Result of "show in finder" (among others) always points to my Home directory

There are hundreds of horror stories associated with cmm, so whenever I see it, I have to flag it.

In this case, it does not appear to be the culprit.

Since the problem affects the Finder, it is worth deleting Finder preferences. This may help, and even if doesn't is otherwise harmless.

1) In Finder, press Command-Shift-G and paste

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

2) Drag the file out of the Preferences folder, and to the trash (or park it temporarily on the Desktop if you prefer).

3) Press Command-Option-Escape, select the Finder in the list, and click Relaunch

A new default preferences file is created automatically.

Adjust the preferences as needed, and test.

If the problem had been caused by corruption in the old preferences file, maybe you're in luck and all is well.

If not, and you feel so inclined, you may put the old file back.

Q - " After some months of running macOS Monterey, in several applications (for example Chrome, but not only), when I select "show in finder" after I've downloaded a file, it always shows my home directory although the file is somewhere else. "

A - The Only area of the Opening System the User has Directly Control over is the Home Folder ) User Account ) of this computer

A - Specific to Big Sur macOS 11, Monterey macOS 12 and Ventura macOS 13.

The Operating System resides in a Sealed and Read Only Volume that can not be opened by the User.

A - As to where the Downloads are being placed on the computer using Google Chrome or native Safari, the user maybe able to switch a download location to another location within the Home Folder

Tifred wrote:

And here's the result of another quick experiment: I have a Finder window open in 'list' mode, showing the content of a sub-sub-sub-directory. Then I click to show items 'as Columns'. Then it shows me the content of my Home...

Why?

Rereading this part, it is possible that this is NOT an error...

When in list mode, if you are seeing an open subfolder, you may still be techically in the containing folder.

For example:

Here we are seeing a file "README.md" that sits inside A11, a subfolder of A1, a subfolder of A.

But note that the window is in fact showing A, as seen in the title.

If you press Command-3 now, it will switch to Column View, showing... A.

By a quick look at the report, I see that you have the hideous cleanmymac...

Completely uninstall that. There is no way to know what damage it may have done. Ultimately, a clean install may be needed.

Test to see if the same problem happens in Safe Mode. If it works ok in Safe Mode, restart normally and then download and run Etrecheck and post its full report here.