You Are Using These Folders On Your Mac Wrong
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- macmost.com/e-2929 What's the right way to use your Downloads folder? How about the Trash or the Desktop folder? Take a look at different standard locations on your Mac and learn some best practices for using them.
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00:00 Intro
00:46 The Downloads Folder
01:43 The Trash Folder
02:53 The Desktop Folder
05:15 The Home Folder
06:18 The iCloud Drive Folder
07:11 Special iCloud Drive App Folders
07:56 The Recents “Folder”
08:57 The Time Machine Drive
09:45 Applications Outside of Applications Folders
#macmost #mactutorial - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Why doesn’t this channel have a billion subscribers?
Because this video is useless, maybe? “You should delete old installers and move stuff out of Downloads to where you want to keep it. And you should only put stuff in Trash that you want to delete.” Orly?! Gee thanks! 🙄
Because there aren’t a billion Mac users.
Like seriously... macmost is just too good and dedicated to bringing to the for, the deep knowledge to the least just for user new or old.
@@nukeseanof course you forgot the part where he says a lot of people use the trash to move files temporary.
Because there is no marketing ))) Its organic
He is a living legend. There is knowledge and there is communication of knowledge in an easy understandable way.
100% Agree
You just answered so many questions and I just cleared out my downloads and desktop folders, thanks!!
What a great reminder to be disciplined in storing documents. Thanks, Gary. Very good info. In the 'old days' the OS really didn't like a bunch of documents on the Desktop. It often ended up scrambling the directory ... I use alias' to manage items on my Desktop. The points you've made are very valid and I will re-think how I use Folders after viewing this very helpful video. Thanks.
Gary, your efforts to teach us is extraordinary. This is another example of why this channel is my favorite.
My desktop folder needs organization. After watching this video I see a lot of time will be needed to clean up downloads folder 🤷🏼♂
Keep up the great work. It is a mystery to me why you don't have 1M subs or more
A very useful and informative video tutorial today! Excellent video today and I’m so glad there are no folder police😂that tickled me today! Thank you, Gary! 👏🏻❤️
Just opened!
Learning a lot about MacOS in general from your channel! Thanks a lot for the effort you put in these videos!
Thanks for these videos! I've been a PC user since DOS and I switched to my first Mac a couple weeks ago and your channel has helped me get up to speed and adjust. I got a Mac mini pro and it's been awesome!
Wow Gary wish I had watched this ages ago. My computer is loving me right about now. Found a lot of stuff that I will never need again.
Excellent tutorial. Very nice clarification of folder use. Many thanks!
Another great informative video Gary. Thank you. I love your channel. i check it every day for updates.Thank you for sharing your endless knowledge in a user friendly way.
Your videos are all great. Simple, clear, easy to follow and useful
tips. many thanks
Thanks Gary for the helpful tips. I’m going to work on cleaning up my desktop on my iMac. 👍 You have such a great channel.
Thank you. Have been sorting a decades-long accumulation. Of files and folders and this advice came at exactly the right times.
Clear, complete and smart. Thanks, Gary!
Very Very useful stuff here. Thanks Garry! I keep coming back to your page over and over again throughout the years.
Being a power user of Windows for the last 12 years, I was feeling helpless and stupid with my new MacBook. I have switched to Mac and your videos are really helping me to understand MacOS in depth. Thanks a ton
Gary, Thank you very much for this video. It's so well and clearly explained and I appreciate it particularly because I'm French speaking.
Your efforts in teaching is extraordinary, thanks for your patient
Very clear information. Thank you for sharing this!
This is so clear to understand and practice. I certainly would like a video on how to work with clear downloads file. The other important point that I do not see comments on is the deliverance of your dialogue, its top class!! This is not easy to do, and is the reason why I follow your site, apart from learning a lot..
I wish I had watched a similar video about 14 years ago when I bought my first mac. Most of the things you discussed I've learned by brute force over the years and some of the mistakes I never made cause the MacOS is intuitive like that. Good video.
Very good advice; applicable also for Windows. Thank you, Gary!
Nicely done, thank you. I am so lazy - I meant to keep my beautiful new computer supremely organized and with an empty Downloads folder. I quickly got too busy to keep up with file management. Same with the Desktop (screenshots default there). I love a clean Desktop and end up making a sub folder of DESKTOP STUFF and sticking everything in there to clean up the screen. Or drag the DESKTOP STUFF folder over to Downloads until I can get more time to clean that up. This has inspired me to get out my vacuum cleaner and straighten everything up. We’ll see!
