Smart Folders: The macOS Power Feature You're Overlooking

[@AnsonAlexander]

TIP: If you're going to use a file dump folder, like I did, make sure you put it in the place where you want it to stay. Moving it afterwards will cause your Smart Folders to break and you'll need to recreate them.

[@maricelromero9833]

Does that mean the files will disappear from the original place, or is it just a duplicate to have them handy?

[@ezinnekalu905]

Great video🎉. Another fun thing to do would be to setup a Shortcut to send the files from the dump folders to the new folders and delete the individual dump folders. I love MacOS automations😃

[@macforme]

Great info.... I just came from MacMost (covering smart folders) and your video was in the suggestions sidebar... different teachers give different perspectives and it all help the learning process. 👍👍👍

[@davep6603]

This was great. I had been using Tags to mark .sql files which I work a lot with, but are stored in multiple folders. Now I don’t need to remember to tag them, and just use a Smart Folder. Thanks!

[@AnsonAlexander]

Wow, I love hearing how people build on-top of what I show in my videos. This is a great use for Smart Folders. Thanks for sharing and glad it helped!

[@laurahompus]

If it works for you, it works! I can see how having 1 Dump folder saves time while you're busy doing things, then coming back to it later to archive/ discard stuff. As opposed to immediately filing stuff in the right location. Let's be real, unless you're super meticulous and OCD about it, we all have some version of chaos and order on our drives. I've come to find that properly Naming files when first saving them, anywhere on your computer, is half of the structure.

[@rgarlinyc]

Very well explained, thanks a lot!

[@AnsonAlexander]

You're welcome and thank you!

[@mark.t.vetphotog]

This is great, didn't know about Smart folders, but you can do essentially the same thing with an app called Hazel. It continually monitors any folder that you point Hazel to, you create similar rules to what you did, and Hazel automatically moves the files (or whatever else you want to do with files) so that you don't have to manually move them yourself.

[@PymGordon777]

Great tutorial. Thank you - One question, though: I cannot make the option "Document Container" work. Any ideas?

[@c.w_]

Create a workflow. Or simpler just to use file actions and move it straight it straight into the correct folder unless you do file dump as a way of archiving.

[@Rio-by1eh]

Interesting… it’s been a while about 25 plus years and I’m getting rusty myself - FOLDER ACTIONS - very cool forgot about these nifties… do you by chance empty folder actions to move (backup) content to an external drive ..maybe … I’m a bit lazy off loading files from my mini drive and was wondering if there is a use for folder actions ?

[@real1861a]

Clear concise and very helpful - thank you

[@vonnyrotten]

This is a great video. I do have a question (legit question not trying to sound like "um actually..."), what is the benefit of this method over just sorting the folder by type and dragging and dropping into their respective folders? Since this isn't setting up an auto sort (not sure what that word is at the moment) function that doesn't require any manual dragging and will automatically send any file that is put into the dump folder to whichever "rule" you have set up (macro? code?). Thanks for any reply!

[@georgee3401]

Excellent tutorial. Very useful tips clearly presented. Many thanks!

[@AnsonAlexander]

You're welcome, I'm glad it was helpful!

[@edmundhayes7982]

Do smart folders move the file from the old location to the new location (in your case, the desktop), or is it more like an alias? The reason I am asking this is because I have a backup program working in the background that backs up specific folders on my drive.

[@MultiMam12345]

Still a lot of manual stuff. You can install hazel. Set a watch folder. Then ‘sort all files based on extension’. And everything goes automatic. No mouse/window dragging needed. Sure automator can do the same.

[@BluecatzTV]

I was looking through the comments for Hazel before commenting. It's a great app.

[@gundeeep]

I am excited to go and do it for my mac, I recently started creating content on KZbin, so the whole downloads folder is a mess right now, I was managing the whole cleaning manually by creating folders. Now I think this will save me a lot of manual effort. 😅

[@49Macman]

Wow! I am playing around with it now and it seems to be the best option for finding things Thanks!

[@AnsonAlexander]

You're welcome, glad to have helped you discover this feature :)

[@andersbrathen]

Thanks for a great video. One question though, I want to exclude certain folders or drives from the Smart folder. I am having issues with this. For example, I want to exclude files of shared Google Drive from the Smart folder results. I have tried do define it using the Placement/location parameter, but with no luck.

[@portersblackboard]

Thank you!! This is super helpful!

[@VinitGuptamumbai]

You could also just use kind and choose images / videos / documents

[@AnsonAlexander]

Unfortunately, when I do that, it lumps my .psd files with other image files. I could use it for certain file types and for some people it is the best option for sure. I should have mentioned it. For me though, I always end up going in and customizing it more when I filter by kind so I just go granular from the beginning. Great tip!

