OS X: Move Files Instead of Copying

Contributor Icon Contributed by davak Date Icon September 5, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Apple Mac  

You do not have to copy and then delete when moving files on your apple box. Here is how to do it all with one command. This tutorial describes how to drag and drop to move a file from one location to another.


When copying files from one location to another, I have always found it an annoying process to drag the files to one location and then go back and delete them from the original location.

The default drag and drop process in OS X is to COPY files.

We want to be able to MOVE files.

To MOVE a file is to actually copy files to a new location and to delete them from the original location.

OS X will move the file if you hold the CMD key while you drag and drop.

One caveat:

Something that confuses people is what happens if duplicate files are found during the move drag and drop. If you release the CMD key to answer the dialog box that appears, the file will be copied but not moved. If you continue to hold the CMD key as you click the Replace button, the move action will be completed.

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  • Boo

    I have a MacBook Pro laptop – there aint NO CMD key!
    It's so damned frustrating using a MAC!

  • http://blogs.tech-recipes.com/davak/ davak

    The CMD key is the Apple key.

    this key: ⌘

    or this key: 

  • B0B

    This doesnt work!!! I press CMD then click on the file I want to move then put it over the folder I want it in and all it does is make a shortcut for the file, when I want to move the file.

  • Timmy

    it does work ! it moves the files very quicky

  • loppan

    works fine for me. thanks for the info.

  • allison

    click with the mouse first..then hit the CMD key..

  • Pete

    Doesn't work for me. Has anyone else been able to get this to work when copying from an external HD to the internal mac drive? What about from an NTFS partitioned drive? This is sad, I've been a computer programmer for 10 years and now i'm online trying to learn how to cut and paste files :)

  • Pete

    Just found this link regarding a bug in Leopard with moving files from external drives, thought someone else might find it useful to know:
    http://www.macintouch.com/leopard/movebug.html

  • Jim

    Frustrating indeed.

    Using Leopard, this method seems to work with NOT the “list” view, but only (and perfectly) with the multi-pane “column” view.

    Thanks for the “recipe” and the comments. This should reduce my AI (Aggravation Index) for today. But there's always tomorrow. : )

    Corporatelab

  • Markus

    Another frustrating thing is: if you want to move several files at once and those files contain (write)protected files. In this case you won't be able to move the files at all.

    That may also be the case, if you want to move files from a NTFS Volume/Partition…depending on whether there is working write-support for the NTFS file system or not. Afaik you can't write on NTFS Volumes with the tools of OSX alone but there are commercial software packages which can help you with this (http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/)

  • Mani

    It was very useful for a new Mac user migrating from Win, Thanx.

  • Reuben

    Thanks – works beautifully on MBP 2006 OS X 10.5.8

  • Reuben

    Thanks – works beautifully on MBP 2006 OS X 10.5.8

  • Ben

    It wouldn't move folders for me this way just files so I wrote a applescript. Paste this it script editor.

    on run

    tell application “Finder”

    set theSource to choose folder with prompt “Source”
    set theDestination to choose folder with prompt “Destination”

    move items of theSource to theDestination

    end tell

    end run

  • CJ

    Haha. This made me laugh. When I tried to connect my wireless keyboard, it said type in the code and press enter. I kept waiting for the dialog box with the little white blank we're all used to. But NO. They meant it literally. Type. In. The. Code. And. Press. Enter. I've been a programmer for 20 years and I had to go to the Mac store to learn this. Embarrassing, really.

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