Mac App should respect CLI whitelist for .DS_Store prevention optimization

[TimmySheep]

Hi, thanks for building Mole.

I noticed that the CLI version provides an optimize whitelist via:

mo optimize --whitelist

I added the .DS_Store prevention optimization to the whitelist because I want Finder to keep writing .DS_Store files on external drives and network volumes.

However, when I run Optimize from the Mole Mac App GUI, it still appears to apply this optimization again.

After running GUI Optimize, the following macOS defaults are written back:
com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores = 1
com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores = 1
This means the GUI Optimize feature does not seem to respect the CLI optimize whitelist.

Expected behavior

The Mole Mac App should either:

1. Respect the CLI optimize whitelist, for example ~/.config/mole/whitelist_optimize; or
2. Provide a whitelist / exclude option in the GUI Optimize page.

Actual behavior

The CLI whitelist works in the command line version, but the Mac App GUI still applies the .DS_Store prevention optimization.

Steps to reproduce

1. Run:
   mo optimize --whitelist
2. Add the .DS_Store prevention task to the whitelist.
3. Restore the macOS defaults:
   defaults delete com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores 2>/dev/null
   defaults delete com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores 2>/dev/null
   killall Finder
4. Run Optimize from the Mole Mac App GUI.
5. Check the defaults again:
   defaults read com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores
   defaults read com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores
   Result

The values are written back as 1, which means the GUI Optimize feature still applies this optimization.

Why this matters

Some users may intentionally want Finder to keep writing .DS_Store files on external drives or network volumes, for example to preserve Finder folder view settings.

Since the CLI already supports an optimize whitelist, it would be helpful if the Mac App GUI respected the same whitelist or exposed a similar option in the GUI.
Environment

• Mole version 1.38.1
  macOS: 15.7.5
  Architecture: arm64
  Kernel: 24.6.0
  SIP: Enabled
• macOS version: V1.3.0
• Mac model: MacBook Pro M2pro

[tw93]

@TimmySheep thanks for the detailed reproduction steps. They made the problem very clear.

The Mac app was not mapping the GUI Optimize tasks back to the same whitelist entries used by the CLI, so the .DS_Store prevention task could still run even after being whitelisted from mo optimize --whitelist. I’ve fixed that path now: the GUI reads the optimize whitelist and skips the matching tasks instead of applying them again.

This has been fixed and will ship in an upcoming release soon.

[tw93]

@TimmySheep Thanks for the detailed report. Mole 1.4.0's GUI Optimize now reads the same whitelist as the CLI (~/.config/mole/whitelist_optimize), so a task you whitelist there, including the .DS_Store prevention step, is skipped by the Mac app too.

Update to 1.4.0 via the in-app updater or from mole.fit, and your whitelist entry will be respected.