How To Create & Use Smart Folders On MacOS.
MacOS has a really efficient system to help you find files and folders in your storage. You can search for specific words or other criteria to find the items you want. What makes finding things even easier is the Smart Folders feature built into the Finder.
Smart folders, as the name suggests, are a type of folder that lets you quickly find the items you want. However, Smart Folder is not really a folder. It is more of a search for certain criteria that you have saved on your computer.
Even though it is so useful, it is not widely used and you lose it by not using this feature.
Create Smart Folder on MacOS
Create Smart Folder on macOS
Creating a new Smart Folder on Mac is a snap. All you have to do is click on the option in the Finder and you will be presented with a window to create and save a new smart folder.
- To get started, make sure you are inside the Finder Window. Then click the File menu at the top and select the New Smart Folder option.
Instead of the usual prompt for the folder name, you will see a screen that asks you to define criteria for the smart folder. Here you can specify the criteria to be applied and only those files that match the criteria will be displayed here in this folder.
- Click the + (plus) sign to add criteria, and then use the drop-down menus to specify the actual options.
- After you have specified the options you want, you need to save the folder. Click the Save button on the screen, enter a name for your Smart Folder, choose where you want to save it, and click Save.
- You can check the Add to Sidebar checkbox if you want the folder to appear in the sidebar of Finder windows.
- After saving the folder, you can open it like any other folder, it will display all the files that match the smart folder criteria.
If you are new to this type of folder and would like some suggestions, here are some useful smart folder uses you could try.
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Find recently created files using smart folders
Find recently created files with Smart Folders
If you often need access to the latest files on your Mac, you can create a smart folder that automatically retrieves all of your recent files with one click.
- Create a new smart folder as usual. When a screen appears asking for folder criteria, enter the following and click Save.
Search This Mac Creation date is within the last 2 days
Obviously, you can change the number “2” to any number of days you like.
- Save the folder and when you run it, it will display files created in the last 2 days across your entire Mac.
Find large files with Smart Folders
Find large files with smart folders
If you are running low on storage space on your Mac, you can use the Smart Folder Criteria, which will list all the large files stored on your Mac.
This way you will be able to find large files that take up a significant portion of your storage, but are deeply nested in subfolders on your computer.
- Create a new smart folder and use the following criteria for it.
File size greater than 1 GB
- It will list all files larger than 1 gigabyte on your Mac. Then you can get rid of all those large files that are no longer used on your computer.
View Downloaded Application Files
View downloaded application files
Most of the applications that you download to your Mac from various sites come as a DMG package. Once you’ve installed such an application and it started showing up in Launchpad on your Mac, you no longer need these DMG package files.
You can create a smart folder to find such files and then delete them from your Mac.
- Select the following as Smart Folder Criteria:
File extension is dmg
- Find and list all DMG files that exist on your Mac. Then you can delete these files by moving them to the trash.
Find duplicate files on your Mac
Find duplicate files on your Mac
Duplicate files not only create unnecessary clutter, but also take up precious storage space on your Mac.
Therefore, it is very important to find such files and delete them permanently from your Mac.
Since most of the duplicate files have numbers like (1), (2), etc. at the end of the file names, you can use the following criteria to find duplicate files on your Mac.
- Option-click the + (plus) sign to add criteria. Then select other options as shown below:
Any True Name contains (1) Name contains (2 ) Name contains (3)
You can use these numbers to find as many duplicate files on your Mac as possible.
Find Unused Apps on Mac
Find unused apps on your Mac
You may have installed some applications on your Mac but no longer use them. This is how you can find such unused apps on your computer using smart folders.
- Enter the following criteria and save and run the smart folder.
Kind is Application Last opened date is before 08.19.2017
The above smart folder will list any apps that you haven’t opened since August 19, 2017 (or whatever date you choose to sign in). It gives you a clear idea of ??the unused apps on your Mac.
Search for photos taken on specific devices
Find photos captured on specific devices
If you want to get a list of all the photos taken on a specific device, say a OnePlus device, you can do that using Smart Folder on Mac.
- Use the following criteria to find all photos taken with a OnePlus device on your Mac. If you did not find one or more of the options mentioned below in the default dropdown menus, click the Other option in the dropdown list and enable those options.
Kind is Image All Device Manufacturer Compliant OnePlus
It will scan the EXIF ??data of your images and show images in which the device manufacturer is the same as OnePlus.
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