How to Move Files and Folders in Mac OS X Lion
You can move Mac OS X Lion files and folders around within a window to your heart’s content as long as that window is set to icon view. Just click and drag any file’s icon to its new location in the window.
You can’t move icons around in a Mac OS X Lion window that is displayed in list, column, or Cover Flow view. Well, you can move them to put them in a different folder in list, column, or Cover Flow view, but that’s not moving them around, really.
As you might expect from Apple, you have choices for how you move one file or folder into another folder. You can use these techniques to move any icon (folder, document, alias, or program icon) into folders or onto other disks.
Drag an icon onto a folder icon. Drag the icon for one folder (or file) onto the icon for another folder (or disk) and then release when the second icon is highlighted. The first folder is inside the second folder. Put another way, the first folder is a subfolder of the second folder.
This technique works regardless of whether the second folder’s window is open.
Drag an icon into an open folder’s window. Drag the icon for one folder (or file) into the open window for a second folder (or disk).
If you want to move an item from one disk to another disk, you can’t use the preceding tricks. Your item is copied, not moved. If you want to move a file or folder from one disk to another, you have to hold down the Command key when you drag an icon from one disk to another. The little Copying Files window even changes to read Moving Files.
Move and copy files in Terminal on Mac
In Terminal, you can move and copy files locally or remotely using the mv , cp and scp command-line tools.
Tip: It’s easier to move and copy files using the Finder. See Organise files in folders.
Move a file or folder locally
In the Terminal app 
on your Mac, use the mv command to move files or folders from one location to another on the same computer. The mv command moves the file or folder from its old location and puts it in the new location.
For example, to move a file from your Downloads folder to a Work folder in your Documents folder:
You can also change the name of the file as it’s moved:
Copy a file or folder locally
In the Terminal app on your Mac, use the cp command to make a copy of a file.
For example, to copy a folder named Expenses in your Documents folder to another volume named Data:
The -R flag causes cp to copy the folder and its contents. Note that the folder name does not end with a slash, which would change how cp copies the folder.
Copy a file or folder remotely
In the Terminal app on your Mac, use the scp command to copy a file or folder to or from a remote computer.
scp uses the same underlying protocols as ssh .
For example, to copy a compressed file from your home folder to another user’s home folder on a remote server:
You’re prompted for the user’s password.
The -E flag preserves extended attributes, resource forks and ACL information.
The -r flag, which isn’t used in this example, causes scp to copy a folder and its contents.
Move Downloads folder
iaminlondon
macrumors newbie
Does anyone know how I can move the download folder in Mac OS X Lion? I have two hard drives and I would like to move it to the second one. I have already updated the settings in the browsers, but I was after the dock icon, so that it behaves exactly as it does now but points to this new location.
SandboxGeneral
Moderator emeritus
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
I think you should be able to go into Finder, drag the folder to the new HDD and then remove the folder from the Dock and re-add it from its new location.
stridemat
Moderator
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4S: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
I think you should be able to go into Finder, drag the folder to the new HDD and then remove the folder from the Dock and re-add it from its new location.
iaminlondon
macrumors newbie
I’ve tried this. It didn’t allow me to move it but I got to copy it. After the copying was done I tried to delete it but it told me that it couldn’t delete that folder. That it was needed by the OS. I guess somewhere there is a setting pointing to this folder. I would like to edit it so that it points to the folder in the other hard drive. This would ensure that other software I might install in the future will default to the other hdd.
iaminlondon
macrumors newbie
stridemat
Moderator
Copy the download folder as it is now to the second hard drive.
Delete the current contents of the download folder, and then drag the folder from the dock.
Drag the downloads folder from the second drive to the dock to create the dock ‘shortcut’.
I have also down the same with the documents folder. Apps and the OS are all that I have on the primary SSD drive.
There is probably a terminal hack to alter it for all apps, but I don not know of one off the top of my head. You will just need to remember to update the download location of apps to the new location.
