Maya Default File Path Disk Folder Help

[Anonymous]

I am running Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11

Everytime I run Maya 2016, it creates a folder in the following location:

/Users/Nicolas/Documents/maya

How can I change or disable the location of this folder?

I already did the following in Maya:

Preferences -> Settings -> Files/Projects -> Default Project directory: (I set it to my external drive)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

This is my exact problem! I came here to find help on this as well. Just like OP, I have done the obvious thing and changed my project directory, but maya creates this folder every time regardless. 

I am also running Mac OS El Capitan, v10.11. My suspicion is that this is an El Capitan bug as the only people I've seen reporting this are running Mac OS 10.11.

Can anyone help us? Perhaps a python script, maybe to delete this folder right after its created...? That sounds a little stupid, I know...

This is super annoying and creates a redundant result if I use Mac Spotlight search to quickly access my maya folder.

Attached images show the project preferences in maya, and the Documents/maya folder that nonetheless gets created...

[pshwayka]

This is not a bug...it does the same in Windows..although, in Windows, the preferences reside within a subdirectory of the maya folder...so if it doesn't get created, Maya can't start.

My guess is it's part of the initialization process that gets executed when Maya is launched. The reasoning behind it is probably that in the event Maya can't access your custom project directory, it can at least create and open a default project.

If it's causing a problem when you do spotlight searches, you may want to consider renaming your custom project folder with something other than "maya" in the path.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. I don't think that is the case, however... There are no preferences within this Maya folder that gets created, just an empty 'projects' folder. 

My maya preferences are being stored in: Macintosh HD/Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/2016/prefs. So I can't see a way that maya's initialization would be making reference to this folder... It is a possibility that maya needs a 'fallback' default projects folder as you say, but this seems pretty counter-intuitive to the idea of being able to determine your projects locations if it will create a redundant one regardless. It also seems odd that this 'fallback' folder creation would happen on startup, instead of in the event that the custom projects folder were inaccessible.

Although this remains somewhat maddening and I don't explicitly consider it a solution, for now I am using 'chflags hidden ~/Documents/maya' within the Mac Terminal to hide this needless folder-- I recommend that nicolaselhani do the same. 

[pshwayka]

I'm not sure where you thought I was saying that the prefs folder on a Mac is within the maya folder. (Note the word "although" in my first sentance.)

Also...I don't understand how hiding the default maya folder solves your Spotlight search issue, as you will still get redundant results. You would do better to go into your Spotlight settings/Privacy tab, and add the default maya folder to the "prevent spotlight from searching these locations" list.

[Anonymous]

Indeed, I was merely pre-empting the suggestion that the preferences file could be the same case with Mac OS maya for the benefit of others that may come upon this thread, and asserting that there is no content in the created folder/no apparent purpose for it. Thanks for your input to the thread!

[Anonymous]

deuxieme, thanks for your input.

having used applications in the industry for a while and being in the fine arts/visual field, it's no surprise to me that such a simple issue exists with an application that costs thousands of dollars.

beyond the sheer impracticality of this matter, I'm sure there's a slight OCD'ness that takes place as well for people who pride themselves in keeping their folders and files organized to perfection.

Thanks for the tip for hiding the folder, I think I may just do that for now.

[laomusic_arts]

Hi!
I just had a similar issue with Maya 2018.7 on a MBP OSX 10136 !
Always creating a "default" folder inside the existing "default" folder!
And $1,875/year for 1 user!
So here is my "solution"/hack on this situation:
- navigate to Windows/Settings&Preferences/Preferences/

- on the left column, choose Files/Projects

- Shorten your path one layer up!
In my case it was:
/Users/laomusicarts/Documents/maya/projects/default

And I pointed it to:

/Users/laomusicarts/Documents/maya/projects/

Voila! Solved!

Enjoy and Have fun!
Hope this helps others too!

LAO