This is literally Priceless info and organization most every Mac user should know and use from day one!

best channel i've come across for mac users!! thanks

I am a longtime Windows user and this week I got my first MacBook Air. I am hooked to your channel and love it. thanks for making things so simple.

Gary, I'm really enjoying your videos, recently with the window manipulation topics. As for organization, some things I have long done are: 1) End a file name with the date so if I make a new version, it sorts chronologically, such as Filename 2021 02 04. 2) For previous folders, I usually name them Archive nn within a higher level folder. 3) For all folders, I end them with a two-digit year, so I can immediately see when I created the folder. Sometimes I'll then create a new folder of the same name but with a new year, such as Folder 21, to segregate it from the older info. 4) Sometimes I archive right within a current folder. For example, I'll create a folder Taxes for 2020. Inside are the files for 2020 such as 1099's and W-2's, plus the folders Taxes for 2019, Taxes for 2018, etc. 5) To help sanity, I have folders in email named similarly to the folders on my Mac, although not precisely also to help sanity.

About the section - Home User - Documents - Equipment Manuals. I have started keeping my manuals, whether an actual book or a PDF, in the Books app. I am a technical trainer by trade, between work and home, have hundreds of manuals, brochures, and the like. I started storing them in Books with different collections based upon topic, class, etc. So far, I am liking this method very much and will continue to tweak it as needed. My company uses PCs, and if I can work out how to seamlessly cast and teach from my Ipad, I will be G-T-G. :) P.S. I love the channel and am learning so much. Thank you.

Wow, what a clever person you are, I am in my seventies and, to be honest most of your videos are way over my head. This doesn’t stop me viewing them, I screen record the ones that I like best so that I can watch them many times. D S J England.

I am 75 and my memory is very poor. I think this video will help me. Thank you.

I totally agree about having an Empty desktop at all times. Been doing it this way literally for years now. I only have temporary screenshots and my external hard drives/devices on my desktop, all of which temporary.

Thank you so much. One thing I wanted to add is I often end files that have more than one version with an ending of _v1 and _v2. It's been helpful in maintaining multiple versions.

Good thing to continually consider, file organization. By far, the most important thing is a good filename for each file. Then, even if it is stuck in some obscure folder in an unorganized system, search will easily find it. But, with good filenames, you can considerably (and I mean CONSIDERABLY) simply the folder structure, thereby speeding up navigating to a file in finder since it will not be buried in a labyrinth of folders. That, plus using the various sorting/ordering functions makes it a snap to find a file.

Thank you for nice ideas on how to improve my files structure.

A great lesson I'm going to try "tagging" never used it before

I'm about to get a new iMac and thinking that I should reorganize my files. As I purchased new computers, I just migrated my original system over to the new computer, so I've got my work cut out for me. I'm determined to clean house. Thanks for this. Some great ideas.

Hi Gary... been watching your videos for a while now but just came across this one today. Anyway, I am a UI / Web / Graphic Designer / Illustrator. In one of my previous jobs where I worked with multiple designers, we had a file naming and numbering system that I have since adopted for me own. In that previous job, we had multiple clients that each had multiple projects so a numbering sub-system worked best for us. In my new role, I am the sole designer but work on multiple projects from web, social media and print. I've organized all the graphic files for my team in the following way: 00 - Archives ---- Archives sub-folder -------- Archive year 1 --------- Archive Year 2 01 - Company Logo Files ---- 00 Company Logo Archives ---- 01 Company Logo Assets ---- 02 Company Logo - Web ---- 03 Company Logo - Print ---- 04 Company Logo - Merchandise 02 - Company Social Media ---- 00 Company Social Media Archives ---- 01 January -------- 01 Social Media project 1 -------- 02 Social Media Project 2 ---- 02 February (The dashes aren't there. They are just to show the sub folder structure) For individual file names, sometimes I have to design multiple versions of something before the final is approved so a file name might look something like this: Name or project - sub name - Format_version_file type which would look something like this: [Name of Social Media Event] - Fall Forum - Twitter_v3.png

My computer is a mess and I can’t find anything. This video gave me some great ideas on how to get organized. Thank you!

I just switched from windows to a macbook and this is a life saver! Thank you so much

I do my organization differently. My docs are organized by year number and then month inside the year. That is in a folder called YEARS. I then use Smart Folders in another folder next to YEARS. This helps with organization by having my word processor app always create new documents in the current month. If I was writing g a document for a class (as an example) including the class title in the paper heading means it will automatically be grouped with the other docs for the same class (remember the Smart Folders).

Another extremely useful video, Gary. Speaking of organizing and optimizing, I know you’ve done several videos on the Apple photos app, but I’m very interested in collecting all my photos from Google Photos, random pics strewn around my Mac and Apple photos and making sure I have all of them in one place, ideally without any duplicates. I then intend to save them on an external SSD so I can save some money on iCloud storage. Is this something you’ve addressed in the past, and if not, would you consider it worth doing as a separate adjunct to today’s video on organizing files generally? Thanks.