[@VinitGuptamumbai]

@@AnsonAlexander yes. That's true. Amd to solve the issue with psd files you can have is kind: images and is not psd. Boolean works really well aand can get quite granular

[@GaryStockton]

That’s an excellent, detailed tutorial. Thanks for doing that.

[@ritchxmusic]

Thanks for teaching me something new today bro, you're good at explaining this stuff !

[@cheidolph]

Clear and Concise !

[@SagarPatel288]

Thank you for sharing this excellent tutorial and outstanding presentation! I'm genuinely impressed by your work. May I ask which video recording and editing software you utilized for this project? Your insights would be greatly appreciated! P.S. Edit: At 10:44, I could see that you might be using `Screenflow.`

[@digitalclips]

It might be worth explaining to newbies that the file extensions need to be toggled on in Finder/Settings/Show all filename extensions

[@AnsonAlexander]

Yes, good point, that's for including here in the comments :)

[@marionb6154]

Great stuff!

[@AnsonAlexander]

Thanks!

[@pycontiki]

So these Smart Folders are actual folders on the disk just a filtered view of your Dump folder?

[@AnsonAlexander]

They are just filtered views of my dump folder. The folders that I move them to are actual folders. It's essentially a sorter for you to then store away later.

[@terryclair2914]

Well done, thank you!

[@AnsonAlexander]

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed!

[@NK-vs3tv]

Thanks for this great video. I‘ve been a Mac user forever but somehow I completely missed smart folders. :-)

[@maricelromero9833]

Does it eliminate the files from their original place? Because if I do this, some files won't open again, for example xliff files. And what about html files or whole programming projects? Will they be available to run even if I move them to a new place/file? Thank you 😉

[@charlesnorris8147]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Your tips and explanation were on point. 💯👏🍻

[@RaihanJamil]

Why would I not sort all files based on kind?! Instead of your ten folders I would still have only one and well sorted! I would not have to add new files and again sort and drag them to other folders. I am confused.

[@AnsonAlexander]

You can give it a shot, I should have mentioned it. I end up having to customize them more granularly - for example, I don't want .PSD files in images.

[@Rio-by1eh]

THANK YOU-Honestly I have heard of smart folders for 27 years but never bothered , I know of the essence but never put it to practice … I guess we can call it the First A.I. ?

[@raymondw.stevensjr.5756]

Can smart folders work on Mac external hard drive?

[@Bravada]

seems I cannot duplicate the existing smart folders and edit content to avoid repeated duplication ie select all limage types and then create another where none of the image types? If a duplicate is in the saved searched directory, it cannot be dragged to the sidebar? Forgot HEIC and am unable to edit the smart folder ?

[@markdavenport2125]

hi I installed catalina patcher on a couple of 2011 Mac Pros from that other dude and the dvd did not work on either machine also had other issues with snd and camera if I use core patcher will I have similar issues or will everything work properly and is this stuff even legal thank you.

[@jenniferkellogg5204]

For your image folder, just make a smart folder for ‘kind’ is ‘image’ ‘all’

[@AnsonAlexander]

I tried doing that but it includes .psd files which I like to keep in a different folder. That is a great option though, thanks for adding it here in the comments. Another option would be for me to do kind:image and then exclude .psd, .ai and any other files I don't want in there. So many options with Smart Folders! Thanks for the tip!

[@osks]

Thank you!

[@JasonDishong]

The option to add multiple extension types isn't working for me. If i tell it to do multiple file extensions it breaks the search and doesn't find anything. The option to match against any criteria isn't showing up for me. How do you add that?

[@sagunmdr]

Can you please help me to find this logic through smart folders? Main purpose is to find duplicate images/videos through their Name or date (or other way that you're aware of) - I used to backup photos & Videos from my phone wayy back in the day when i was a child, - Just drag & drop numerous files into a new random folder, - not properly organized, but they're into some folder. Lets say this is a scenario: File: IMG_20190723.jpg The same file are in 2 separate Folder, > Documents /Folder A /IMG_20190723.jpg > Documents /Folder B /IMG_20190723.jpg Is there any way to detect these? Watched your whole video, Something completely new that i learned today was 'ANY' & 'NONE' filters, Just played with it and ohh boy this would be so handy in my work flow, would be a huge time saver, but i still couldn't figure out solution to my main problem.

[@GuitarJams-zs7yf]

Is there a way to search for duplicate files in a folder?

[@jonathonlivingstonelemming1024]

I've noticed that the Easter egg won't work if searching the whole Mac. Don't know if this is a default, or if it's because it takes so long to finish the search.

