Folders is a file manager with the directories organized in a tree, and the contents of the current directory presented in one of the four views. It has been designed specifically for users who have recently transitioned from a PC and miss a tree-based file manager on their Mac.
Getting Started (App Store version only)
Immediately after the first launch, Folders will present you with a window to choose the browsing locations. macOS will grant Folders access only to the locations you choose directly. This means that if Folders does not have access to a specific folder on your computer, such a folder will appear empty in the app, or not appear at all.
There are two different ways you can choose browsing locations. You may either drag the directories from Finder or any other file manager app onto the designated drop zone, or you may press the “Choose directories...” button and use the emerged Open dialog to select directories. (Please do not drag shortcuts from the Finder’s sidebar — this gesture simply removes the dragged shortcut)
If you want to be able to use Folders in the manner you use Finder, i.e. to be able to browse all of your computer folders and files, grant Folders access to your primary hard drive which is usually called “Macintosh HD”.
If you don’t need to be able to browse all of your files and folders, you can choose another location. Below you can see some examples of how the permissions you grant affect the locations you will be able to browse.
| Default permissions | You will only have access to your Applications as well as some items in the Library folder. Note that any other locations are NOT browsable by default. |
| Custom locations (e.g. Documents, Desktop, etc.) | You will be able to browse the explicitly selected locations (and all their contents) in addition to the default permissions. |
| Your user folder (marked with a house icon) | If you choose your user folder (“Home”), you will be able to browse most of your usual locations, including your iCloud Drive folder and Cloud Storage folders, but any removable or network drives will remain invisible and unbrowsable. |
| Macintosh HD (recommended) | You will be able to browse all the files on your system, including the removable drives, except some folders restricted by the system. |
Please note that granting Folders “Full Disk Access” in System Settings will have no effect on the browsable locations.
After you have first selected the browsing locations, and the app has re-launched, you will be prompted to activate your free 14-day trial period.
If you or your Family member have earlier purchased the paid version of Folders and you still see this window, click the “Restore purchase” button to verify the previously made purchase with App Store.
When you click “Activate free trial with App Store”, the App Store will ask you to confirm your free transaction. If you were not logged in to App Store, you will be prompted to enter your Apple ID. After successful confirmation, the window will close and will remain unobtrusive until your trial period expires.
Alternatively, you may choose to purchase the full version of the app immediately by clicking the “Buy now” button.
* The price shown on the screenshot is the price in the United States. In other countries, the price may be expressed in local currency and will include applicable local taxes.
Common Tasks
Collecting Files from Several Folders (the Shelf)
The Shelf lets you gather files and folders from any number of locations before acting on all of them at once. Drag items onto the Shelf’s flap from any File View, browsing to as many source folders as you like in between.
From the Shelf, drag the collected items into a destination folder to move or copy them there, following the same modifier keys as any other drag (⌥ option to copy, ⌃ control to link). Right-click a shelved item for further options: Remove from Shelf, Open, Open With, Batch Rename..., Compress to, Quick Look, Cut/Cut via Trash, Copy, Copy as Path, and Share.
The trash icon in the Shelf’s header (Clear the Shelf) empties the list without touching the files themselves. The Remove items after use checkbox at the bottom, on by default, automatically takes an item off the Shelf once an operation that used it as a source has finished.
To hide the Shelf, right-click its empty area and choose Hide Shelf; turn “Settings › General › Show Shelf” back on to bring it back.
Searching, and Saving a Search
Type into the Search Bar to search the destination shown next to it (defaults to the current folder); results appear as you type. By default, the search uses Spotlight, which is fast but limited to locations Spotlight has indexed.
If a location is not Spotlight-indexed — an excluded network volume, or, in Folders Pro, an iOS device’s filesystem, which Spotlight cannot index at all — click Switch to Full Scan Search to search it directly. A full scan reaches anywhere, but its results are a snapshot and do not update if files change while it runs. Switch to Spotlight Search switches back. This choice becomes your default for local searches going forward; searching an iOS device always uses a full scan regardless, without changing that default.
To reuse a search later, build it from criteria in the Spotlight search panel and click Save Search. This saves a “.savedSearch” file, which then appears under the Saved searches node in the Folder Tree once it is enabled in Settings › Sidebar.
Renaming Many Files at Once (Batch Rename)
Select the items to rename and choose Batch Rename... from the context menu — or choose Rename with several items (or none) selected, which opens the same dialog.
Build the new names from one or more chained steps: Replace text, Replace RegEx, Change case (upper, lower, title, or sentence case), Add text, Add date, Add number sequence (a starting number, step, zero-padding, and the sort order used to number the files), or Add metadata value — a value read from the file itself, from pixel dimensions and EXIF camera data to audio tags like artist and track number. Each step applies to the filename, the extension, or both, and the steps run in order, so a prefix removed in one step can be followed by a sequence number added in the next.
The new names are computed as you build the steps, so every result can be reviewed before committing with Rename.
Resolving a Naming Conflict During Copy or Move
Copying or moving an item into a folder that already contains one with the same name pauses the operation and asks what to do. The choice differs for files and folders.
