Messages in MacOS suddenly changed modes. Instead of a list of messaging contacts on the left, I have more like an explorer view, with links, photos, locations, and documents. Nothing in the View menu or File > Settings looks relevant. How do I get it back?
Ventura V 13.4.1(c)
Thanks!
In the old days, we could often fix a program by finding its .plist file in ~/Library/Preferences (it would probably have a name like com.apple.messages or com.apple.messages.plist). Since you can just put it in Trash without actually deleting it, you can find out if that is the culprit without possibly losing all its content. When you relaunch Messages (it should have been quit when you do this), it will recreate a clean, fresh .plist. It may also contain all your contacts, which might be a nuisance, but I suspect contacts are stored separately.
~/Library is a hidden directory. In order to enter it, you use “Go To Folder …” at the bottom of Finder’s “Go” menu and type in (without the quotes) “Library” or “~/Library” ( but not “/Library” ), hit return, open the Preferences folder and scroll till you find the right file.
It took me a bit of fiddling to make it happen.
Click into the “Search” field at the top left…that triggers the weird “Links, Photos, Locations, Documents” view.
To go back, click the little “x” at the right side of the search field.
That did it!
THANK YOU!!
Dumb design, I think – the X in an input box deletes what’s written in the box, normally, and there’s nothing written in it. In this case, simply clicking in the Search field makes this change. I probably clicked in it; I have pretty poor hand control and generate a lot of unintended actions. The more feature rich GUI environments become, the more often I get lost, as a consequence of not learning how to use every detail of every feature (which I think is practically impossible).