[@AnsonAlexander]

It works for me. In fact, I did it by accident in a couple of my Smart Folders the first time and only realized when I saw files showing up that I knew were stored away. Does your Spotlight need to index or do you have indexing turned off or anything like that?

[@itstheniceguyme]

How can I search for documents that are inside folders with certain names?

[@DRCProductions]

You Da Man!!

[@anthonybrown1446]

Thank You

[@AnsonAlexander]

Glad it helped!

[@algheroman6476]

Cant you just sort by extension type in finder and do the same thing?

[@JohnDeMarchi-ue5vi]

I was having the same thought. This was a useful tutorial on how to create Smart Folders, but if you want to quickly sort files by type, there is a much quicker way. Simply sort by Kind in the Finder, then drag the files into appropriately labeled folders. It would be exponentially more efficient than having a number of Smart folders saved.

[@metapublic]

how to delete a smartfolder?

[@MrSloan1958]

Right click and select “Move to trash”.

[@metapublic]

many thanks

[@jonmattison3939]

I understand all the steps you're using to set up the Smart Folders, but what's an actual practical real world use for this? In the real world, most projects use a mix of file types, and if you're organizing your projects correctly these are already together. Also, setting up a Find JPG smart folder only saves a few seconds vs just doing a regular Find JPG search to drag drop it somewhere else. In other words, what's the time saved by moving files from XYZ to Dump Folder, then setting up Smart Folders to isolate things in your Dump Folder vs searching XYZ location for your isolation parameters (i.e. JPG) and moving them straight to a Image folder?

[@AnsonAlexander]

I get where you’re coming from, and Smart Folders might not suit every workflow. For me, they’re incredibly useful for quickly accessing specific file types like .psd files without remembering exact names or paths. Working with hundreds of files daily, Smart Folders save me a lot of time by keeping everything organized automatically. It’s not for everyone, especially if your setup already works well for you. But for those managing a large volume of files, it can be a real time-saver.

[@jonmattison3939]

@@AnsonAlexander True. It may be that while cool, it is a Solution looking for a Problem in my computer environment. As a graphic designer I can work on up to 12 projects a day, already stored/organized by Client/ProjectFolder from which I make Aliases to put into daily folders in my sidebar. So I'm like 2 clicks away from the Project folder from my sidebar to however deeply nested it is on my server. I have a mostly similar organization stack/method on my home computer for the many hobby projects I have.

[@EbonySeraphim]

I feel like if you're fluent with POSIX tools, you don't need any of this to organize files. You don't need smart "views" into folders, because it's either easy enough to navigate a dumpster fire or choose to keep it clean. No need to keep the dumpster fire and create a fancy facade over it that let's me pretend it's organized. The only folder I can think of like this on my PC (Windows) are my Downloads and Documents folder because I do throw everything in there; and the reason they are still a mess is because I don't use Windows command line. It just kinda sucks to use.

[@AnsonAlexander]

I haven't really done any file organizing with POSIX tools and that seems pretty advanced but I'll look into it, thanks for bringing it up. I don't consider this just a facade over my dumpster fire because accessing the same smart folders in the future really does make it easier to move everything to it's proper long-term locations (sometimes the trash bin). As for organizing along the way - definitely the way to go but I think these dumpster fires are pretty common and wanted to show people how to more easily manage them. Thanks for contributing!

[@Rio-by1eh]

@@AnsonAlexanderI agree with your process, it makes for a healthy mental note how things are organized… to me it is a “peace of mind” ✅

[@Generallyannoyed2024]

I watched the entire video, I read the comments, and apparently I am the only one missing what the point of this is! How is this easier than just sorting by type and dragging it over, you are doing that anyways

[@AnsonAlexander]

Not really. I’m hitting select all and dragging everything to a single folder and it gets sorted automatically to 6-8 different smart folders… so about 6-8x less work per dump / sort.

[@Arti-Sadra]

Woww! (2006)Woww! - windows had this feature from windows XP (2006) 😐

[@AnsonAlexander]

Mac has had it since the 90's... (hence why it's overlooked these days) 😁

[@Rio-by1eh]

@@AnsonAlexanderlol exactly - lol I am such a late bloomer … since 1990 ‘s and here I am “relearning” Mac OS …lol 👍✅😂..I’m talking about working on Mac CLONES BACK THEN Daystar …omg ?

[@MrAnderson610]

Thanks!!! LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, AND SUBSCRIBE!!! 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

[@AnsonAlexander]

You're welcome, thanks!

[@TPELaoY]

Complicated

[@comodice905]

bloke that's bot

[@yosoyelcorrido]

Very well explained! Thanks for sharing