Excellent tutorial. Thank you so much 🙏
Awesome video and having newly discovered your content, thank you for work and insights!
Gary thank you so much for this video. I see a lot of misuse in my files…especially the downloads. Great video!
Great knowledge about the details...really like this guy! Big up!
Gary, this is totally wonderful and changes my use of my Mac Studio, which now has 90 folders on the Desktop. I am now going to follow your advice, and make switching on my computer a joy rather than a nightmare of 'where did I put that?'
Excellent tutorial! Very, very helpful, thank you.
Such good info - now if I can just start following the suggestions!
Thank-you so much for this video! I just recently purchased a Mac for the first time after using nothing but Windows computers for 40 years and I have been struggling with organizing my documents. I was supposed to get training with my new (and expensive!) Apple computer, but ran into nothing but problems when I tried to schedule the training, so I gave up. This video has helped me so much! You'd think I'd just catch on, since I always organized my Windows files using the "Documents" folder, but the Mac was confusing at first because it kept defaulting to different places when I would try to save a document and I would find them later all over the place...(i.e. Pages, iCloud, Documents, etc.) It was driving me nuts!
You can never go 'too basic', Gary! - macos since 2005; past few years I've felt more and more frequently/regularly like: "A horseless carriage?!!?" I used to be able to figure out/find/fix by web searches - it seems that is no longer the case (for myriad reasons...)
So, I guess I never learned the foundation/s, but was happy figuring out what I needed to at the time I needed to...
Your video topics have been ever more showing me *what* I don't know -and then then the *how*, thank you for all of it!
Great advice as always.
Well done, very useful!
Totally guilty on the downloads file but just got a new (refurbed) 2021 Pro and I will keep it CLEAN!!! Great channel and AWESOME info! - thanks Gary!!!
Good solid advice
Your channel has been very helpful. I am long time, PC user just getting into Mac after idk 10 plus years.
One thing in favour of a clean desktop, regardless of Windows, Linux or MacOS, is that having many windows and applications open on the desktop can make it harder (or at least slower) to find what you need. Optimizing the dock, menu or taskbar can help make it a little faster and easier.
Great stuff. by the way, the transition has been easier than I thought it would be loving my Mac.
really useful!
Great video!
Great as always!!
Another very education al tutorial Gary.
Clutter on desktop?
Plenty of stuff in download folder?
Guilty as charged!
Thanks Gary for teaching an old man to better understand and work with my Mac.
I also love your shortcut tutorials videos.
So happy to watching this video,very helpful for me to learn how to use MacBook thank you very much😊
Aww Gary, I am so guilty of charge! I don't know why YT showed me this older video, but it came at a great moment, as I am clearing my "downloads folder" Geez it's cluttered. Thank you so much, best from Uruguay. PS I use another external hd to store all my photos, info, investigation, designs, etc! :)
I can recommend the iCloud Drive. I have used it for a few years. Last autumn I had to rebuild my Mac. I decided to try and not use the Time Machine backup. I didn’t want to restore the object which had caused the issue. It worked brilliantly. The only extra work was installing a few applications.
Yes, a much needed video to clean things up. You could add that it is better for the brain to stick to one Documents folder, it can be the user doc, or icloud drive doc, or Dropbox doc, etc. The best doc folder is the only one that is used, when there are multiples, it's the beginning of problems.
Thanks, you are the best 🎉
So helpful! I admit I like using my desktop very much like my actual desktop. I’m not much of a multitasker, so when I have a project I’m working on, I store all my research and files on the desktop (and use stacks). This makes them easily accessible, and encourages me to finish the project so I can clean everything up. Once I’m done I move everything to the documents folder and then have the glorious feeling of a clean desktop! For folks who multitask or work on multiple projects at once though, this probably isn’t the best system.
After seeing this its nice to know I'm using my Apple filing ecosystem correctly; other than I still keep my Pages/Numbers/Keynote documents in those names folders. I'll have to rethink that one. Thanks.
Best Teacher on the www(not only Mac)
Thank you - very useful information. Would love to see a video on storage of video files especially for TH-cam related files and iMovie.
Now, i felt this video, was below my mac skill. Still watched it though. I got to that skill mostly thanks to this channel. Thank you, Gary.
Got it 👍 Thanks 😊
Thx for the review. Have you discussed the effective use of smart folders?
