Mac Os Downloads Folder

Step 2 – Connect to Windows Shared Folder from OS X. Finally, on the Mac, open Finder and look under the Shared section for the Windows 10 PC. If Shared is not in the sidebar, you have to add it. With Finder open, click on Finder and then Preferences at the top. Click on Sidebar and check all the items under Shared. MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 Supplemental Update 2. MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 supplemental update addresses an issue that may prevent the battery from charging in some 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models. It’s where your Mac stores files downloaded by Safari, attachments you download from Messages, and where many other apps save files when you download them from the internet or other devices on a local network. This setting can be changed: in Safari, for example, go to Safari Preferences, click General, choose Other from File download. Choose folders on your computer to sync with Google Drive or backup to Google Photos, and access all of your content directly from your PC or Mac Go to Google Drive Download Drive for desktop.

Every Mac user knows the Dock—it sits at the bottom of the screen, giving you quick access to your favorite and currently open apps and folders. Using the Mac Dock shortcuts, you can launch Finder and Launchpad, throw files into the Trash folder, as well as access your Downloads folder directly.

To keep your Dock icons tidy, you can begin to categorize the apps onto your Dock into shortcut folders. This will let you organize the Dock better, reducing clutter and letting you focus on your most important apps. Here’s how you can create Mac Dock shortcuts quickly, as well as some tips on how to use the Dock more effectively.

Customizing Mac Dock Shortcuts

Mac OS Downloads Folder Moved! That’s it, you’re all done moving your Mac OS Downloads folder. The symbolic link you created in step 4 will ensure that any applications putting downloads in the old location /Downloads will go to the new Downloads folder in the new location so that you don’t have to go and edit the Downloads folder in.

Before you begin adding Mac Dock shortcuts, you should customize it to suit your needs. You can change the size of the Dock, including the size of the icons, as well as reposition the Dock from the bottom to the left or right side of your screen. You can also set the Dock to automatically hide when you’re not using it.

To access the settings for the Dock, right-click the Dock area and click Dock Preferences. Alternatively, click the Apple menu in the top-right, then click System Preferences > Dock or launch System Preferences from the Launchpad.

Modify the sliders to increase the size of your Dock app icons, or use the radio buttons to change the position of the Dock. Click the Automatically hide and show the Dock checkbox if you want the Dock to disappear when it isn’t being used.

Once you’ve made your changes, close the Dock settings window. The changes you make will be applied automatically.

Adding New Mac Dock Shortcuts

When you first set up a Mac, a few default apps are already in place as Dock shortcuts. These include Launchpad, Finder, and various Apple apps like FaceTime and Photos. Any software that is currently running will appear next to these icons in the Dock.

To add running apps to your Dock permanently, right-click on an app icon in the Dock, hover over Options, then click Keep in Dock.

You can also remove surplus apps from your Dock using the same menu. For system apps, right-click the app icon, then click Options > Remove from Dock. For non-system apps, simply uncheck the Keep in Dock icon to remove it.

Once your app icons are in place, you can move them around using your mouse or touchpad to suit your needs by dragging the icon and moving it to a new position.

Adding New Mac Dock Shortcut Folders

Shortcut folders help you categorize your Mac Dock shortcuts into categories. Work apps, for instance, could be placed in a single folder, while games could be separated into another.

While Dock shortcut folders won’t hide running apps, they can give you easy access to launch any software you run often without cluttering the Dock or having to launch the app from Finder or Launchpad instead.

To start, open Finder by clicking the Finder icon in the Dock. Head to your Desktop folder, then right-click and press New Folder to create a new folder. Give this a name like Dock Folders. Inside this folder, create another folder (or several new folders) to match the app groupings you want to create on your Dock, giving them a suitable name as you do.

With your folders created, open a second Finder window by right-clicking the Finder icon, pressing New Finder Window, then open the Applications folder in the left-hand menu. Right-click (or press Control + click) on any app you wish to create a shortcut of, then click Make Alias.

A new listing for your chosen app will appear in the Applications folder, with the word alias attached to the name. With both Finder windows visible on your screen, drag the alias app from your Applications folder to the shortcut folder you’ve created on your Desktop.

Repeat the step until you’ve created shortcuts for all of your chosen Dock apps and placed them in suitable folders. Once the Dock shortcut folders are ready, drag the shortcut folders using your mouse onto the Folders area of the Dock, next to your Trash icon.

With the shortcut folder in place, you can access your apps by clicking on the shortcut folder icon and pressing one of the app shortcuts within.

As the Dock shortcut folder is itself a shortcut to a folder, you can open it in Finder to add or remove apps by retracing the steps above. Right-click any app in your Dock shortcuts folder in Finder and press Move to Trash to remove it.

Using Keyboard Dock Shortcuts

Mac Os Download Folder Dock

If you want to start using your Dock better, then consider using keyboard shortcuts. These time-saving shortcuts will help you interact with the Dock using only your keyboard, saving you the extra time it would take you to use your mouse or trackpad.