Thank you sir I will spend a day and file everything in finder this looks like the easiest for me!

Nothing is set in stone. Well said. I agree completely.

For years, I never understood why I might ever want to “Make Alias” so in order to keep a file in two places I would “Duplicate” it ie copy it, the obvious disadvantage being that if I updated the original, the copy was not updated, and worse, I might not even remember that I’d ever made a copy that I ought to also update/replace! plus I was using up more hard drive storage space. Then I discovered “Make Alias” ! Bingo! Both problems solved!

Superb! I rarely make comments but this is so appropriate and related to the video description and title, it demands praise.

This video was oddly satisfying 😅 Your vides are the best, I feel I'm finally taking advantage of my Macbook.

I just discovered this channel. Your tutorials are just awesome, man! They've helped me a lot. Many thanks.

As a content creator I needed ideas on how to organize my files so I can repurpose them in the future and this gave me the idea I needed to do it. Thanks for sharing.

Your programs are so good , they are informative, sensible, unbiased, and from experience, brilliant

Thank you, especially since im a novice with my mac lol, you speak in simple language and even though I may play the video many times its ok because you make it simple enough that I can follow, now I just have to practice-thank you

I was tripping out looking at your home folder because my name is Gary too lol

This really helped me understand how to store and organize!

I don’t make a folder unless/until there is enough files in that category. I use an assortment of tags too and mostly have everything saved to the drive and offbosrded to a passport

Great content man.

So simple and full of sensible guidelines, a suggestion would be one on mail app

Moral of the story is to use a good amount of folders inside folders, and name all your folders and files appropriately.

Thank you so much for this video. You explain things so simply. I really appreciate you making this video. It has helped me so much!

I’m back, learning every day from you

Thanks again for another EXCELLENT video

I am using Hazel to sort my searchable PDF Scans into a defined folder structure, add tags semi automatically and also create sensible names.

Is there a way to get rid of duplicate documents and duplicate files? I have the nightmare of having saved similar docs and files (sometimes several times) and can’t tell if they’re identical, true duplicates, and can be trashed or which is most recent and should be saved. I don’t know where to start!

Love your videos. Keep up the good work this was great to just have playing in the background while I was organizing my MacBook.

Thank you for a very helpful video!

fantastic! Thank you

I like the way you organize YOUR files... greatest tips. Thanks Gary! That really helps me stay on the right track... your system makes perfect sense.

There must be more people like me who refuse to put important, personal docs on the cloud. Everything I have is on my own drives, the cloud is for hackers.

Great video!! Thanks for sharing!

How about a quick, step by step method for deleting or removing folders? It would help. Thanks.

I don't keep any files on my internal drive. The apps and the OS are all that's there. I've had too many problems with internal drives overheating and dying. So now I keep the internal simple. Given that, what is the downside to leaving files on the desktop? I tend to use the desktop as my to-do list or a work-in-progress folder selection. I like to see all the files in front of me, so that the names are clear and ready to remind me of urgency. If I file the folders away too quickly, they risk being forgotten. What are the downsides to letting folders and files accumulate on the desktop? Thank you!

Thank you so much Gary!

I just discovered your channel and find it really helpful, thank you!

Is it better to put stuff like photo library, albums etc into pictures? Should photo editing stuff including apps be in this.

Wow 🤩 I need to organize my Mac. It’s a mess. Thank you 🙏

I use the desktop as a 'to do list' of links, screenshots, etc. and it's a good system.

This channel is priceless!

Thank you so much

a beautiful system of organizing files. How can I go back to the file I was watching?

You are doing a great job. thank you very much

Great tips, I've been meaning to get more organized!

thank you so much for this on file organization. I'll have t0see it again. Can you tell me how to slow your speech just because I live in the South. The rest of the world has a different cadence. Thanks again, roberta

This is great because my files on my old mbp are so hazard and I hate that somehow I linked them into iCloud . Won’t be doing that on my new machine since I’ll use an external ssd.

Hey Gary, Enacaus sent me here

Hi just found your channel and love it. Had my macbook air for 4 years and still learning. Do you happen to have done a video on Bookmarking using the Mac. I have so much trouble when I want to bookmark things, I do a lot of research and have stuff all over the place?

Hi Gary, Is there a reason that you don’t save your photos in the document folder? I would think you would want them backed up, but if I understood you correctly you mentioned it was why you don’t store them there? Did I miss something on that?

