Otherwise, the only option is to get a free registration with the Apple Developer Connection and submit the bug in a bug report at http://bugreport.apple.com/.

The greater the number of bug reports, the greater the chance that Apple will finally realize how bad this bug is and fix it.

I was able to change that pseudo-Pages document back into a folder, but unfortunately since there is no way to trace the random name changes who knows how many other files or folders have been affected on my hard drives. Anything that might have shown up in a Spotlight search results window at any point is susceptible. It is very worrying.

I have no idea how Mac OS X chooses the file that it randomly renames. But it is definitely a file other than the one selected in the Spotlight search results window. If you have 50 files/folders listed in your Spotlight search results window, any of them could be affected.

As for where this bug might come from, my sense is that it’s because the Spotlight search results window in the Finder is actually only a pseudo-Finder window, a “hack” that Apple uses to make a totally different beast look like a regular Finder window, when it is actually more like a 10.4-era Spotlight window with additional Finder-like features.

For example, the Spotlight search results window does not have the same view options as regular Finder windows. It also is the only type of Finder window that is affected by the visible “editable name in background” bug. If you select an item in a regular Finder window and then double-click on its name, Mac OS X does not make its name editable in the background.

So this leads me to think that Spotlight search results windows follow their own rules, and this major bug is hidden somewhere inside those rules. Apple needs to fix it ASAP. But they will only do so if they get substantial bug reports from many different users. So please submit yours, with all the detailed steps.

In my experiment, I thought that the file being renamed is the file whose name is highlighted for editing. So the name staying the same didn’t seem like a big deal.

However, after I moved one of the files into a different directory and started double clicking that, the second file in the list was getting renamed, not the one that you double click.

That is a strange bug indeed.

Good thing I don’t really use the Finder. I use Path Finder instead.

jbravo: I specifically indicated that, in order for the random name changes to happen, the results need to be in different folders. If the results are in the same folder, you get the error message, because OS X cannot have two files with the same name in the same folder. But the core issue remains that OS X is attempting to rename a file without the user’s consent. The fact that you are getting the alert is proof that the bug is occurring on your machine too. It just cannot complete the name change because of the name conflict, but there is no reason for OS X to even attempt a name change here. If you want to see a name change happening, modify the above scenario by storing each text file in a different subfolder, and reproducing the same steps. Then you’ll see the name change in its full glory.

Let’s say I’m trying with ‘Albert.txt’. The error message would state that I can’t use the file name ‘Albert.txt’ because it’s already in use. So the name doesn’t change for me. The Finder simply gives an error message that trying to rename the file ‘Albert.txt’ to ‘Albert.txt’ cannot be done. I got this error about 1 time for each 6 or seven attempts. In one of the attempts the error message was ‘cannot open the alias Albert.txt because the original item cannot be found’ but deselecting the file, selecting it and double clicking its name didn’t produce the alias error anymore.

Do you have any auto-typing, auto-correcting utility active on your system? Anything that takes keyboard input before the active application get it? If you do, maybe it’s re-routing the input to the Finder. I have Grammarian X on mine, so that may affect my results too (although, turning it off didn’t change the outcome).

So I got the same error message that you’re getting, but I couldn’t successfully replicate your random rename problem. It’s on an Intel iMac, with 10.5.3.