Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Do apps have to be installed on the same drive as the OS?
- Thread starter yzfrr11
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As far as I know, you can put them anywhere you want to. You might want to think a little about the permissions of the disk and directory you put them in, though, especially if you have more than one user account on your Mac.
External drives by default have "Ignore ownership on this volume" set on. I'm not sure if second internal drives have this set by default or not. (Select your drive in the Finder sidebar and hit Command-I to see yours.)
If this is set for the drive you place the apps on, all user accounts on your Mac will be able to read, run, and delete the apps. If this is not checked, then the normal Unix permissions apply, so you could allow all users to read and run the apps, but only the admin user to change or delete them, for example.
External drives by default have "Ignore ownership on this volume" set on. I'm not sure if second internal drives have this set by default or not. (Select your drive in the Finder sidebar and hit Command-I to see yours.)
If this is set for the drive you place the apps on, all user accounts on your Mac will be able to read, run, and delete the apps. If this is not checked, then the normal Unix permissions apply, so you could allow all users to read and run the apps, but only the admin user to change or delete them, for example.
It depends on the application. Many applications may be installed anywhere. Some will even run from mounted disc image files. However, there are other applications that must be installed in the Applications folder. Still others can be installed anywhere, but are fully-functional only when installed in the Applications folder. In each case, it depends decisions made by the developer.
I didn't know that some applications require themselves to be located in the Applications folder.
You could always move the entire Applications folder and create an alias on the original drive to point to the new location.
You could always move the entire Applications folder and create an alias on the original drive to point to the new location.
I take that back. You don't want to create an Alias. You want to create a Symbolic link.
To do so you have to use terminal
If you don't want to move the whole folder you can just move the Applications you want. Like Adobe which is notoriously large.
I just moved my iTunes MobileSync folder (it's for you iPod/iPhone backups) and when I used the Alias iTunes couldn't see it. Making a Symbolic link fixed it. I've also done this when External drives failed and I had to make a new one. Creating a Symbolic link keeps you from having to remake your iPhoto/iTunes/Aperture etc libraries.
This is a link to my blog post for when I did it mid last year. http://psedog.com/Psedogs_Blog/Psedogs_Blog/Entries/2010/9/23_restoring_lost_links.html
To do so you have to use terminal
Code:
cd /
ln -s "/Volumes/new volume/Applications" ApplicationsIf you don't want to move the whole folder you can just move the Applications you want. Like Adobe which is notoriously large.
I just moved my iTunes MobileSync folder (it's for you iPod/iPhone backups) and when I used the Alias iTunes couldn't see it. Making a Symbolic link fixed it. I've also done this when External drives failed and I had to make a new one. Creating a Symbolic link keeps you from having to remake your iPhoto/iTunes/Aperture etc libraries.
This is a link to my blog post for when I did it mid last year. http://psedog.com/Psedogs_Blog/Psedogs_Blog/Entries/2010/9/23_restoring_lost_links.html