Thank you so Mucha! 🙂

I would like to see you do a file organizer for DJ's in the music category, I have downloads of music that don't always go to my music app and can't tell which one is in the music and which is not. Also how to keep sound effects and dj drops separate from my music app

Thanks

Just watched your interview with Enacaus, you earned yourself a sub even tho I don't use macs. I subbed cuz' of your personality

I have used Mac for 15 years and just kept dumping the files from the old computers into the next model. Now I have a mess and a 80GB Documents folder. Your video gave me some good ideas. Can you refer to other videos that may help with files and syncing? I subscribed.

Hi Gary, I organize most of my files the same way, but on my Synology Server (which would eventually make sense for you, at least for archiving large files). The reason I put my files on the server, is the simple way to share documents with my family members. This would not be possible having all those documents only on my MBP!

Thank you, Gary! 👍🏻

I want my files organized exactly like they are on iCloud

One thing that bugs the crap out of me is that many apps decide they can put their utility folder/files in your Documents folder. So over time the apps utility folders are mingled with true documents. Is there any way to stop that? My solution has been to create a "-Docs" folder inside of the Documents folder and put that folder on the sidebar. I use the dash so that it sorts to the top in Documents. It works but it seems that it's an imposition. Seems to me there should be a system folder that is buried somewhere called "System Support" and all Mac app developers would use that by convention for their support folders and files.

In MacOS there is the problem (as in Windows) of file paths becoming too long, which then create problems in copying files or moving them? thanks

Hey Gary is there a way to organize all the content within a folder, be them individual files or subfolders with items themselves, to sort as name? When I press Command+J the sort option allows me to select sort by "name" but that only sorts the files within that folder, what my issue is some folders have subfolders which in turn also have items in them and its a pain to do each subfolder individually. So Im asking is there a command prompt or shortcut or terminal code so that I can sort Everything within a particular folder to "sort as name." Thank you for your help. Cheers

I like your videos because you explain so well. I am a new MacBook Air m1 user and do not know how to move files from one folder to another, nor make sub folders. Also, I prefer to save everything in external hard drives,not iCloud. In addition I downloaded the parallel desktop to have access to Word but I don’t know when I save where these docs will be saved because this computer automatically saves into iCloud. I want it to save to you external hard drive, can you make video on these topics please ? Thank you in advance

Great Job!!!!!!

Hi Gary, if you happen to read this. How do we create "Smart Folder" that automatically contain all (in your example) the "tagged invoices" - do we have to do it manually or there is short cut? Thanks - new fan from Malaysia

hey man I wanna ask so basically to switch tab forward is ctrl + tab my question. how to change ctrl + tab into an easier shortcut keys

How do you know where the folders are saving things to? You mentioned photos are saved to your hard-drive, but documents are saved on icloud? where do you see that...

I don't keep files on my desktop, but I do keep an alias to folders I use often.

Excellent! Very helpful. I'm struggling right now (the perfectionist!). Still not sure how Music file works. Doesn't storing on hd take up space on computer? Wouldn't you rather have it in iCloud? What about back up?

Great video! Was wondering if you know an easy way to only transfer new files onto mac, instead of all files (which might duplicate). For example say i download 1000 jpegs from an sd card to a backup folder on mac or external drive, and then a month later i have 500 new pix on the same sd card- is there an easy way to only import the “new” 500 files without needing to manually check and sort out which files are new and which were already imported into the backup folder in the first round? Thanks so much for the help and awesome content!

I’m trying to use Smart Folder to find duplicate files But I can’t seem to get the Document Container filter to function correctly

Cool video

Great info Gary!! Is there a way to automatically number your files in Automator to organize your files with a numeric value at the beginning? (ie. 1 - Personal, 2 - Business, etc. with the respective subfolders appearing like 1.1 - Health, 1.2 - Personal Growth, etc. so that each sub folder is its own decimal point?)

man, thank you a lot for doing what you do. could you explain how do you make picture in picture videos like that?

Hi Gary, want to ask, how do I retrieve or add info between 2 different file numbers. I'm running a small business, so putting all the information in one file would be too large in memory. So I thought it could link to another file. do you have a tutorial about it? thank you..

This video seems to be about coming up with ways to organize by making a chronological file system with names and folders and that is great, however, it doesn't give the details as to where to relocate things and how to reorganize the mess that I accidentally created. I am new to using mac ios and I accidentally moved everything (all files) to my desktop. I fear everything may be on my desktop. I need help! I am not sure of the best route on how to fix this. To minimize the chaos on my desktop, I discovered the stacking ability which has helped temporarily, until I find a real solution. I have no idea how I did this, but my computer is now in chaos mode and majorly disorganized with a ton of duplicates throughout. How do I get rid of the duplicates created from downloads, documents, desktop, iCloud, and memory stick? Yes, I am computer illiterate with Mac and need to learn quickly how to undo this mess without losing my files. How do I reorganize this chaotic computer mess that's all on my desktop? Is there a built-in program that I can click to reorganize it for me and place everything where it is supposed to be? There are far too many files for me to do it manually. How do I get these files to be placed in the appropriate places? For example, get all of my photos placed on my local hard drive and all of my document files placed on my iCloud drive? Where are all these "download files " being automatically placed? Are they on my iMac or using all of my iCloud space? This is what started the entire confusion and mess from the beginning. I began seeing far too many duplicate files and I wanted to minimize it, but Mac is set up differently than Microsoft. Yes, I realize I have a huge learning curve in front of me, however, your guidance would greatly be appreciated!

