10 Ways To Move Files From One Folder To Another In the Finder

There are many different ways to move files in the Finder, so if you think moving files is difficult or complex, check out these methods to find one that works better for you. This tutorial also includes a ton of Finder tips and tricks.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Gary here with MacMost. Here are ten ways to move files from one location to another in the Finder on your Mac. 
So macOS gives you lots of different ways to move files around. Here are 10 ways to do it but there are even more in variations on these as well. Even if you think you already have your best way of moving files around this video is going to be full of different tips for using the Finder.
As an example here let's say we want to take the file from this business folder here, Balances.numbers, and move it to this Miscellaneous folder here. One way to do that would be to simply have two different Finder windows. So let's go into this business folder and we can see the file we want to move. Now let's move that to the left side here. Now let's open up a new Finder window and I'm going to move this to the right side here. I'm going to go to the other location. So now I can see the file I want to move and the destination. Now all I need to do is click and drag from one to the other and I've moved the file. 
You could also use Searches for either one of these. So, for instance, I could go up a level, I'm going to use Command and Up Arrow to go up a level here, and then I'm going to Search for Balances and I'll come up with it here. I can check to make sure it's the right one by looking at the Path Bar here at the bottom. So now I've got the file to move. I can also do the same thing here. Let's say I'm up a level here, or maybe even at another location like all the way at the top level iCloud Drive. I can do a Search here for the folder and once I get a result that showed that I can drag from this search result to this search result and the result here is the same. The file is moved. 
Incidentally to make this tutorial I'm going to use Edit Undo and that will Undo the last move, or Command Z to put a file back where it was before. So you could see this now has moved back to that Business folder. 
Now instead of using two different windows you can also use Tabs. People often forget that you can do Tabs in the Finder just like you can do in a web browser. So instead of a new window here I'm going to create a new Tab. Now I've got the two tabs here. This one shows me the business folder where I was before and this one will go to my default location under Finder, Settings, General for New Finder Window Show. So I've got that set to my Document folder. Now I can have this tab be the destination. So this folder here. To move a file from one to the other all I need to do is Drag to that Tab. Pause for a second and then that Tab will open and now I can drop it in. 
Incidentally, if you're in the middle of a drag and you end up somewhere else, like this, and you decide to change your mind, you can always cancel by pressing the Escape Key on your keyboard. 
By the way if you find my videos valuable consider joining the more than 2000 others that support MacMost at Patreon. You get exclusive content, course discounts, and more. Read about it right here. 
Now how about doing this without a second Finder window or Tab. Well, you've got four different Finder views. Icon View, List, Columns, and Gallery. List and Columns are particularly useful for moving files around. So, to use List View for this, which you'd want to do is go back up to the Level that includes both of the locations you're dealing with. So in this case at the Documents Folder level I can see the Business folder and I can see the Miscellaneous folder. It's very common if you have a nice organization like I do here with everything in the Documents Folder that there is a top level, like Documents, where you know you can get to everything you need. So now you can open up this folder in List View here. You can just click the little reveal triangle to the left of the folder. Now I can see the Contents there. At this point I can actually do the drag. But if I really want to see what is in the Miscellaneous folder before I put something there I can also open this one up as well. Now I can select this file and drag it in the same window to the other folder. Don't worry that it is a bit off screen because as soon as you get to the bottom it scrolls automatically. Then you can drop it in this folder here. 
Now you can even Drag & Drop a file into a subfolder of a subfolder. You can do that using Spring Loading. It is similar to what I showed using Tabs where the tab automatically opened when you hovered the file over it as you were dragging. To make sure Spring Loading is turned On for you go to System Settings and then go to Accessibility and then look for Pointer Control. Spring Loading is an option near the top. Just make sure that is turned On. Now let's say I want to move this file into this folder called Other but into the subfolder called Some Files. But I didn't think to open these up before hand. I can drag this file down here, let it scroll a bit, hover over Other and that will open up. Then I can hover over this folder here and that will open up as well and I can drop the file there. 
Now let's look at another Finder View. Column View. So with Column View you get these different columns that represent different levels. So here's my Documents Folder level. Then I'm looking at the Business Folder level here. So I can see this file and I can see the destination here. So I could simply select the folder that I want, see the file, Drag into it, and I can move it. If I wanted to drag into a subfolder I can use Spring Loading here as well. So I can drag this down into Other, wait, Other will open here on the right and I drag into this folder or even wait a second and I can see the contents of the folder and drag it in there.  
You can also use the Sidebar to move things around. So if I wanted to move this file into that Miscellaneous folder, well it is not in the Sidebar right now. But what if it was. What if I very often had to move things into this folder. I can simply drag it here under Favorites and Add it. Now to move something there I don't even need to see this folder. It could be in another area or even in another drive entirely and I can simply drag into the Sidebar like this and it will go into this folder right here. It's okay to temporarily add something there as well. You can just click and drag this out to get rid of it. So if I wanted to move something to this folder I could simply Add it to Favorites in one step and then use it to move a file into that location in another step. Maybe keep it around or get rid of it after I'm done. Seems like a lot of steps but it really only took me a few seconds to do it. 
Note you can also Drag and Drop folders into the Toolbar here. The secret is to first hold the Command Key down. Then Drag and then you'll see the Plus button there. You have to have the Command Key down before you start dragging. Now you've got it right there. You can drag and drop into this as well and you can see it moved it to that folder. To get rid of this you can Command drag out and it is removed. If you want to see the name of the folder under here just Control Click on this and then change to Icon and Text. 
Another idea for a temporary location is to use the Desktop for this. I like to keep a clean Desktop. I don't want to clutter it with files. But it has come in handy as a mid-point in a file move. I can move the file here and then find a location where I want it to go, like this folder here, and then drag it into that. This can come in handy if you want to move a bunch of files that are in different locations into a new single location. So you can grab all those files, move them to the Desktop, and then with the new location visible in the Finder window you can select them all from the Desktop and drag them all into that new location.
Now here's a really strange one that I bet you didn't know about. This Back Button here, the Finder keeps a history just like a browser. You can use the Back Button or Command and the left bracket to go back to the last place you looked. So, you can go to the destination, like let's go into this folder here and into here, and then you can go and find the file that you want. You can Search for it but you could also go and use any other method you want to find that file. So let's go here into the Business Folder. Now start dragging and if you hover over the Back Button it will go back one. Move away. Hover back again and it will go back again. Eventually it will get back to the location that you wanted. Then drop it in there. 
Now I know a lot of you have gotten to this point and have wondered why I haven't mentioned your favorite method. Well, this is probably it. It's to Copy & Move. So here's how it works. You select a file or it could be multiple files and then use Command C or Edit and then Copy. Then you go to the location that you want. So I'm going to go up a level here and then go in here. This is where I want to move it. Now if I use Command V or Edit, Paste it's going to make a copy of that item and put the copy here. That's not what I want. So you hold the Option Key or use Option Command V and that changes Paste item to Move item. So the two keyboard shortcuts you need are Command C to Copy and Option Command V to Move. That will easily move one file or several files if you selected those when you used the Copy Command to this location. 
Now here's a method that doesn't use the Finder directly but uses Finder functionality. Let's open up this file. So here I'm in the File and I'm going to move the file while I'm actually using it in the App. So if I go to File there is a Move To command here. You can use that and then select a new location. So you've got a bunch of frequent locations, your favorites, and you can go all the way to the bottom here and choose Other if you like. Then you get to pick where it goes. So here it's using my last Finder location, which is here, but I can actually go wherever I want. So I can go to like the Documents Folder here and then find the location I want there, and then click Move. Now I've moved the file without actually using the Finder at all. If I were to Command Click here you can see its new location.
So I hope you found this useful. Perhaps you learned a new way to move files in the Finder or maybe you just  learned a few tips and tricks. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 9 Responses to “10 Ways To Move Files From One Folder To Another In the Finder”