For a file: Skip it, Keep Both (renames the incoming file), Replace the existing one, or Replace Older — replace only if the existing file is older than the incoming one, useful for one-way syncing without overwriting newer work.
For a folder: Skip it, Merge its contents with the existing folder (resolving any further conflicts inside the same way), or Replace it outright.
When copying or moving several items at once, turn on Apply to All Files or Apply to All Folders in the dialog to use the same choice for every remaining conflict in that operation, rather than being asked again for each one.
Working with Archives
Zip, 7z, tar and its compressed variants (tar.gz, tar.bz2, tar.xz, tar.lz4, tar.zlib), rar, and multi-volume 7z (.7z.001, .7z.002, …) can all be browsed and extracted, and Folders can also add to or remove from zip, 7z, and every tar variant after creation. Compressing a single file with a tar-compressed format selected creates the plain single-file form instead (e.g. “.gz” rather than “.tar.gz”) — such a file can be recompressed but, being a single compressed stream rather than a container, has nothing to add entries to afterward. Only rar and multi-volume 7z are fully read-only: Folders can extract them but never create or modify one.
Double-click a multi-file archive (or press Return) to browse its contents like a folder, without extracting anything — Quick Look (␣ space) works on an entry directly from inside it. Turn on “View › Show/Hide Archives in Tree View” to also show archives as expandable nodes in the Folder Tree.
From inside an open archive, use Extract for the selected entries or Extract All for everything — each creates a new folder next to the archive. From outside, Extract Here on the archive file itself unpacks it into a subfolder of the current folder. To add to a writable archive, drag items in or paste them, including Paste into Folder to place them inside a specific folder within it.
To create an archive, use Compress to ZIP for the last-used format or Compress to › to choose a different one; the same submenu lists a Protected variant for ZIP, 7Z, and TAR.7Z — the only formats that support a password — which prompts for one before creating the archive.
Opening a password-protected archive, to browse or to extract it, always asks for the password first. Folders warns that password-protected archives are a common way to distribute malware, and to proceed only if the archive came from a source you trust.
Connecting to a Network Share
Choose “Go › Mount Network Share...” (⇧⌘K) to open the discovery dialog. It lists SMB, AFP, and NFS services found on your network as they appear; select one and click Connect..., or, for a share that is not discovered automatically, choose smb://, afp://, or nfs:// and type its address.
The same dialog remembers shares you have connected to before. Each recent entry can be pinned to always show in the Folder Tree — even while unmounted — hidden so it never shows again, or forgotten outright; a connected share can be ejected from the same row.
“Go › Remount All Pinned Shares...” reconnects every currently unmounted pinned share in one step; “Settings › General › Automatically remount all pinned shares” does the same automatically on launch (off by default). If a connection fails, Folders reports the specific reason — a wrong or expired password, an unavailable share, or a server using an unsupported protocol — rather than a generic error.
Automating with Actions (Folders Pro only)
An Action is a shell command or an AppleScript that receives the selected item(s) as arguments. Once defined in “Settings › Scripting”, it appears for the matching selection in the Actions › context menu.
Click “Add Action...” to define one: give it a name, choose Shell or AppleScript, and write the command using these tokens: {path} for the selected item’s full path, {name} for its file name with extension, {stem} for its name without extension, and {dir} for the current folder’s path. Turn on Run per each selected file to run the command once per item; leave it off to run once with every selected path passed together. An action that only uses {dir} needs no selection at all and works on the current folder.
By default, three sample Actions are already defined: Convert image to JPEG and Convert image to PNG (each run per file), and Trash All Duplicates, which compares the files in the current folder by content and moves every duplicate but the shortest-named copy to the Trash.
Actions are not undoable — review what a command does before running it, especially one that deletes or overwrites files.
Launching Folders from the Command Line (Folders Pro only)
Install the folders command in “Settings › Scripting › CLI Launcher” — installation is privileged and will prompt for your password.
folders opens a new window; folders ~/Documents opens that folder in a new window; folders ~/Documents/notes.txt opens its enclosing folder and selects the file, the way “Reveal in Finder” would from another app.
Browsing an iOS Device (Folders Pro only)
Connect an iPhone or iPad by USB (or over the network, if Wi-Fi syncing is enabled on the device) to add it under the iOS Devices node in the Folder Tree. The device must be unlocked, and the first time a device connects it appears greyed out as “Tap Trust on Device” — tap Trust in the prompt that appears on the device itself to continue. If pairing does not complete, the node relabels to “Reconnect to pair”; unplug and reconnect the device to try again.
Once connected, Folders browses the device’s actual folders — Books, DCIM, Downloads, iTunes_Control, Music, PhotoData, Podcasts, and similar — as real folders and files, a part of the device’s filesystem exposed through the AFC protocol. This is different from what Finder or Image Capture show you: those present a view synthesized from the device’s own media database, and do not let you browse this real folder structure at all. Copying, moving, renaming, and playing media in place all work as they would with a local folder. Spotlight cannot index a device, so searching one always uses a full scan regardless of your usual search setting.