Gary . . . great video's, many thanks . . . I am/was a PC user since early 90's . . . love my new Macbook Pro . . . question for you . . in PC land when I wanted to save a doc/etc I would select save as, browse files and then select the sub/sub file for example I wanted to put the doc in . . . it might look something like this . . . "Documents . . . Innovation . . . .Portfolio Management . . . . Product Type" and then save it to "Product Type" . . . likely I must be doing something wrong or missing something on my Mac as when I select 'Save As" it just give me the choice of "Documents" and a few other things but does not appear to allow me to find a sub file or a sub sub sub file . . . how can I select "Save As" with my MacBook and get to the file / sub files I want to put something in? Many thanks as I have been looking for the answer to this on Google but I don't seem to be finding anything to it

How come I dont see my documents folder like yours here, and when I try to create one it says that theres already one there...

Is there an advantage or reason you use txt files (for notes and podcast description information) instead of Pages files In your Business Macmost Podcasts folder?

Gary, I'm a composer and i need your help. On 2/12/21 i transferred my phone data to my mac laptop via smart switch. Long story short, when I finished I did an All My Files double save. Mistake! It pulled some of the data out of my desktop folders. I use digital performer software and numerous songs now have analog, mp3 and wave files data removed from them. All this data is now churned up in the All My Files location now. How do I get it back to the original folders? Thanks

There is a Music App on Mac. There is also a Music folder on Mac. I have downloaded (not bought) music files on my Mac. Where should I store these? Until now I keep them on my desktop for easy access.

Very helpful video! I have created (on paper) an organization plan to use. But I've got a gazillion files that I need to quickly view and sort to those newly created folders. Any advice? (Would like to view a file and then delete, sort to file, etc).

Wait, how do u get your OS and document listing to look like that in the first place???? Mines small and grey and looks out dates

LOL. just for starters I have 12 folders on the desktop. yikes! I need help

how do you choose which are going to the icloud folder and what not? i have the desktop in the cloud, so i access the folders in my mac, iphone, ipad. it's very convenient. but then i am storing too much data in the cloud? please explain...

Why not have folders on the desktop? I have load, nicely arranged, easily accessible, folders within folders. No good if you had masses but I have a lot and it's highly organised and there in front of me!!!

I’ve got a bunch of old pictures (jpg-files) which I categorize using tags. But since I have experienced that some of the tags sometimes disappear from some of the files for no reason at all, I wonder if tagging of the files really is worth the effort. So, just a question, is it only me, or does anyone know if the tagging feature in MacOS Finder have a known vulnerability?

I arrange all of my files on my desktop in the graphical formation of an egg. This might sound crazy - but hear me out. I place the most frequently used (and smallest file size) files on the outside of the egg. This creates a sort of metaphorical "shell" protecting the precious larger files contained within (will get to that in a moment). The outer files are very quick to access and remain quite visible at all times. The "deeper cuts" (internet movies, drawings in high DPI and alphabetised lists of my CD collection in text format) are contained within the centre of the egg. These yolky gems are physically harder to access, but that's fine; the egg keeps them safe. I utilise multiple 3D layering to keep extremely important files well hidden within the centre of the egg. The act of rummaging through these central files serves as a deterrent to any would-be-wannabe-hackers, but I know full and well that they are there. While we're on the subject of cybersecurity, here's a tip: I rename all of my CRITICAL apps based on the egg/breakfast metaphor. For example Photoshop is now "FryingPan CS3". This might be for my own amusement but I like to think of the apps cooking the metaphorical ingredients (the files) from within my egg (the file structure on the desktop).

My finder folder does not look like yours. It has Library, Applications, Recents, Downloads Pictures, as well as Desktop, deleted users, airdrop. How can I simplify mine to work more like your?

With years of documents and pictures...years of "everything" all over the place. I am about to embark on organizing my stuff. (No more desktop dumping or folders that say "go through and organize" 🤣- never works. Besides documents, I have a lot of pictures from my card-crafting hobby. Your video has inspired me. Before I begin to organize and pull certain items from iCloud I have a question. Does it make sense or rather would it be a good idea for me to create a Folder in Documents that is Called CardCraft Documents? Thus everything connected to that hobby can be stored in just one place? I could set a new finder window to open that particular folder? My organizational skills need a lot of work/help. lol