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See and organize your files in the Finder on Mac

The Finder is the home base for your Mac. The Finder icon looks like a blue smiling face; click the icon in the Dock to open a Finder window.

A blue arrow pointing to the Finder icon at the left side of the Dock.

You use Finder windows to organize and access almost everything on your Mac.

A Finder window with the Finder sidebar on the left. At the top left of the window are four buttons that you click to change the way you view items in the Finder window. To the right, are two buttons that you click to share or tag selected files.

See your stuff

Click items in the Finder sidebar to see your files, apps, downloads, and more. To make the sidebar even more useful, customize it. To make the Finder window even more useful, show the Preview pane.

Or, ask Siri to help you find what you want.

Ask Siri. Say something like:

“Show me all the files called Expenses”
“Show me files tagged red”
“Show me files that are PDFs”

Access everything, everywhere

Use iCloud Drive to automatically store your Desktop and Documents files and folders in iCloud. You can access them on any Mac where you’re signed in with the same Apple ID.

Organize with folders or tags

If you like organizing your files in folders, you can do that. It’s easy to create new folders in your Documents folder, on the desktop, or in iCloud Drive.

You can also tag files and folders with helpful keywords to make them easier to find.

Keep your messy desktop clean

Stacks helps you keep files organized in tidy groups on the desktop. You can group stacks by kind, date, or tags. When you group by kind, all your images go in one stack, presentations in another, and so on. Any new files you add go immediately to the correct stack—helping you keep everything in order automatically.

Choose your view

You can choose how you view the items in Finder windows. For example, you don’t have to view your items in a list—Gallery view lets you flip through your files and folders visually.

Send it with AirDrop

You can send a file to a nearby Mac, iPhone, or iPad right from the Finder. Click AirDrop in the sidebar to get started. See Use AirDrop to send files to devices near you.

You can also select a file in the Finder, then click the Share button (or use the Touch Bar) to share it using Mail, AirDrop, Messages, Notes, and more.

Sync information between your Mac and other devices

You can connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac to transfer and update items between devices.

For example, when you add a movie to your Mac, you can sync with your iPhone and watch the movie on both devices.

You can sync items including music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and more. See About syncing your Mac and your devices.

Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly get things done

You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly perform common actions. See Mac keyboard shortcuts.