Sheldon

1 month ago

Thanks bunches

Tom Gonser

Gary -- A good example of how MacMost is uniquely able to provide practical important information to its audience. I've looked at a number of different Apple oriented resources, but with your focused approach and clear messaging I know I'm at the right destination for me. I would hope that others that share this view are supporting your efforts through the Patreon program.

Michael Armstrong

Great practical tips.

Gary Rosenzweig

Tom: Thanks!

Mark Wright

Your moving too fast for newbies. You open and click on submenus before I can grasp where the curser went.

Mark: You can control the speed of the video. Click on the little settings icon at the bottom of the video (looks like a gear or cog) and you can set it to the speed you like. You can also pause, resume and rewind as much as you like.

Michael Rodgers

4 weeks ago

In the second method using the Search function, it seemed like the "click and drag" did a copy instead of a move. Was that the case? Also, is there any requirement for the folders to be on the same physical drive for "click and drag" to do a move instead of a copy? I find often that "click and drag" does a copy on my Mac.

Thanks.

Michael: It should do a move. But if you go from one drive to another, it copies. That's how all drags work: between drives it copies instead of moves which makes sense since it wouldn't be a move but a copy + delete otherwise. You can force it to "move" by holding the Command key when dragging between drives.

DiAnn Bottomley

Thanks for this video. I love how you make it easier for me to understand ways to do what I want to do. I can get so lost when trying to figure out how to make things work the way I want/need them to be in order for me to remember where & how I put things & how that all works together. Still learning and so glad I am able to reference all your video's when needed to do/learn specific functions.

10 Ways To Move Files From One Folder To Another In the Finder

Comments: 9 Responses to “10 Ways To Move Files From One Folder To Another In the Finder”

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