Option + Command + D: Hides the Dock or makes it reappear if it’s already hidden.
Command + M: Minimizes an open window to the Dock.
Control + Shift + Command + T: Adds an item in Finder as a Dock shortcut quickly.
Control + F3 (or Control + Function + F3): Assume keyboard control of the Dock, allowing you to move around it with your keyboard keys.
With the Dock keyboard control shortcut above used, press the Up arrow to access the Dock menu, or Return to open an app or shortcut folder. With an app icon selected, press Command + Return to open the location of that app or shortcut in a new Finder window.
To hide all open windows except for the app icon selected, use the arrow keys to select an app icon, then press Command + Option + Return. This will minimize other apps, leaving only your chosen app in view.

How to Use the Dock More Effectively

Adding Mac Dock shortcuts and organizing them into folders is just one way you can use the Dock more effectively on macOS. As we’ve mentioned, you could decide to use macOS keyboard shortcuts to quickly launch apps from your Dock, or customize the Dock to list recent apps in their own folder.

If you’re running Windows, you can install your own third-party Windows app docks instead.

Where Is My Download Folder

If you’ve been using a Mac for any length of time, you know that it’s more than just a pretty point-and-click, window-and-icon interface. Beneath the surface of the operating system is an entire world that you can access only from the command line. Terminal (in your /Applications/Utilities folder) is the default gateway to that command line on a Mac. With it, instead of pointing and clicking, you type your commands and your Mac does your bidding.

Why would you want to do that? For almost all of your computing needs, the regular graphical user interface is enough. But the command line can be handy when it comes to troubleshooting your Mac, to turn on “hidden” settings, and other advanced chores. It’s a good idea for anyone who isn’t an utter beginner to be familiar with it.

If you aren’t already familiar with your Mac’s command-line interface. First up: How to navigate the file system from the command-line prompt.

The prompt

Mac Os Downloads Folder Settings

By default, when you open Terminal, the first thing you’ll see is something like this:

Last login: Fri Jun 25 10:37:06 on ttys000 romansempire@Mac-Pro-8 ~ %

Here’s what you’re seeing:

The first line shows the last time you logged into your Mac via the command line; that’s the current time, when you’re using Terminal.
The second line is the prompt, and while it can change from system to system depending on configuration, by default it contains several bits of information:
- In the prompt above romansempire is the user name.
- Mac-Pro-8 is the name of the Mac (same as the Computer Name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences).
- The ~ shows where you are in the file system of the Mac. ~ is a shortcut that means the current user’s Home folder. (In the Finder, that’s the folder with your user name and the house icon.)
- The % is a character that the shell (the default interface that Terminal uses) displays to indicate that it’s ready to accept a command.

How to see what’s in a folder

When you first get to the command line, you’re in your home folder. While you’re there—or when you’re in any folder (directory in Unix-speak)—you might want to know what’s in it. To do that you use the ls (or list) command. Type ls and press the Return key, and you’ll see the folders (and/or files) in the current directory.

IDG

The output of the plain ls command is pretty sparse; it shows you the names of files and folders contained in the current directory (including some familiar ones such as Movies, Music, Pictures, and so on). Fortunately, you can add a number of optional switches to the ls command that allow you to see more information. For example, type ls -l (that’s a lower-case L), then press Return. You’ll see something like this:

Don’t worry too much about what all that means right now—we’re just getting our feet wet. The point is that ls can provide additional information about files and folders, depending on the options you specify. In this case, that additional information includes the name of the user who owns each item in the directory. (That ownership is part of the Unix system’s file-permissions regime.) The romansempire staff next to most of those items above means that each one is owned by the user romansempire, who is in the group staff. The other understandable bit of information next to each file and folder is the date and time each one was last modified.

Mac Os Download Folder

One other handy option: You can view invisible files—ones that the Finder doesn’t normally show you—by typing ls -a. (These hidden files all have dots (.) in front of their names.)

How to access other folders/directories

When you’re in the Finder and you want to move to another folder, you find that folder and double-click it. From the command line, you use the cd (or change directory) command instead. So let’s say you’re in your Home folder and want to peek inside the Downloads folder. To do that, you’d type cd Downloads. (Remember to always type a space after any command that has an additional argument, such as the name of a directory in the previous example.) Once you’ve done that, ls will show you the contents of your Downloads folder.

Here are a couple of quick tricks for moving around in your Mac’s file system.

If you type cd and press the Return key—with no directory specified—you’ll go back to your Home folder. (You can also type cd ~ to go there.)
If you type cd /, you’ll go to the root level of your startup disk.
If you type cd .. (that’s two periods), you’ll go to the directory above the one you’re currently in. So if you’re in your home folder, and type cd .., you’ll go to your Mac’s /Users folder.
And if you type cd - (hyphen) you’ll go back to the directory you were in before the last time you issued the cd command.

Mac Os Downloads Folder Location

To learn more Terminal commands, see our articles on how to copy and move folders as well as delete files and folders using the command line and get help when you need it from man pages.