You Are Using These Folders On Your Mac Wrong

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.

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

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let me show you the best practices for using specific folders on your Mac. 
MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about the Patreon Campaign. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts.
Now I'm often asked what is the best way to organize files on your Mac and how should you or shouldn't you use certain folders on your Mac. So I'm going to give you some advice here. There are no folder police and you're not going to get in trouble for putting a file in a folder where maybe it shouldn't be. But if you're interested in knowing how other people use their Mac and how years of experience has taught me how to best use the folders on your Mac, well then let's begin.
Let's start here in your user Home folder and look at the Downloads folder. In my Downloads folder you can see I've got absolutely nothing. Why? Well because I use this to download things certainly. But as soon as it is downloaded I use the file or put it somewhere else. For instance if it's the file I downloaded to View then I view it and once I'm done doing that I Delete it. Or if I download a file and I want to keep it I move it somewhere like my Documents folder into maybe a subfolder that helps me organize things. I don't leave things in my Downloads folder. A lot of people have their Downloads folder filled up with things like app installers or documents that is just needed once but don't need again or documents that you really should put in a better place. So the best way to use your Downloads folder is a temporary storage space for files that you've downloaded from the web or maybe from emails and then you delete them or move them somewhere else as soon as you get the chance. 
Now likewise there is the Trash folder. I'll get to it by going into the Dock here and clicking on Trash and you could see my Trash here is empty but as I move files to the Trash they move in here. Now the only way files should end up in the trash is if you intend to delete it. I see a lot of people that use their Trash as a temporary space for them to review files later for deletion. Or even worse, to just get files out of the way if they don't even intend to delete them. The best practice rule is for the Trash is you should only put something in the Trash if you absolutely intend to delete it. Trash is meant to be a safety net, as one extra step before the file is gone. It's not meant to be a place for you to review files for later on. As a matter of fact if you go to Finder, Settings and then go to Advanced there's an option here to remove items from the Trash after 30 days. Not only does this help keep your trash clean so you don't have to remember to empty the trash every once in a while, but by having this turned On it changes your mindset into thinking that once you put something in the trash is at danger of being deleted pretty soon so you should never put anything in the Trash unless you intend to get rid of it. 
The next folder I want to talk about is the Desktop. The Desktop has a special property where it is not just a normal folder, the Desktop folder will also appear here on your Desktop as icons. So, my Desktop you notice is empty. But let's pretend that it is full. So here you can see I've got a bunch of stuff on my Desktop. This creates clutter and you may be fine with that. But clutter is the enemy of productivity. Having less clutter will make you more productive whether or not you seem to mind the clutter or not. Now I mentioned how the Desktop is a special folder. If I actually create a new Finder window here and then go to my Desktop folder I'm going to see exactly the same files here as I see here. It is just one place. It is just two different ways of viewing the same files in the same location. Now if you have a cluttered desktop don't feel too bad because a lot of people do. In fact so many people do that Apple has even introduced special features to take care of it. If you click on the Desktop here and then go to View you can use Stacks and this will help organize your Desktop. So that is a whole special feature just for cleaning up a messy Desktop. But it doesn't change the fact that there is still a bunch of files there. 
So how is my desktop normally empty? Well, I simply almost never put any files there. I have an empty desktop because I store all my files in my Documents folder. This is where I create subfolders and organize everything. So instead of having two different places to look for things, Documents and Desktop, I just have one. It's much simpler and since you can organize your Documents folder anyway you want with all sorts of folders and subfolders, then you might as well have everything in one root place, your Documents folder. 
Now I do sometimes use my Desktop folder for a very specific purpose. That's to place a new file when I simply don't have time to organize things. Like, for instance, say I get a great idea and I want to write it down immediately. I want to start a Pages document and get going. I don't want to pause and go into my Documents folder and create a new folder, perhaps in a subfolder, give it a name and put the file in there. I just want to get going with this new idea. Then I will save the file to my Desktop but it is only temporary. Maybe 5 minutes or 5 hours later I'll find the time to organize that file properly in my Documents folder. The result is I get a clean Desktop folder like this and if there is a file there that means it's a new pretty important file that I should probably take the time, really soon, to find a good location for. 
Now another folder people used to use wrong is the top Level Folder. If I use GO and go to the computer level and then to the hard drive here's my top hard drive level. It used to be people would stick thing here at the top level and use that as a temporary storage space or maybe permanent storage. macOS isn't going to let you do that anymore. It's going to want you to put everything in your User's folder inside your Home folder. But you can make the same mistake here. You probably shouldn't place anything here at the top level of your User's folder. Always go down into an appropriate folder. Now I'm using iCloud Drive here so I don't see my Documents folder here but I do see other folders I can use. Like Movies for Final Cut. iMovie projects. My Music and Pictures folders maybe if I want to save collections of audio or images. But otherwise I treat my Documents folder, that's the top level of everything. All of my data is in here and I still try to avoid putting anything here at the top level. Everything goes into a folder inside the Documents folder so it is well organized. 
Now the same is kinda true of iCloud Drive. There's a top level iCloud Drive and every once in awhile you might be tempted to just place a file there especially when you're creating the file on the iPhone or iPad and it's easy to just do that in the Files App. But in general you should look at the Documents folder in here and place things in there. Now even if you're not using iCloud Drive and Desktop and Documents you can still have a Documents folder here. As a matter of fact you probably do simply because maybe an iPhone or iPad is using the Documents folder here. It's perfectly okay to have a Documents folder in iCloud Drive not use Desktop and Documents and then have a Documents folder in your Home folder as well. That would just be local files not in iCloud Drive. 
Although I think you're missing out on one of the best features in the entire Apple eco-system if you are not putting your Documents folder in iCloud Drive. So all your documents can be seen on all of your devices. 
Now in iCloud Drive you're probably going to find folders here that have the names of applications, like Pages, Numbers, and Keynote and maybe some third party applications as well. A lot of apps will use a special iCloud Drive folder specifically for that app as the default location to save things. As a matter of fact when iCloud first appeared on the iPhone and iPad this was done because there was no general files storage. So Pages documents were always stored in a special Pages container in iCloud. But today you don't really need these. I would highly recommend when you create a new Pages file don't store it in iCloud Drive Pages. Store it in iCloud Drive Documents inside of a subfolder that is named so you can organize things to your liking. 
Now probably here on the left side you'll see an item called Recents. If I go into Finder, Settings I can reenable Recents here so I can see what you probably see. This is a place that people commonly misuse. That's because it is really not a folder. It doesn't really exist. Recents is an illusion. This is a list of your most recent files. These files aren't in a folder called Recents. If I select one and then go to View and then Show Path Bar I can see what it really is. This is in iCloud Drive. This one is in Movies. This one is Documents Projects. This one Documents Other. So Recents is like doing a Search. It's asking your Mac to show me my most recent files. You don't put things in Recents. They appear there as a result of this query of what are my most recent files. So never say something is IN Recents. Nothing is ever in Recents. Recents is just another way to look at your files. 
Now here's another place that sometimes people misuse. It's not really a folder but it is an external drive. Your Time Machine Drive. So here's my Time Machine Drive and there are a whole bunch of backups here and sometimes people will say, hey I bought this nice big drive. I'd like to store this big file and get it off of my Mac's internal drive. I'll just add it to the Time Machine Drive. They'll drag and drop something onto their Time Machine Drive. Don't do that! That just makes it harder for Time Machine to manage this space on the drive. As the drive gets full and it has to get rid of older versions of files in order to make more space. But if you're sticking your own files there then it is going to be very difficult for it to judge how much space is available or will be available soon. So just leave your Time Machine Drive alone. Let it do its own thing and don't try to use it for anything else. 
Now my last item isn't a specific folder but a way that almost all folders can be misused. That is to push an application in it. I still see this from time to time. Someone will download an application from the internet and then ask them to drive that application to the Application's folder or maybe it doesn't even say that. It's just there and you can run it. You put that file in your Documents folder or in your Home folder or in some other folder somewhere. Put all apps in the Application's Folder. You actually have two choices. You've got your main Applications Folder which you can get to by using GO and then Applications and this is system-wide. All these apps are available to every user account on your Mac. But you also can go to your Home folder and sometimes you'll find the Applications' folder there. That's okay to use too. Just any app that you put in there is going to be only available to that one user. So in this case the user on this machine called MacMost. But my regular user account where I actually do all my work and anything in the Applications folder in MacMost wouldn't be available to that regular user account. But the important thing is to use your Applications Folder for apps. Don't try to put apps in your Documents folder or in other folders. 
So I hope this helps you use the folders on your Mac in a better way. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 11 Responses to “You Are Using These Folders On Your Mac Wrong”