A real useful Mac world YT channel!
Thanks!
Yikes. I have 10 years of downloads to process...I am extremely grateful for this
knowledge. Amazing. THANK YOU.
I have so much clean up to do on my Mac.
Thanks This helped me clean up a bit I am pretty tidy I found some files randomly in the wrong place mostly trash.
I keep the downloads folder 📂 clean as well too. Much more effective 💯💯
1:44
Looking forward to seeing these other tips
4:41 nice! I keep my desktop clean too😅😅
Great Video
Thanks 😊
Thanks bunches
Great advice! I thought the usual advice for Mac users was to not put lots of cluttered files on the Desktop because it slowed the computer down. Perhaps that’s not the case anymore. It is a bad habit regardless.
While being helpful for me as a relative rookie on Mac, I have to say that you seem to be one of the the kind of people that made me be a proud user of windows and Linux for more than 20 years. Apart from the price. Today the price is not a problem. And I NEVER want to be like that. If it's a show, great acting. If not... I don't want to say stuff that gets me banned here, Gary😁
ty g. you're the best
Excellent, Gary! Never heard of someone storing files temporarily in the trash, it‘s weird. I‘m using Hazel for a decade now organizing my folders (downloads, desktop, etc.) automatically. A file accidentally landing on the desktop won’t live there for a single second as Hazel kicks in. I hate cluttered desktops and when I’m seeing people storing hundreds of files there, I can say they‘re expert in procrastination.😂
My dad is guilty of that crime. I remember one time I deleted his trash folder to open up space on his PC because it was ridiculously slow and laggy and he got so pissed and was all up in my face about it!
lol yeah I do that. It’s never anything I actually want to keep, but sometimes I do keep things in the trash while I wait to replace it. Like it’s a great way to keep an older application while you make sure the new version works. Then it’s safe to delete the old one. But sometimes I do the same with general clutter that I know is not essential, but I might second guess actually deleting it.
Once it gets bigger than a GB it’s generally time to clean up
I love this channel keeps me on the right path. My users file has all my documents pictures they also appear in my home file slightly confused. best practice please.
Note sure what you are asking. Best practices would be to put your documents files in your Documents folder.
Plenty of common senses and reasonable advices
On top of my regular job, I used to maintain the corporate file storage for a couple dozen people and keeping them organized was nearly impossible. I tried to impress on them that if they aren't available, someone else has to be able to find client files quickly and easily. It didn't matter. People just couldn't be bothered.
On my home iMac, I only show a shortcut to documents on my desktop which makes it easy to get to the subfolders.
I have everything storage wise here pretty well the same except I tend to let the Downloads folder fill up. Same thing at work on Windows 11. I will persevere to do better in the future, cleaned up my Downloads Mac tonight while watching your video.
Excellent advice. Worth watching twice. Why you only have 300K subscribers I'll never know.
While good advice, regardless of Mac, Windows, or Linux, I would modify one thing that fits my personal workflow. If you have a file that you use frequently, I find the Desktop is a valid storage location for it for while you use it often. This can be a pair of documents and a spreadsheet that otherwise might end up in a folder with 25+ files, or an image I find myself sending out frequently (i.e. a pic of my dog I email out when anyone asks about her). The key is keeping it minimal so that the speed gains are from having 5 or fewer items on my desktop at any given time, then moving them when done if necessary. Of course YMMV and different people have different workflows, but I find this the best of both worlds. a mostly uncluttered desktop with quick access to a handful of work and personal files.
I think it’s fine, but when you are on MacOS particularly I find spotlight search is so good, you can just type a letter or two of the file name and have anything pulled up instantly. Once you memorize the shortcut to pull up spotlight, it sort of replaces the desktop storage space because you will be able to pull any file or apps or folders up instantly no matter where they are buried.
For Windows or Linux I prefer to use the desktop as you mentioned.
Another option-which I use often-is to put a project folder in the Sidebar temporarily. The item still lives where it should-in the Documents folder-but the Sidebar, like the Recents "folder," is merely another "view" that makes a folder easy to access while working on a project over time. Example: at income tax time, I put my current year tax folder there. When I'm finished with my return, I take it out of the Sidebar. You can also put a folder in the Dock temporarily for the same reason. Again-anything you put there is still in the Documents folder. When you're finished with your project, drag it off the Dock.
I keep certain folders permanently in the Sidebar (folders that I use regularly, not occasionally).
