10 Finder Life Hacks Every Mac User Should Know
Finder is one of the most underrated Mac apps. At first glance, it’s a simple file manager, but Finder is much more than just a program. Apple has been refining this app for decades, and it’s packed with hidden features to explore and third-party apps to install. With these 10 Finder hacks, you can incorporate many of its most powerful features into your daily workflow.
Add frequently used folders to the Finder sidebar for instant access.
The left pane of the Finder app contains quite a few shortcuts. Think of them as bookmarks, allowing you to access various files and folders. However, you can personalize this list to suit your workflow. To get started, drag and drop any item in the Finder sidebar to reorder the list, which includes sections like Favorites or Locations. You can also drag individual items into a section to prioritize folders you access frequently. The best feature is the ability to remove unnecessary items. To try this, click the Finder button in the menu bar at the top of the screen and choose Preferences > Sidebar . Uncheck unnecessary items, such as Recent Tags (a feature I never use on my Mac). You can also drag any folder into the Favorites section of the sidebar, which is a faster way to open frequently used folders.
Change the default search location in Finder to the current folder.
When using the Finder search field, it defaults to showing all results from my Mac. I prefer to view results from the currently open folder; it takes much less time than sifting through all my files. You can customize this by going to Finder Preferences > Advanced and selecting “When performing searches” from the drop-down menu. From there, select “Search in the current folder .” While you’re at it, you can try Finder’s hidden Advanced Search mode to add a few search filters . This makes it easier to find a specific file in a large, disorganized folder. After entering your search query, click the “+” button below the Finder search bar to display these filters.
Set up automatic Trash emptying on your Mac to avoid running out of space.
When you delete files, they are moved to the Trash on your Mac. This folder takes up disk space, which can quickly become a problem for owners of entry-level MacBooks. You can solve this problem by automatically deleting these files after 30 days. Go to Finder Preferences > Advanced and enable the “Delete items from the Trash after 30 days” option.
Automatically deleting ZIP files after unzipping them will help keep your Mac from becoming cluttered.
When you unzip a compressed file, your Mac pastes its contents into a new folder but doesn’t automatically delete the original archive. You can set it to automatically delete these files to tidy up your Mac. To do this, press Command-Space , search for “Backup Utility,” and open the app. Then, click the Archive Utility button in the menu bar and go to Preferences . Click the drop-down menu next to “After unzipping” and select “Move archive to Trash.”
Use this plugin to view the contents of folders on your Mac without opening them.
Quick Look is one of the best features in macOS. It lets you preview any file without opening it. However, it doesn’t let you preview folder contents , meaning when you select a folder and press the space bar, you’ll only see its size and the number of files within. To fix this, you can use the Folder Preview plugin ($1.99), which lets you preview folder contents . There’s also an improved version , Folder Preview Pro ($9.99), which lets you copy, paste, and even preview files directly from a folder.
Use this keyboard shortcut to copy and paste files in Finder.
Those switching from Windows to Mac will immediately notice the lack of an obvious copy and paste mechanism. While this feature is present on your Mac, it’s not easy to find. First, you can copy a file by pressing Command-C or going to the Edit menu and selecting “Copy.” Then, open another folder and press Command-Option-V to move the file instead of pasting it. You can also use the Edit menu and select “Move Item Here.” If this option isn’t visible, you can right-click an empty space in the destination folder and hold the Option key to display “Move Item Here.”
Use Quick Actions to remove the background of an image without opening it.
Finder supports unique actions for each file type, so you can perform tasks without even opening the file. For example, you can right-click any image in Finder and select Quick Actions > Remove Background . This will create a new image file without the background present in the original. The Quick Actions menu displays only a few actions for some file types, so you should explore it to find other useful features.
Display all file extensions to protect your security
By default, Finder doesn’t display file extensions, meaning a filename like “Lifehacker” might appear. If it’s a harmless image file, there’s nothing to worry about. But if it’s malicious, it could cause unwanted problems with your computer. To avoid these hassles, you can force Finder to display file extensions , which will change the filename to something like “Lifehacker.jpg.” This way, you can be sure of the type of file you’re opening. To do this, go to Finder Preferences > Advanced and enable “Show all file extensions.”
Customize the Finder toolbar to instantly display file paths (and more).
The Finder toolbar contains a set of buttons covering the most frequently used functions, but there are others that some users may find useful. Right-click an empty space in the Finder toolbar and select “Customize Toolbar “ to display these options. For example, you can drag the “Path” button to the toolbar and select “Done.” Now you can click “Path” at any time to see the full path to a folder anywhere in Finder. Similarly, the AirDrop button lets you select files and instantly opens the AirDrop sharing menu, which normally requires three clicks.
Use this hidden setting to change the background of Finder windows.
If you’re tired of the default white or black backgrounds in Finder, you can change the background color or even replace it with a wallpaper of your own choosing. This feature is only available when using Icon View in Finder. To test it, open any folder in Finder and press Command-1 (or click View in the menu bar and select As Icons) to switch to Icon View. Now press Command-J (or View > Show View Options ) to open a pop-up window. Under Background, you can select Color to set a new background color or Image to add a wallpaper. Note that the wallpaper won’t automatically scale to the window size, so if you frequently resize your windows, you’ll sometimes have empty white space.