Using Source Control (Folders Pro only)
Browsing into a git working copy — a folder containing a “.git” directory — shows every changed item with a single-letter status badge: M modified, A added, D deleted, R renamed, C copied, ? untracked, U conflicted, and ! ignored. A folder shows the badge of its most significant change, so an edit several levels deep is still visible from the folder’s row. This requires the Xcode Command Line Tools to be installed — Folders runs your own git, not a bundled copy, so it behaves exactly like the command line.
Use “Source Control › Stage Selected” or Stage All to move changes to the index, and the matching Unstage commands to move them back. Commit Changes... commits everything currently staged under the message you enter; Pull and Push talk to the remote, if one is configured.
User Interface
Toggle Sidebar Button toggles the visibility of the Folder Tree.
Duplicate Window Button opens a new window at the current folder.
Duplicate Tab Button opens a new tab at the current folder.
Back Button navigates back the browsing history of the current window (tab).
Forward Button navigates forward the browsing history of the current window (tab).
Up Button navigates to the enclosing folder.
Current Folder shows the title of the current folder.
New Folder Button presents you with a dialog and creates a new folder within the current folder.
Choose File View Picker lets you choose between the four File Views: Icons, List, Table, or Gallery.
Sorting Picker lets you choose the sorting criteria and the sorting order. Lets you choose whether to group the folders on top of the files list in any File View.
Grouping Picker lets you choose the grouping criteria.
Remember View Options Button toggles whether to remember the viewing options (view type, folders-first grouping, sorting, hidden files and folders visibility, thumbnails visibility, File Info visibility) for the current folder. When on, the subsequent changes to the viewing options are only affecting the current folder.
The Search Bar accepts the part of the file name to search for at a destination of your choice (defaults to the current folder). Initiates the search on ⏎ return.
The Path Bar shows the path for the current folder either as an interactive control (default, shown) or as a plain path text (depending on the setting).
The Folder Tree lets you navigate through the folders. Click on the folder to make it current and display its contents in the File View.
Hidden Files Toggle toggles the visibility of the hidden files and folders in the File View.
Thumbnails Toggle toggles between icons and thumbnails in the File View.
Show/Hide Time in Dates – Toggles whether to show time in date attributes in Table and Archive Views. When time is hidden, sorting by date will not account for time component.
Item Traits Toggle (available only in Icons and Gallery File Views). Toggles whether to show item traits (similar to Finder’s “Item Info”) in the File View.
Use Live Text Toggle (available only in Gallery File View). Toggles the text recognition feature with Live Text.
Info Panel Toggle toggles the visibility of the Info Panel.
The File View shows the contents of the current folder.
The Selection Info summarizes the current selection in the File View. If nothing is selected, summarizes the contents of the current folder.
The Info Panel shows the preview and the available information about the selected item(s) in the File View including the EXIF metadata if available. If nothing is selected, shows the basic information for the drive of the current folder.
Lock Zoom Toggle (available only in Gallery File View). When locked, changing selection will retain the current zoom percentage. When unlocked, the newly selected image will scale to fit the view.
Zoom Out Button (available only in Gallery File View). Zooms out on the currently selected image.
Zoom In Button (available only in Gallery File View). Zooms in on the currently selected image.
White Background Button (available only in Gallery File View). Shows the current transparent image flattened against a white background.
Black Background Button (available only in Gallery File View). Shows the current transparent image flattened against a black background.
Transparent Background Button (available only in Gallery File View). Shows the current transparent image as the transparent original.
Flip Image Horizontally Button (available only in Gallery File View and Info Panel). Flips the currently selected image horizontally and saves it, overwriting the existing image file.
Flip Image Vertically Button (available only in Gallery File View and Info Panel). Flips the currently selected image vertically and saves it, overwriting the existing image file.
Rotate Image Counterclockwise Button (available only in Gallery File View and Info Panel). Rotates the currently selected image counterclockwise and saves it, overwriting the existing image file.
Rotate Image Clockwise Button (available only in Gallery File View and Info Panel). Rotates the currently selected image clockwise and saves it, overwriting the existing image file.
Download Now Button – For unsynchronized cloud-stored files, requests to download a local copy.
The File Info Panel
The Info Panel (⌘I) shows a large preview together with everything else Folders knows about the selected item, and lets you edit most of it directly, without opening a separate window.
Preview – Images, video, and audio play in place; a video starts playing when you click its thumbnail. A text file under 100 KB opens as an editable text box right in the panel, and edits save back to the file.
Dates and size – Created, added to folder, last modified, and last accessed dates, along with the item’s size (or item count, for a folder).
EXIF and other metadata – Camera and GPS details for photos, and container metadata for audio and video files, shown when available.
Color tags, text tags, and Star Rating – Click a colored circle to toggle a color tag; use the “+” button to add an existing or brand-new text tag, and click an applied tag to remove it; click a star to set the rating, or the crossed-out star to clear it. Every change here applies immediately, with no separate save step.
