Maurizio Giri

I just noticed that in the Max5 search paths (in file preferences) it is not possible to use aliases as subfolders, even for Macs...

I will miss this feature a lot. I use it all the time in max 4.6.3 to switch between several sets of externals and soundfiles (every set is a folder containing different alias-subfolders). 

It is expecially useful for big sound folders, and it would be super-useful to have two distinct sets of external folders for max4 and max5 without having to duplicate everything.

I know that now we can set many different paths in the max5 file preferences window, but the single folder set technique is a lot better, imho

I will miss this feature a lot. I use it all the time in max 4.6.3 to switch between several sets of externals and soundfiles (every set is a folder containing different alias-subfolders). 
It is expecially useful for big sound folders, and it would be super-useful to have two distinct sets of external folders for max4 and max5 without having to duplicate everything.
I know that now we can set many different paths in the max5 file preferences window, but the single folder set technique is a lot better, imho

max5-alias-folder-in-file-preferences

This feature (more of a hack really) caused innumerable headaches with offline volumes and slowed down the search path tremendously.

So, in other words, we made an explicit decision to dump it, it is never coming back, and we are not sorry. You can, however, specify an aliased folder explicitly as a search path, but, as in Max 4, it will have the effect of degrading file searching performance, something which is completely beyond our control.

OK, I uderstand your decision, and I understand why it is never coming back (I was about to suggest an "Aliases" checkbox -off by default- near the "Subfolders" one, but I guess it will never happen...).

Maybe for people like me who change the externals configuration frequently could be useful a drag and drop option for the file preference window?

I have a couple of problem though: filepath adds the path to the file preferences list, but doesn't activate the subfolder option (at least I didn't find a way to do it). If I activate the option manually in the file preferences window then I have to restart the application in order to make the subfolders visible to Max.

Thank you, Julien, good idea.
I have a couple of problem though: filepath adds the path to the file preferences list, but doesn't activate the subfolder option (at least I didn't find a way to do it). If I activate the option manually in the file preferences window then I have to restart the application in order to make the subfolders visible to Max.

OK, here is a Max5 recursive patch that lists all the subfolders (at any depth) of a given folder. 

Unfortunately it is not possible to resolve aliases: there is an object, absolutepath, which resolves aliases in max4 but NOT in max5...

OK, here is a Max5 recursive patch that lists all the subfolders (at any depth) of a given folder. 
Unfortunately it is not possible to resolve aliases: there is an object, absolutepath, which resolves aliases in max4 but NOT in max5...

[max5] alias folder in file preferences