osx - Cut and Paste in Mac OS X's Finder

25
2014-01
  • Sagar R. Kothari

    This question already has an answer here:

    • Answers
  • ghoppe

    In the Finder the keyboard shortcut to "Go to Folder…" is ⌘shiftG

    Unfortunately, the Mac OS X Finder is widely regarded as the weak point to Apple's operating system. If you're looking for Cut/Paste support in the Finder, one solution to try is a Finder replacement called Path Finder. It has many other enhancements that make it a more powerful file browser than the Finder.

    If you're looking for keyboard control in file manipulation/launching, you could try a utility like Quicksilver (free) or LaunchBar, both sport an easy way to navigate files with the keyboard. Quicksilver even supports an easy way to move files similar to, but more powerful than, Windows cut/paste.

    Edit: Here's the Quicksilver tutorial page. From your question, I'm guessing this is the sort of utility you'd enjoy, as it gives you keyboard control magic.

    Edit 2: Woo, old answer! Maybe about time I updated it. The Finder has added support for keyboard moving of files since OS X Lion. ⌘C to copy a file, ⌘V to paste a copy in the new location, ⌘⌥V to permanently move the copied file to the new location.

  • Lauri Ranta

    In 10.7 you can press ⌥⌘V to Move Selection Here. ⌘C,⌥⌘V is equivalent to what ⌘X,⌘V should do.

    Another thing that was finally fixed is that you can now copy files, move them to the trash, and then paste them from the trash.

  • lajuette

    Copy and Paste works with files in the finder. Cutting and Pasting (i.e. moving) was disabled for some reason. I miss it too!

    You can always use the terminal to move/copy/link files (incl. auto completion!)

    cp -R /source/folder /destination/
mv /files/to/move/* /destination/directory/
ln -s /file/to/link /file/to/link/to

    There is a nice tool called "Visor" that lets you bind your terminal to a hotkey and pop it op like a quake console. Another way is using spotlight to open Terminal.

    [edit] Another thing came to my mind: You can use "spring loaded folders" (i'm not sure if this feature is called that way) to move (cut-n-paste) files and folders. See this video to get a demo (skip the blabla at the beginning).

    In addition to that you can use the modifier keys (ALT, CRTL, APPLE) to define the action you want to execute.

  • Wiwi

    Why not just open two windows, source and destination, and drag the file or files from the source folder window to the destination folder window. If the source and destination files are on different volumes, hold down the "Command" key so the source file is deleted after it is copied to the destination.

  • Steve Bennett

    I'm in a similar situation. The best I have found, using keys is:

    1. navigate to file
    2. ⌘+C to copy file
    3. ⌘+N to open new window
    4. navigate to move destination (⌘+up to go up folder)
    5. ⌘+V to paste file
    6. ⌘+W to close window
    7. ⌘+Delete to delete the original
  • Martin

    Have you tried apple key/x and apple key/v to cut and paste? Almost in any case where you use ctrl in windows, you would use the apple key.


    • Related Question

    osx - Copying and pasting the path within Finder
  • Alex Angas

    I've recently moved to the Mac from Windows as my primary machine. One feature I'm really missing is the ability to quickly navigate between folders. I used to do this under Windows by copying the path from one Explorer window and pasting it into a file open/save dialog or another Explorer window.

    I can't work out anyway of doing this with the Finder and am getting frustrated by the reduced efficiency of navigating the interface. The best I've been able to do is make Finder show the path on a window, but that still doesn't let me copy and paste it into a dialog.

    I did try the app Path Finder but that doesn't seem to do it either and also doesn't seem to integrate with the file open/save dialogs.

    Does anyone know if this is a possibility or another way I can more easily navigate around?


    • Related Answers
  • 8088

    FileUtils is a contextual (right-click) finder plugin that, among other things, allows one to copy the path of items to the clipboard.

    file utils

    Then you can press command-shift-G to have a "Go to folder" dialog appear where you can paste. This shortcut works in any standard open/save dialog on the Mac.

    go-to-folder

    You can also drag a folder to the open/save dialogs (so the cursor has a green + symbol), which will change the dialog to that folder. This also works with the little icons in the Finder window title bar (called "Proxy icons" often), and is probably going to be faster than copy-pasting paths.

  • Stephen Darlington

    This may not directly answer your question, but I find these useful:

    • You can drag and drop the folder icon next to the folder name in the Finder. You can drop it in an Open/Save dialog
    • Command-click the icon in the Finder window to get a list of all the folders "up" the tree
    • Enable the Path Bar (in the view menu)

    And you might find this a good page describing how best to use the Finder. In general, I think that it's best to not treat it like the Windows Explorer. It can do much of the same stuff but it does work differently.

  • David Zureick-Brown

    Drag a file or folder into terminal and the path appears.

  • Alex Angas

    According to this answer, typing a / character into the Open and Save dialogs displays a dialog to enter a path.

  • Terry

    You can try pasting your path on the address bar of Safari and this will open up the directory for you. (as long as it exists.). Just make sure to precede your path with "file:///". i.e "file:///Users"

  • Dylan Hogg

    Try muCommander, it's a free cross platform file manager (OSX, Windows, Linux) with dual panes displaying the folder path above each pane which can be copied, or right click a file and select "Copy Path".

    Used in conjunction with the command-shift-G "Go to folder" in dialog boxes and you're back to quickly navigating between folders.

    (ps. works in Lion)

  • Doug Harris

    I'm the curmudgeonly old unix guy on a mac.

    I spend most of my time in Terminal (or shells within Emacs). If there's something I want to look at in Finder, I type "open ." which opens the current directory in Finder.

    There's also some magic you can do with the column view. See How to Quickly Navigate Column View for a description and video.

  • user218061

    Default Folder X allows you to "command up/down" arrow from within open and save dialogue windows to the last several locations accessed. It's brilliantly fast and I get extremely frustrated when I switch to a Mac that doesn't have it. --really should be incorporated into the OS by now...