Comment – Shows the item’s Finder comment. Folders Pro lets you edit it directly; the App Store version shows it read-only, since setting a Finder comment requires scripting Finder from outside the sandbox.
Open With (Folders Pro only) – Choose the app that opens this file, right from the panel.
Hidden and Locked – Toggles the item’s hidden and locked (user-immutable) file attributes.
Permissions – An expandable Unix permissions grid for Owner, Group, and Others, each with Read, Write, and Execute checkboxes you can toggle directly.
Customize Folder Icon... (requires macOS 26.4 or later) – Opens a picker to set a custom icon or emoji for the folder, or to remove one already set. This is what “Show custom folder icons” in Settings › Folder Tree controls the display of.
Show Info in Finder... (Folders Pro only) – Opens the item’s regular Finder “Get Info” window.
Selecting up to 20 items shows a stacked preview and each item’s name, type, size, and dates, followed by one shared Permissions section that edits all of them at once; selecting more asks you to narrow the selection first. With nothing selected, the panel shows the current folder’s own information together with the volume’s capacity and free space.
Drag-and-Drop Operations
You may drag the selected files and folders from the File View to the Tree View, to a File View in other Folders windows, or over the folders in the same File View. The result of the drag-and-drop operation will depend on the modifier keys you hold during the drop.
If you don’t hold any modifier keys, the dragged items will be moved to the new location.
If you hold ⌥ option, the dragged items will be copied to the new location.
If you hold ⌃ control, then, depending on the chosen Setting, either symbolic links (default) or bookmark alias files will be created in the destination folder.
Menu Commands
File ›
New Window – Opens a new window at the Home folder.
New Tab – Opens a new tab at the Home folder.
New Folder... – Creates a new folder inside the current folder.
New Folder with Selection... – Creates a new folder inside the current folder and moves the selected items in the File View into the newly created folder.
New File › – Creates a new empty file, one of several available empty office documents, or an automatically typed file from the clipboard contents inside the current folder. Folders Pro will also list all the apps that can be ordered to create and save an empty document via AppleScript. The target app will open and pre-save an empty document under the name of your choice.
Open – Opens all the selected files and/or makes the selected folder current.
Open in New Window (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Opens a new window at each of the selected folders.
Open in New Tab (hold ⌃ control to reveal) – Opens a new tab at each of the selected folders.
Open With › – Displays the list of apps appropriate for all selected items and opens all the selected items with the chosen app.
Close Window – Closes the current window.
Close All Windows (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Closes all Folders windows while keeping the app running.
Move to Trash – If the system Trash is available for the selected items, moves the selected items into the Trash. If the Trash is not available, moves the selected items into the temporary folder to enable Undo. The temporary folder is removed when Folders quits.
Delete Permanently (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Irreversibly deletes the selected items.
Eject – Ejects the selected removable drive.
Rename – Activates the renaming mode for the selected item in the active view. If several or no items are selected, opens Batch Rename.
Duplicate – Duplicates the selected items in their containing folder under new names.
Touch – Sets the modification date of the selected items to the present moment.
Compress to ZIP – Creates an archive with the selected items with the last used format (will display instead of “ZIP”).
Compress to › – Creates an archive with the selected items and selected format.
Extract Here – Extracts the selected archive into a subfolder of the current folder.
Quick Look – Activates the system Quick Look panel for the selected items.
Share › – The system Share menu.
Add to Favorites – Adds a selected folder symlink to the Favorites section of the tree.
Remove from Favorites – Removes a selected folder symlink from the Favorites section of the tree.
○○○○○○○ – Represents the color tags for the selected items. Click a tag to toggle it for all the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › [tag] – Represents the text tags for the selected items. Click a tag to toggle it for all the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › Add Text Tag... – Opens a dialog to allow user to manually enter a new text tag for the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › ⭑ ... ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ – Assign the corresponding Star Rating (from 1 to 5) to the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › No Rating – Removes Star Rating for the selected items.
Open Terminal – Opens the Terminal app at the current folder.
Find – Brings focus to the Search Bar.
Modify Browsing Access... (App Store version only) – Closes all windows and brings up the introductory window with current access permissions.
Edit ›
Undo – Undoes the last file operation.
Redo – Redoes the last file operation.
Cut via Trash – If the system Trash is available for the selected items, moves the selected items into the Trash. If the Trash is not available, moves the selected items into the temporary folder. The moved items are then copied into the clipboard at their new location.
Copy – Copies the selected items to the clipboard.
Copy as Path (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Copies the paths of selected items to the clipboard.
Paste – Initiates the copy operation for the copied items into the current folder. If the last operation was Cut via Trash, initiates the move operation for the items from their temporary location.
Move Item Here (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Initiates the move operation for the copied items into the current folder.
Paste as Symlinks (hold ⇧ shift to reveal) – Creates symbolic links to the copied items in the current folder.
Paste as Aliases (hold ⌃ control to reveal) – Creates bookmark alias files for the copied items in the current folder.
Select All – Select all the items in the current folder.