Julian Richards

2 years ago

The one thing I do differently is treat my desktop like it’s a desktop. I use it for files I’m currently working on. So I create files to the desktop, and/or I take files out of their folders, do my work and then put them back. This I do every Sunday evening (even if I take them out again on Monday morning. In addition to my Time Machine backup, before filing them away, I save all desktop documents to an external drive. I use iCloud for all my documents.

Erik

Hmmm .... shouldn't it be "wrongly " e.g. You are wrongly (adv) using the wrong (adj) folders. Sorry ... I couldn't help but write. I really enjoyed the video on what you go through to answer comments. There certainly cannot be enough hours in the day !! Also I envy your Mac Studio ! Something to aspire to !!.

Paul Womer

Thanks. Very helpful reminders, especially clearing "Downloads." One question: 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. Any idea how this happened? As an alternative, I created a Smart Folder which accomplishes the same thing, but am still curious as to why. Regards, Paul

Gary Rosenzweig

Paul: Sorry, no idea why it isn't working for you. I'd contact Apple Support and maybe work through the problem with them.

David Wilma

I have an application and associated files on my desktop. Can I just drop the folder into the applications folder and still have the icon in my menu bar work?

David: What application and why is it on your Desktop instead of in the Applications folder? I'd put the Application in the Applications folder and put the documents (are they documents?) in your Documents folder. But it is hard to say as I can't tell what you are dealing with there.

Karen Brown

As someone has already mentioned, I use my Desktop folder for projects on which I am currently working...BUT...I normally create an Alias of the folder from my Documents, then place the Alias on the Desktop. That way, when I'm through with the project, I can just trash the Alias folder and, voilá, everything is automatically back where it belongs.

Harold Appel

Is there anything wrong with having applications in subfolders of the Applications folder? I like to shorten the list of Applications so I can see more of it without scrolling. For example, I have a subfolder named Audio with applications I use for editing or digitizing audio. Like the Utilities folder. Thanks for your great work.

Harold: It will probably be OK, but I can imagine some apps may expect to be at the main level. Not sure what would happen if you were to try removing an app with LaunchPad either. I wouldn't organize the Applications folder at all, since it is outside of your user folder. If you want some organization, I would do it in LaunchPad instead.

Vicki

Gary- My recents folder has items that are a few years old. Is there a setting somewhere that puts a time limit on what is considered "recent"?

Vicki: Which date are you looking at? Created? Modified? Opened? There's no way to customize what is "Recents" so if you don't like what you see there, you'll need to create your own Smart Folder and use that instead.

Comments Closed.

You Are Using These Folders On Your Mac Wrong

Comments: 11 Responses to “You Are Using These Folders On Your Mac Wrong”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information