Thanks. Very helpful reminders, especially clearing "Downloads." I understand the concept behind "Recents" and use it accordingly, but when I upgraded devices I found that it was no longer populating. Nothing there at all. As an alternative, I created a Smart Folder which accomplishes the same thing, but am still curious as to why "Recents" as installed is not functioning. P
Thank you Gary, great tips, as always. How do you differentiate what to put in the local documents folder and what to put into the iCloud documents folder?
That's up to you. I don't generally use a local Documents folder, I just have one Documents folder (iCloud).
Good comments for your part Gary, but in my case you should see how different applications I have, use my home folder for putting their working files. Just to name a few: CrossOver, Parrallels Desktop, Daz3D, Development app like (Jupyter, Miniconda, Python). So I just leave it there, I don't want to mess it up. So I am willing to keep my home folder clean as possible, but I don't have any control over these third-party applications that they don't care.
For some downloaded internet I used to have a folder with the respective installers, or DMG files. If not internet connection, these installers can solve a situation.
I appreciate the tip about not saving Numbers files and Pages files to their default folders.
LOL, I'm a total mess with my folders and files. Unfortunetly, Apple contributed having Spotlight to search everywhere! I have a new Mac on the way b/c my almost 8 yr old machine cannot upgrade to MacOS 13, so maybe I'll start to declutter some... Maybe... 🤣
First shot! I'm doing it all wrong LOL. I use Downloads as a temporary file storage that isn't so temporary.
Very clear and easy to understand video. One thing that you might consider for a future video is the use of tags in finder. I know what tags are and how useful they can be, but it's not clear to me how to apply them to files. I don't find color coding them Ty o be useful at all.
Don't think of tags as "color coding." It isn't about colors, it is about the keywords. See th-cam.com/video/G-3CJ27gUXs/w-d-xo.html
I have one folder on my desktop as a shortcut to the books/scripts I am writing. It has a book icon so it looks cool
Hey Gary: Excellent advice to use one's time machine backup drive ONLY for time machine backups. I'd further say: buy a drive the same size as what's IN one's Mac, format it to the latest greatest while still empty, then use it ONLY for time machine backups.
Yes, except it should be at least 2X the size of your internal drive (+ any external drives you are also backing up). But if it isn't a problem, go even bigger. Remember that Time Machine backs up a history of your files, so you want to give it plenty of space.
My apologies again, as I now see your video was uploaded 2 days ago! I just got confused b/c I'm reaching out to numerous people on TH-cam to answer my question, as it is a very serious one, and I have no other options besides retrieving the document! Thank you in advance for your help!
Thanks for a very usefull tutorial.
As a follow up if you have not already done so could you show us how to organise files for some to be backed up in icloud and other that you may not want backed up there, as they may be backed to your say your attached raid drive.
I only want my very best photos backed up to icloud, the other are not that important and would waste icloud storage. I seem to also have problems getting files to be both on icloud and local iMac at the same time. Is there a setting that that would specify, icloud, local or both ?
First, note that iCloud Drive is NOT a backup. See th-cam.com/video/yM-hbmpTfgI/w-d-xo.html
But as for storing some files locally and not in iCloud if you like, I have a video on that: th-cam.com/video/nmFwNt6LteU/w-d-xo.html
But if you want both local and iCloud Drive, then that is just iCloud Drive. Learn how the Optimize setting works: th-cam.com/video/S7JYHX2iT9Q/w-d-xo.html
I always used the desktop like a desktop it holds items I am in the process of working on like course work after the assignment is done and turned in I move it to the documents folder. I find having that having in progress work on my desktop was a good enough nag for me to finish it
I don’t like putting things in documents what I found best is I make a home folder app I create a folder & give it In icon then move it to the dock I like the documents idea a lot but I like having a special sorting folder as well. Might start the document folder
Stacks is so underused that I wish it were on by default. It may make my desktop more cluttered, but it’s so worth it.
I tend to keep my desktop fairly clean, but not empty. I like to keep aliases there to the apps I use frequently, mainly Windows apps since I run Windows on Parallels.
Agreed, it all almost becomes common sense for a regular apple user, great advice for people who are not tech savvy or pc literate.