Deselect All (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Deselect all the items in the current folder.
View ›
Show Tab Bar – Toggles the visibility of the Tab Bar.
Show All Tabs – Shows the overview of all the opened tabs for the current window.
View as Icons – Changes the current file view to Icons View.
View as List – Changes the current file view to List View.
View as Table – Changes the current file view to Table View.
View as Gallery – Changes the current file view to Gallery View.
Group Folders First – Toggles whether to group the folders on top of the files list in any File View.
Group Folders Last – Toggles whether to group the folders at the bottom of the files list in any File View.
Sort › – Lets you choose the sorting criteria and the sorting order.
Group › – Lets you choose the grouping criteria.
Show/Hide Sidebar – Toggles the visibility of the Folder Tree.
Show/Hide Path Bar – Toggles the visibility of the Path Bar.
Show/Hide Status Bar – Toggles the visibility of the Status Bar.
Show/Hide Action Toolbar – Toggles the visibility of the context-aware Action Toolbar in the File View.
Show/Hide Archives in Tree View – Toggles the visibility of archives in the Folder Tree.
Show/Hide Packages in Tree View – Toggles the visibility of apps and other packages in the Folder Tree, expandable like folders.
Show/Hide Hidden Folders in Tree View – Toggles the visibility of the hidden folders in the folder tree.
Show/Hide Hidden Files – Toggles the visibility of the hidden files and folders in the File View.
Show/Hide Item Traits – Toggles whether to show item traits (similar to Finder’s “Item Info”) in Icons and Gallery File Views.
Show/Hide Thumbnails in This View – Toggles between icons and thumbnails for the current File View.
Show/Hide Time in Dates – Toggles whether to show time in date attributes in Table and Archive Views. When time is hidden, sorting by date will not account for time component.
Show/Hide File Info – Toggles the visibility of the File Info panel.
Calculate All Folder Sizes – Enables automatic immediate calculation of all folder sizes in the Table view. This option is remembered and applied separately for each volume.
Use Live Text – Enables Live Text in the Gallery view.
Remember View Options for This Folder – Toggles whether to remember the viewing options (view type, folders-first grouping, sorting, hidden files and folders visibility, thumbnails visibility, File Info visibility) for the current folder. When on, the subsequent changes to the viewing options are only affecting the current folder.
Go ›
Back – Navigates back the browsing history of the current window (tab).
Forward – Navigates forward the browsing history of the current window (tab).
Enclosing Folder – Navigates to the enclosing folder.
Recent Folders › – Contains shortcuts to 10 recently visited folders.
Go to Folder – Focuses on the interactive Path Bar to manually edit or enter the destination path. If the interactive Path bar was hidden, will show it temporarily.
Mount Network Share... – Opens a dialog to select an SMB, AFP, or NFS local network service and mount a share from the selected service.
Remount All Pinned Shares... – Mounts all currently unmounted network shares that have been previously marked as pinned.
Source Control › (Folders Pro only)
Commit Changes... – Commits all the staged changes to the repository.
Stage Selected – Stages the selected items.
Unstage Selected – Unstages the selected items.
Discard Selected Changes – Discards the changes made to the selected items and reverts them to the latest commit.
Stage All – Stages all the changes in the repository.
Unstage All – Unstages all the changes in the repository.
Pull – Pulls the repository from the remote (if defined).
Push – Pushes the repository to the remote (if defined).
Window ›
The standard system Window menu.
Customize This Tab... – Lets you set a custom supplementary title and a color label for the current window tab.
Save Tab Set... – Saves the current tab configuration under the designated title.
Load Tab Set › – Opens a new window containing a previously saved tab set.
Manage Tab Sets... – Opens a dialog that lets you rename or delete previously saved tab sets.
Help ›
User’s Guide – This User’s Guide
Acknowledgments... – Information about used libraries and legal notices
Get Full Version... – During the trial period, opens a dialog with in-app purchase options.
View License Key... (Folders Pro only) – After license activation, opens a dialog with the license key and the number of its active seats.
Deactivate This Copy... (Folders Pro only) – After license activation, detaches your device from the license key, decreasing the number of the key’s active seats.
Rate Folders on App Store (App Store version only) – Opens an “Add Review” window on the Folders page in the App Store app.
Context menu ›
New Folder... – Creates a new folder inside the current folder.
New Folder with Selection... – Creates a new folder inside the current folder and moves the selected items in the File View into the newly created folder.
New File › – Creates a new empty file, one of several available empty office documents, or an automatically typed file from the clipboard contents inside the current folder. Folders Pro will also list all the apps that can be ordered to create and save an empty document via AppleScript. The target app will open and pre-save an empty document under the name of your choice.
Go to Containing Folder (available in File View only when displaying the search results) – opens the folder containing the selected item in the current window / tab.
Containing Folder in New Window (available in File View only when displaying the search results) – opens the folder containing the selected item in a new window.
Containing Folder in New Tab (available in File View only when displaying the search results) – opens the folder containing the selected item in a new tab.
