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Finder is your Mac’s basic file browser, but it’s packed with useful features that can transform the way you do everyday things. Here are some of our favorite features that we think you should be using.
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Customize the sidebar with useful locations
The Finder sidebar works best if it’s full of useful locations that you use. To customize it, open a Finder window, then (in the menu bar at the top of the screen) click Finder > Settings followed by the “Sidebar” tab. From here you can enable or disable common shortcuts like AirDrop, iCloud, and Downloads.
Alternatively, click and drag any Finder window to the sidebar. To do this, navigate to the folder you want to add to your sidebar. Now click and drag the folder name at the top of the window. It will start dragging a folder icon that you can place in the sidebar.
You can now click and drag to rearrange these placements or right-click and select “Remove from Sidebar” to get rid of them. If you’ve somehow hidden your sidebar, bring it back using View > Show Sidebar.
Share quickly via AirDrop, Messages, and more
Use the “Share” button in the Finder toolbar or right-click anything you want to share to access the built-in Share menu. You can quickly access sharing options for AirDrop, Mail, Messages, and frequent contacts. You’ll also see other shortcuts for adding files to Notes, adding images to Photos, copying a link to items stored in iCloud Drive, and more.
Press the “Edit Extensions” button to enable other Share menu services (if available).
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Use tags to collect files
Tags may be the most underappreciated feature in Finder, but they can make your life so much easier if you remember to use them. You’ll find a list of recent tags in your Finder’s sidebar (go to Finder > Settings > Sidebar and enable “Recent Tags” if you don’t).
From here you can customize the labels using the “Labels” tab in Finder > Settings. You can add new labels, rename existing ones, and change the colors to suit your taste. Apply tags to a file or folder using the right-click context menu (Control + Click) or by using the “Tags” button on the Finder toolbar.
Click on a tag to reveal a list of files or folders that have the tag applied to them, regardless of where they are on your drive. Put Finder tags to work for you, and you’ll be able to keep track of a host of useful files, regardless of their location.
Use smart folders to automatically group things together
Like tags, smart folders are another powerful and long-standing Finder feature. Unlike tags, which must be applied to files and folders before they are useful, smart folders group files based on existing criteria. So if you want to group all the files you
With a Finder window open, click File > New Smart Folder to get started. Click the plus “+” button to add your first criteria, and then continue to refine your Smart Folder by adding more criteria to further narrow your search. Press “Save” and choose where to put your Smart Folder. You can then access it to display any files that meet the criteria you’ve specified.
Don’t forget to use the “Other” option to access a wide range of criteria.
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View free space in the status bar
Changes in macOS Ventura make it harder to see your free space at a glance, as Apple removed the handy overview in the “About This Mac” window. Fortunately, you can still easily do this with Finder by enabling the status bar under View > Show Status Bar.
You will now see the available free space for the current volume at the bottom of the Finder window. Note that if you’re looking at an external drive, you’ll see the total space available for that volume, and you’ll need to look at a folder on your local “Macintosh HD” partition to see how much local space it needs. They have left. This also works for iCloud.
Access iPhone Backup, Restore and File Transfers
Connect your iPhone or iPad, then click the device shortcut in the Finder sidebar to back up, restore software, or perform file transfers. This functionality was once limited to iTunes, but since Apple discontinued the app (on macOS, at least), the responsibility has shifted to Finder.
You’ll be able to manually sync photos (if you’re not using iCloud Photo Library), music, movies, TV shows, and more. Use the “Files” tab to transfer files to and from the application data using drag and drop.
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Use Finder tabs to keep things organized
You can use tabs in Finder just like in Safari. To open a new Finder tab, simply press Command+T in a Finder window (you’ll also find the option under File > New Tab). You can also Command + click a sidebar shortcut or Command + double-click a folder to open a tab. This is a great way to reduce clutter by condensing similar Finder operations within a single window.
You can choose to permanently show the tab bar if you want by using View > Show Tab Bar. With two or more tabs open, you can click and drag files between tabs, drag to rearrange, move tabs from one Finder window to another, or undock them. tabs by dragging them out of the Finder window.
Change which folder appears when you start Finder
Set your home folder when you open a new Finder window in Finder > Settings > General. Use the “New Finder Windows” drop-down box to choose a location or your recent files, or specify a custom location using the “Other” option instead. This affects both new windows and new tabs, so pick something useful.
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Use different views for different folders
You can view files as icons, as a list view, as columns, and as a gallery within the Finder. You can switch between this by using the “View” button on the Finder toolbar or by using the View menu. Finder will remember which view you have chosen based on the folder you are currently using.
This means that you can use the list view for folders with a lot of files, making them easier to sort. You can right-click (Control+Click) the criteria in the list at the top of the folder to add different criteria to sort by. Then click each criteria to toggle between descending and ascending order.
For media, you may prefer the gallery view. Column view is useful if you want to switch between many folders, as it displays the folder structure as a series of columns. When you double-click a folder, the Finder will default to the view you’ve previously chosen for that particular folder; otherwise, you can just scroll and click until you find what you want.
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Use Quick Look to preview files with the spacebar
Why waste time opening files when you can quickly preview them? Highlight a file, and then press Space to open a preview in Quick Look. This works great for images, videos, audio, and documents. You can even access markup tools when previewing a PDF document.
Use “Go to folder” to quickly navigate
Finder’s “Go to Folder” shortcut is useful for quick keyboard navigation. Access it with the keyboard shortcut Shift+Command+G (or find it under Go > Go to Folder). Once open, you can start typing the name of the folder you want, and you’ll see some smart suggestions appear that you can select with your arrow keys (or your mouse).
Use the right arrow key to auto-complete the path name with the Finder suggestion, then use “/” to see a list of available folders within that location.
Bonus: access quick actions in the context menu
You can right-click (or Control + click) a file in Finder to access the Quick Actions menu, which lets you run context-dependent Automator workflows and Shortcuts. With this menu, you can do things like resize and convert images and PDF documents with two clicks.
You can add useful macOS shortcuts to your quick actions menu simply by checking the “Use as quick action” box in the “Shortcut Details” panel.
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