“I know it’s around here somewhere!” These are frustrating words we have said too much around the house.
When you know you have something and can’t find it, you always make promises about getting things organized but often don’t.
The same thing can happen with your computer. You download a file, then later you can’t find it, so you download it again and soon your Mac is filled up!
What if there was a way to organize your files on your Mac that was simple and ran in the background?
Well, there is, it’s called the Smart folder.
Apple has given us one of the best tools for organizing our Mac, but too many of us try to organize our folders ourselves which can take a lot longer.
The Apple Smart Folder
Smart folders are a way for you to set a specific set of criteria for your folder’s content.
If you want to find all the files on your Mac that are above a specific size, you can set the parameters for your smart folder and it will do all the work for you.
You won’t have to dig around and find these files yourself, the smart folder app will do all the work for you and save you a ton of time.
Smart Folder in Action
If you click the “File” button on Finder, you will see the New Smart Folder button. There isn’t a keyboard shortcut to it but, you can always set one up later.
The Smart folder will naturally be set up to search your whole Mac, but the option is there if you just want to search your desktop.
To the right of the folder, there is a “+” button and when you click it the options will appear for your search.
“Kind”: refers to the search parameters like name, or date created.
“Any”: refers to the type of file you want to search for like a PDF or PNG.
You can press “+” to create more searches to get more detailed or “-” to take search parameters off.
Once you are done, you can press “Save” and decide where you want to save the file.
Smart Folder Tips
Now that you are ready to use Smart folders, here are a couple of tips to get you started.
When you change a file located somewhere else on the computer, it will automatically change in the smart folder.
Start experimenting by using the smart folders to clean your Mac of duplicated files by looking for files with the number one. Mac automatically assigns a number to duplicated files.
Deleting a smart folder won’t delete the file, they are still on your Mac, so you are safe.
Smart Folder Away Your Frustrations
Using the Smart folder will help you get your Mac organized and running smoothly again.
Check out more tips for tech and many other parts of your life on our site. Our passion is keeping you informed and up to date!