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.
OS X: How to "move" files in finder without it duplicating?
- Thread starter ET iPhone Home
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Hello,
Regarding moving files and not copying them, holding down the command key does not work and if I select a folder, the cut command is grayed out and is not not an option. Now what?
Last edited by a moderator:
OP, where you able to figure this out? @NewbieCanada explained what you needed to do and also gave a pretty good explanation the folder structure.
Welcome to the world of Apple and thinking different!
Same as with the other variants: First Right-click mouse to select "Copy" your item, and then when you go to do a Right-click to "Paste" where ever you're going to paste it, just hit Option, and that "Paste" will turn into a "Move Item Here". Thanks to the original poster. I never knew about this before.
I had the same problem. I noticed after an update I couldn't grab several files and drag them to the top bar and scroll through the whole desktop to find the folder I wanted to put them in. I would drag them to the top bar and nothing would happen. I discovered by chance that if I click on all files then click and hold on one, then drag it a bit and switch from scrolling with one finger to using two fingers I was able to scroll through my entire folder (desktop or whatever folder, pictures etc.) Hope this helps.
[d
Last edited:
Hold CMD key while you drag, if on an external source it moves, so the CMD key overrides the default, which is normally to copy to external.
When you hold the CMD key it just de-selects the file you are hovering over. If you aren't hovering over a file then it just drag selects whatever you drag the arrow over. This doesn't work for moving files for me at all.
That is odd, I tested before I posted. Could be sequencing. I select a file, start dragging it then press the CMD key And hold the CMD key until the file is in the destination location then I release the CMD key and the mouse or trackpad ...
Perhaps something was configured differently on your machine.
Thats good old Mac for you. Every time there is an update something changes. Sometimes big things sometimes small, then it is a guessing game. I noticed this time you mentioned having to drag the file before hitting the CMD key. I tried it and still no go. It wont scroll through the screen for me this way and as soon as I move my finger off the track pad it flies back to its original position on the screen. Lets hope that at least one of our solutions works for everyone struggling with this. Ha ha!
On a side note I am running Sierra 10.12.3
You can use ⌘C (cmd-C) then activate the window where you want to move the files, and press ⌥⌘V (option-cmd-V) to move them.
If you select the files then click the Edit menu, Copy is the menu item name for ⌘C. At the destination window, click the Edit menu and then press the ⌥ (OPTION) key, I think you'll see a menu item name change to Move.
The ⌥⌘V key sequence is noted at the following reference, under the heading "Finder shortcuts", which starts about halfway down the page:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236
SHIFT + COMMAND does it for me. Hold and drag whatever file and it won'r leave a copy.
Thank you, after your 5th eye-rolling reply, I finally saw the "option" and figured it out. Brilliant!
if you move any item on mac you can easy do the following ;-
1- select items you need to move;
2- press (command C )
3- finally press (command alt V)
thank you
1- select items you need to move;
2- press (command C )
3- finally press (command alt V)
thank you