How to *move*, not copy, files from a USB or network drive to local
There is no 'move' command in Finder. Have to copy, and then delete. What am I missing?
There is no 'move' command in Finder. Have to copy, and then delete. What am I missing?
Command key while dragging to another volume: Move the dragged item to the other volume, instead of copying it.
Mac keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support
Command key while dragging to another volume: Move the dragged item to the other volume, instead of copying it.
Mac keyboard shortcuts - Apple Support
footofwrath wrote:
Oh right. Yeah that works heh. Any way to do it without having to open additional FInder windows?
How are you trying to do it with one? Spring-loaded folders would be a possibility.
I guess you can copy, then open the other window, then paste while holding down the Option key, but that's pretty much the same as opening additional finder windows.
The mv command in macOS Terminal session?
footofwrath wrote:
Oh right. Yeah that works heh. Any way to do it without having to open additional FInder windows?
You have to see the source and the destination. Then again the destination could be the Desktop. Or a folder on the Dock, or a Folder icon on the Desktop.
FYI, I'm personally always cautious using a Move when transferring items between different volumes like a network share (or even different local drives), especially large amounts of data. If the Move operation is interrupted, many times both the source & destination files are lost.
Sometimes Finder will open a tree-like structure and there I can of course see every folder on the local drive. Since I can drag to another window, it seems obvious to be able to drag also within the *same* window.
Oh I just tried that.. it does work. Now I'm wondering why it didn't seem to work before. hmmm.
This seems like a bug. That suggests that the system is copying the file to memory, deleting the file, and then (or simultaneously) copying the data to the destination. Techniques can vary of course but there is 0 sense in doing it this way - disk is much cheaper than memory, and you're doing two reads and two writes instead of one of each plus a delete - which you also have.
Anyway I've not found this to be the case actually. A few times I've had my moves crash (another issue I have) and as far as I can tell the result is duplicated files, rather than missing ones (including complete whole [usable] files) so it seems sometimes the final delete after copying is actually failing - which is also strange.
If you are moving files between different mounted file systems, then the default is to copy, not move.
The mv command I mentioned above will move a file if it is on the same file system (create a new directory entry and remove the old directory entry, while the file stays where it is on-disk. But if the move is to a different file system, then mv will copy the file, and remove the old file once the copy is complete.
Again if there are 2 file systems involved, there are tricks you can play in the Finder to get a move, but it is more of a select the file, Command-C, to to the destination folder on the different file system, then Command-Option-V to move, rather than copy the file.
1 file system, move is easy. 2 file systems, and move becomes much more complex.
+1
Oh right. Yeah that works heh. Any way to do it without having to open additional FInder windows?
How to *move*, not copy, files from a USB or network drive to local