides the global default.

So folders you've never touched follow the default instantly, while ones you customised in the past keep their old view until you reset them. Both parts behave the same on macOS 13 Ventura, 14 Sonoma, and 15 Sequoia.

Step 1 — apply list to all default folders

1. Open a folder and press Cmd+2 for list view.
2. Open View → Show View Options (Cmd+J).
3. Click Use as Defaults.

Every folder without a saved view now opens as a list. Set the new-window default in the Terminal too, so freshly opened windows match:

# default new windows to list view
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle -string "Nlsv"
killall Finder

# undo — return to icon view
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle -string "icnv"
killall Finder

Step 2 — reset the folders that saved a view

For each folder still opening in another view, the fix is direct: open it and press Cmd+2. That rewrites its saved view to list, and it sticks. There is no single button that erases every per-folder view at once — the saved setting lives inside each folder — so a stubborn folder is always fixed by visiting it and switching it manually. Media folders that default to gallery or icon view for large previews are reset the same way.

Clean up the leftover .DS_Store clutter

Those per-folder view settings live in hidden .DS_Store files that also show up on shared and USB drives. See how to delete .DS_Store files on Mac if they start cluttering places you'd rather keep tidy.