Connect... (available in Folder Tree only for top-level network share nodes) – Mounts the pinned unmounted network share.
Pin (available in Folder Tree only for top-level network share nodes) – Pins the network share to the Folder Tree. The pinned network shares remain visible after being unmounted.
Unpin (available in Folder Tree only for top-level network share nodes) – Unpins the network share from the Folder Tree. The unpinned network shares disappear from the Folder Tree after being unmounted.
Hide (available in Folder Tree only for top-level network share nodes) – Hides the network share in the Folder Tree. The hidden network shares remain invisible after being re-mounted.
Open – Opens all the selected files and/or makes the selected folder current.
Open With › – Displays the list of apps appropriate for all selected items and opens all the selected items with the chosen app.
Open in New Window – Opens a new window at each of the selected folders.
Open in New Tab – Opens a new tab at each of the selected folders.
Reveal Original – For symlinks and alias files, opens the folder containing the original file and selects the original file.
Show Package Contents – For app or a package file, opens it as a folder in the current window/tab.
Download Now – For unsynchronized cloud-stored files, requests to download a local copy.
Move to Trash – If the system Trash is available for the selected items, moves the selected items into the Trash. If the Trash is not available, moves the selected items into the temporary folder to enable Undo. The temporary folder is removed when Folders quits.
Delete Permanently (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Irreversibly deletes the selected items.
Remove Download – For cloud-stored files, deletes the local copy while retaining the remote copy.
Rename – Activates the renaming mode for the selected item in the active view.
Batch Rename... – Opens Batch Rename dialog for selected items, or for all items in the current folder if no items are selected.
Duplicate – Duplicates the selected items in their containing folder under new names.
Touch – Sets the modification date of the selected items to the present moment.
Compress to ZIP – Creates an archive with the selected items with the last used format (will display instead of “ZIP”).
Compress to › – Creates an archive with the selected items and selected format.
Extract (available in Archive View only) – Extracts the selected entries in the current archive into a new folder adjacent to the current archive.
Extract All (available in Archive View only) – Extracts all the contents of the current archive into a new folder adjacent to the current archive.
Extract Here – Extracts the selected archive into a subfolder of the current folder.
Quick Look – Activates the system Quick Look panel for the selected items.
Cut via Trash – If the system Trash is available for the selected items, moves the selected items into the Trash. If the Trash is not available, moves the selected items into the temporary folder. The moved items are then copied into the clipboard at their new location.
Copy – Copies the selected items to the clipboard.
Copy as Path (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Copies the paths of selected items to the clipboard.
Paste – Initiates the copy operation for the copied items into the current folder. If the current location is a modifiable archive, adds the copied items to the archive. If the last operation was Cut via Trash, initiates the move operation for the items from their temporary location.
Move Item Here (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – Initiates the move operation for the copied items into the current folder.
Paste into Folder – Initiates the copy operation for the copied items into the selected folder. If the current location is a modifiable archive, adds the copied items to the archive placing them into the selected folder. If the last operation was Cut via Trash, initiates the move operation for the items from their temporary location.
Paste as Symlinks – Creates symbolic links to the copied items in the current folder.
Paste as Aliases – Creates bookmark alias files for the copied items in the current folder.
Share › – The system Share menu.
Add to Favorites – Adds a selected folder symlink to the Favorites section of the tree.
Make Default Folder – In the Tree view, sets the selected folder to be opened by default whenever a new window / tab is opened.
Make Home Folder (hold ⌥ option to reveal) – In the Tree view, assigns the selected folder to be treated as the “Home” folder. Requires relaunch.
Remove from Favorites – Removes a selected folder symlink from the Favorites section of the tree.
○○○○○○○ – Represents the color tags for the selected items. Click a tag to toggle it for all the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › [tag] – Represents the text tags for the selected items. Click a tag to toggle it for all the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › Add Text Tag... – Opens a dialog to allow user to manually enter a new text tag for the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › ⭑ ... ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ – Assign the corresponding Star Rating (from 1 to 5) to the selected items.
Text Tags & Ratings › No Rating – Removes Star Rating for the selected items.
Reveal in Finder / Open in Finder (hidden by default; turn on in “Settings › Context Menu”) – In a File View, opens the folder containing the selected items in Finder and selects them. In the Folder Tree, opens the selected folder in Finder.
Open Terminal at Folder – Opens the Terminal app at the selected folder.
Open Terminal at This Folder – Opens the Terminal app at the current folder.
Actions › (Folders Pro only) – Shows a list of Actions defined in “Settings › Scripting” and launches the selected action with selected items. If no items are selected, will show only actions applicable to a folder and will launch the selected action on the current folder.
Icon Size › – In the Icons View, lets you select one of three preset icon sizes: Regular (default, 64×64), Larger (128×128), and Largest (256×256).
Services › – The system Services menu.
Settings
General
Appearance – Lets you choose between system (default), light, or dark appearance of the user interface.
Theme color – Lets you choose the main theme color of the app.
Font size in views – Allows you to change the font size in the main views from −1px to +8px.