As to the sidebar, Im sure you can just drag the folder into the location you want on the sidebar of a finder window.
iaminlondon
macrumors newbie
Thanks again. That’s all been done and it works. Just like in your screenshot. Leaving it here, though it would be nice to have that last bit for completeness (i.e. not having to remember changing settings for new apps) and to get the right icon in the finder. In the screenshot below, the highlighted folder on the left pane of the finder is the one all applications are using now and the one with the icon is the old one, which I now hide. But the new one doesn’t get that icon.
stridemat
Moderator
I think your OS X OCD may have to live with that one Im afraid.
However if you really wanted to use the same icon you could set up an alias within the ‘old’ downloads folder to the ‘new’ Downloads folder. That way you could remove the ‘new’ downloads folder from the sidebar and just have the old. Then when you click on the link it takes you to the ‘new’ downloads folder.
iaminlondon
macrumors newbie
LOL! I’ll be fine. And if my OCD gets any worst I’ll give your last suggestion a try. But seriously, thanks again!
Xian Zhu Xuande
macrumors 6502a
Old thread, but it ranks well in Google for a related search and it is missing one bit of advice for moving the Downloads folder: using a symbolic link. This way, even if something does write to the old Downloads folder location, it winds up where you want it anyway.
stridemat
Moderator
Old thread, but it ranks well in Google for a related search and it is missing one bit of advice for moving the Downloads folder: using a symbolic link. This way, even if something does write to the old Downloads folder location, it winds up where you want it anyway.
I had this implemented a while ago now, and works great. I should have posted here when I found out about it.
Just in case that website is ever deleted. Go to terminal and type the following:
mwhities
macrumors 6502a
I had this implemented a while ago now, and works great. I should have posted here when I found out about it.
Just in case that website is ever deleted. Go to terminal and type the following:
This just helped me out as well. I just bought a 64G SSD and installed it. A day later, bought the Data Doubler with a 750G HD SATA and added it. My Downloads folder was filling up my SSD drive.
Thanks for posting.
It’s an early 2009 Mac Mini.
Attachments
nordicappeal
macrumors regular
Here is an easy way to move the default download folder:
stridemat
Moderator
Here is an easy way to move the default download folder:
nordicappeal
macrumors regular
macrumors newbie
macrumors member
Just to add another little tip. it won’t mean a lot to those who are fine with Unix, but it had me stumped for a little while.
If the disk you want to link to has a space in its name (like the default Macintosh HD does), you need to put it in quotes when you’re typing the path. i.e.:
richnyc
macrumors regular
nordicappeal
macrumors regular
Davemreed
macrumors newbie
How to implement Mr.Stridemat’s code
This is my favorite response to this thread, but I wonder if everyone reading this is able to implement it.
In the hopes of helping those less versed in command line interface.
-
- Open Applications folder, and then the Utilities folders within, then launch Terminal.
- You will now see a Terminal window with something like the what you see in the code above, i.e. «MyMacbok:
username$ » and a blinking cursor.
Type sudo rm -rf
/Downloads/
As others have mentioned, there are a number of scenarios where this can prove useful. Most users tend to download a torrent of data but rarely go through their downloads folder either to relocate or delete those files. This makes for a huge downloads folder. Thus, changing the default Downloads destination either to an external drive or a secondary (and usually larger) internal hard drive is optimal.
Hope this helps. (And my thanks to Stridmat for the CLI code!)
Casteiron
macrumors newbie
This is my favorite response to this thread, but I wonder if everyone reading this is able to implement it.
In the hopes of helping those less versed in command line interface.
-
- Open Applications folder, and then the Utilities folders within, then launch Terminal.
- You will now see a Terminal window with something like the what you see in the code above, i.e. «MyMacbok:
username$ » and a blinking cursor.
Type sudo rm -rf
/Downloads/
As others have mentioned, there are a number of scenarios where this can prove useful. Most users tend to download a torrent of data but rarely go through their downloads folder either to relocate or delete those files. This makes for a huge downloads folder. Thus, changing the default Downloads destination either to an external drive or a secondary (and usually larger) internal hard drive is optimal.
Hope this helps. (And my thanks to Stridmat for the CLI code!)
This is awesome and exactly what I was looking for but I prematurely did it before reading how to change the icon. Is there a way to undo this real quick so I can get the Downloads folder icon as per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2493?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US ?
EDIT 2: On second thought, yes, how do I reverse this?