Great job! but I'm reaching out in case you are still up for a question? I've tried everything and I mean EVERLYTHING to get a document back that I accidently saved over or deleted still check messages on this video! In time machine, the "little" lines (before "today" or "right now, which is in red") the little lines that are avaliable do not become available to click on unless I click and hold down "Today," but once I let "today" go, I am unable to click on the little lines I see that are for yesterday. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks for the vid. Is there consequences to delete the app folder in iCloud Drive ? Thanks
What do you mean by "the app folder?" Do you mean storing actual applications in iCloud Drive. Don't do that. Applications should be in the Applications folder on your Mac. Or, do you mean a folder created by an application like the "Pages" folder for Pages documents. That's fine. I don't like to use those, but you can use them, or leave them empty.
@@macmost thanks for your reply. I mean the folder the applications created in iCloud Drive. There are a few folder with nothing in it. It makes not clean
I've been using a Mac ever since System 7, and in fact I made my living on the Mac for most of those 32 years. From the beginning, I created a "Ready4Trash" folder and placed it on the desktop next to the Trash icon. When I'm unsure about actually deleting an item, I drag it into the Ready4Trash folder, and periodically delete files older than 6 months. Going into the folder and fishing out a file is a lot more convenient than using TimeMachine (which, of course didn't exist way back when). Try it!
I use the same strategy for decades, the only difference is that my folder is named "temp". Don't forget to exclude it from Time Machine!
@@mojoblues66 “Temp” is the heroic solution. The other one I like is “Transfer” which is shy file or media or application I want to offload to my external storage or transfer between computers. You would be surprised how much stuff we download and don’t actually access it again regularly for months or years.
Also helps that Apple ships small ssd now so it’s made me more conscious of data clutter.
thanks Gary, again some awesome tips. I seem to have a mental block about the iCloud drive documents and desktop folders as opposed to them being on my local ssd. If i store items on my desktop (mainly because i think a certain file will load faster), some files appear to be on the iCloud anyway. How does one 'force' the Mac to keep a file on the local drive?
Desktop is just a folder like any other. Files will not load faster from the Desktop folder than from any other folder. If your Desktop folder is in iCloud Drive, then all files in the Desktop folder are in iCloud Drive. But that doesn't mean that they are not cached locally. If Optimize is OFF, then they 100% are. If Optimize is on then they probably are local if you have accessed them recently. See th-cam.com/video/S7JYHX2iT9Q/w-d-xo.html
Need a "Have You Given It More Thought" folder. My desktop is cluttered because I have files that I don't quite know if and how I'm going to use them again. Being undecided, I want to see them (over and over and over again so that I don't forget that they need a resolution) A folder that cleared away the clutter but that sends me a timely notification tailored to each file would helpful. Out of sight paired with a reminder.
Fantastic Gary, I just moved from an Mi1 Air to a MBP and wanted to set off on the right foot. I'd made a right message of my file structure on the air. I wish I understood how/why when I install apps they create their now folder and stick them all over the place. ie DaVinci Resolve in particular. I'm worried if I move the folders, the app/program will lose sight of where they are and become corrupt. Any thoughts on that? Any examples as a follow up, what would be good practice?
Sorry, I'm not using Resolve so I don't know what you are dealing with.
@@macmost no worries your video answered my questions pretty much and explained things i have adopted the best practice
Gary, I use my Downloads folder slightly differently. I exempt it from my Time Machine backups so while I clean the Downloads folder out of files I no longer need, I also use it to store files that I want to keep temporarily and not be backed up by Time Machine. So I'm curious: since you make sure to clean out your Downloads folder immediately, where do you regularly store files that you only need for a short time and don't want backed up by Time Machine? I find that I always have a lot of those types of files.
I wouldn't do that. Create a different folder for that purpose. Why have things in Downloads that aren't Downloads. You can create folders as you need, so why not create one named appropriately for the contents and then exclude that from Time Machine. I try not to predict which files I don't want downloaded. If I'm wrong even once then the whole effort wasn't worth it. I just back up everything. Why not?
Hi Gary , Can help me getting rid of the Karabiner leftover files? I tried a lot but without result. I will be very thankful to you.
I'd check on their site for instructions on that. Not sure which leftover files you mean, but if an app leaves some things behind and you see them and don't want them, then just delete them, right? But if something else is going on, like it is affecting the way your Mac works, then check with the developer.
Excellent, thanks for the tips. I'm trying to figure out what the "arrow + a number" feature is on Sonoma. Can't find it anywhere. Thanks. /Michael.
"Arrow + a number?" Sorry, I don't know what you mean.