Sounds – Lets you choose between in-app and system sounds, or turn off the sounds completely. The default is in-app sounds.
Show Path Bar as – Determines whether the Path Bar is displayed as an interactive control similar to that of Finder (default), or as a full path string.
Path Bar position – Lets you choose whether to display the Path Bar at the bottom of the window (default) or at the top, right below the toolbar.
Show Shelf – Determines whether to display the Shelf’s flap in the window. The default is on.
Pressing return – Determines what happens when you press the return key. The default command is Open.
Navigate back with delete key – Enables a keyboard shortcut to navigate back the browsing history with the delete ⌫ key. The default is off.
Move to Trash with delete key – Enables a keyboard shortcut for Move to Trash action with the delete ⌫ key. The default is off.
Go to the last visited folder – On app launch, reopen the last visited folder when “System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Close windows when quitting an application” is turned on. The default is off.
Automatically remount all pinned shares – Determines whether Folders will attempt to automatically reconnect all previously pinned network shares on app launch. The default is off.
Cut via Trash – When checked, the Cut operation will immediately move files to the Trash and place their URLs to the clipboard (works with other apps). When unchecked, the Cut operation will mimic the behavior of File Explorer (works only within Folders). The default is on.
Use internal Cut for Cloud Storage (shown when Cut via Trash is on) – Some Cloud Storage providers may unexpectedly omit system Trash and put trashed items in their remote trash bins, making them unavailable for paste. When checked, internal Cut will be used instead of Cut via Trash for items in Cloud Storage containers for added data safety. The default is on.
Use private Trash – In some locations, such as removable or network drives, the system Trash may be unavailable. When checked, a special folder will be used instead to create backups until the last window of Folders is closed. When unchecked, destructive file operations in such locations will not be undoable. The default is on.
Dragging items – Determines what happens when you drag items to another location without modifier keys: either they are always moved (default), or, as in Finder, moved within the same volume and copied to a different volume. Hold ⌘ command to always move, or ⌥ option to always copy.
Create links as – Determines the type of files, either symbolic links (default) or bookmark alias files, created when you drag items to another location using the ⌃ control key.
Open archives – Determines whether opening an archive browses its contents within Folders (default), or opens it using the default app for its type.
Preferred Terminal app – Lets you choose an app to be launched with “Open Terminal” commands, or to restore it to the default Terminal.app.
Remembered view options: Reset for all folders – Forget all the remembered viewing options for individual folders.
Apply folder’s remembered option to all its subfolders – Determines whether the remembered viewing options apply to individual folders only (off) or to all its child folders too (on). The default is off.
Notify me about available updates / Check for updates automatically – Determines whether a notification stripe / update dialog will be presented each time a new update is available to download. The default is on.
Quit when the last window is closed – Chooses whether Folders will automatically quit when its last window is closed. The default is off.
Restore last window on launch (shown when “Quit when the last window is closed” is on and “System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Close windows when quitting an application” is off) – Closing the last window quits Folders while keeping that window, so it is reopened on the next launch. The default is off.
Sync Settings with iCloud – Toggles the ability to synchronize Settings through iCloud between several copies of Folders registered to the same Apple Account. The default is off.
Folder Tree
Allow manual reordering of Favorites – When off (default), the favorites are ordered alphabetically. When on, you can drag favorites up and down to reorder them manually; new items will appear at the bottom of the list.
Show text tags – Determines whether the Tags node shows text tags (Home, Work, Important, etc.). The default is off.
Recent files – Selects the time span of a file’s presence in the Recent files tree node. The default is 30 days.
Item spacing – Sets the vertical spacing between nodes in the Tree.
Show top-level nodes in bold – Determines whether to show top level items in the Folder Tree in bold. The default is off.
Truncate folder names – Lets you choose the placement of ellipsis in long folder names in the Tree View. The default is “At the end”. Choosing “Do not truncate” will enable horizontal scroll bar in the Tree View.
Show indent guides – Determines whether to show vertical indentation guides in the Tree View. The default is off.
Show custom folder icons (available on macOS 26+) – Determines whether to show the customized folder icon or emoji instead of the standard folder icon in the Tree View. The default is on.
Show folder label color – Determines whether the icon color of folders in the Folder Tree should match the customized (label) color. The default is on.
Folder icons inherit their group color – Determines whether the icon color for each folder in the Folder Tree is the main theme color (off) or the color of the corresponding top-level element icon (on). The default is off.
Expanded by default – Determines which top level items in the Folder Tree appear expanded (on) or collapsed (off) whenever a new window or tab is opened.
Auto-scroll to current folder – Determines whether to automatically scroll the Folder Tree to keep the current folder visible. The default is on.
Auto-expand tree to current folder – Determines whether to automatically expand the Folder Tree to follow the current folder. The default is on.
Share tree expansion state across all tabs of the same window – When off, each tab has its own set of expanded/collapsed folders in the tree. When on, the tree will act as if all tabs of the same window shared the same sidebar (except for the scrolling position). The default is off.
Default folder – Shows the folder to be set as active whenever a new window or tab is opened.
Reset to Home – Sets the default folder to user’s Home folder. If the Home folder is hidden in Sidebar Settings, “Macintosh HD” will be used as default folder instead.
Home folder – Shows the folder to be used as the “Home” folder. The default is the current user’s home folder (~).
Reset – Resets the “Home” folder to the current user’s home folder (~).
File Views
File extensions – Lets you choose whether to show file extensions for the known file types. The “Respect Finder settings” (default) will display file extensions exactly as Finder does with its current settings.
Prefer folder path names – When on, the folder names will always display their last path component (e.g. “com~apple~CloudDocs”). When off, the folder names will display “localized names” (e.g. “iCloud Drive”) if available. The default is off.
Truncate filenames – In Table View and List View, lets you choose the placement of ellipsis in long filenames. The default is “In the middle”. For Icons View and Gallery View, the ellipsis is placed in the middle regardless of this setting.
Truncate filenames in File Info – Lets you choose whether to truncate long filenames in the top row of File Info Panel. The default is off.
Show changed files in bold – Toggles whether to emphasize new and changed items in the File View in bold. The default is on.
Date length – Lets you choose between short (numerical), medium (abbreviated), and long (unabbreviated) format in all dates displayed. The default is medium.
Date display – Lets you choose between absolute and relative (default) format in all dates displayed. The relative format uses words like “Today” or “Yesterday”, while the absolute format shows the actual date.
Row height – Sets the row height for Table and Archive View.
Use alternating background – Toggles the use of alternating (striped) background in Table View and Archive View. The default is on.
List View Layout – Lets you choose whether to show the List View using columns of adaptive (default) or fixed width.
Item spacing – Sets the vertical spacing between items in the List View.
Folder thumbnails – In the Icons View and the Gallery View, lets you choose how folder icons are drawn: “System icon” (default) shows the plain folder icon, while “Content grid” and “Content fan” draw the previews of the folder’s contents inside the icon. The content-aware thumbnails are I/O-intensive and may render slow.
Icon spacing – Sets the spacing between icons in the Icons View.
Sidebar
Shows or hides the top level items of respective category in the Folder Tree. Drag the stripes icon to rearrange.
● – Lets you choose the icon color for each category. The 
symbol represents the main theme color.
The available categories:
Favorites – The folder symlinks added with the “Add to Favorites” command. They expand like ordinary folders. Ordered alphabetically unless “Allow manual reordering of Favorites” is turned on.
Home – The folder assigned as the “Home” folder, by default the current user’s home folder (~).
Hard drives – The internal drives, including the startup drive (usually “Macintosh HD”).
External drives – The mounted removable drives: external disks, USB drives, and memory cards.
Network shares – The mounted SMB, AFP, or NFS shares. The shares marked as pinned remain visible in the Folder Tree after being unmounted.
iCloud Drive folder – The contents of your iCloud Drive.
Cloud storage – The containers of the installed Cloud Storage providers, collected under a single node.
iOS Devices (Folders Pro only) – The filesystems of the iPhones and iPads connected via USB.
Recent files – The recently modified files. The time span is set with the “Recent files” setting in Settings › Folder Tree; the default is 30 days.
Tags – The color tags, as well as the text tags when “Show text tags” is turned on in Settings › Folder Tree.
Star ratings – The items grouped by the assigned Star Rating, from 1 to 5. The default is off.
Please note that Recent files, Tags, and Star ratings are based on Spotlight queries, and therefore only show the items located in the locations indexed by Spotlight.
Saved searches – The searches saved for later reuse. The default is off.
Trash – In Folders Pro, the system Trash, which requires Full Disk Access; in the App Store version, the Private Trash. The default is off.
Context Menu
Lets you rearrange the context menu and hide the commands you do not use. The list follows the order of the commands in the menu; drag the stripes icon to rearrange. The commands belonging to a submenu are indented and can only be moved within their submenu.
The item toggle – Shows or hides the command in the context menu. Some commands, such as “Reveal in Finder”, are hidden by default.
The command icon (available on macOS 27+) – Click it to choose whether that command shows its icon in the context menu: full strength means the icon is always shown, dimmed means it is hidden. Share, Move to Trash, Delete Permanently, and Empty Trash are set to show by default.
⌥ – Marks the command as an alternate: it is initially invisible and replaces the command above it while holding ⌥ option. Only available for the commands that can act as alternates.
Add Separator – Adds a separator line, which can then be dragged to any position, and removed with the trash button next to it.
Restore Defaults – Restores the default order and visibility of all the commands.
Scripting (Folders Pro only)
CLI Launcher – Shows the installation status of the command line tool folders.
Install... / Uninstall – Installs/uninstalls the folders CLI tool. Since the tool is installed to a privileged location, both installation and uninstallation will prompt for your machine password to continue.
Actions – Lists the currently defined shell and AppleScript Actions. By default, contains 3 sample actions.
Add Action... – Opens a dialog to edit a new action. See in-dialog instructions and sample actions.
