Copy folder structure without contents

Make a folder template that has nothing in it. Copy that template each year and use the copy.

Do you have room to duplicate the 2023 folder holding all of the files? If you do this will work:

1 - after duplicating the 2023 folder rename it 2024.

2 - open 2024 folder and click on the search button in the toolbar

3 - search for a period (.). All files have a period before the extension.

4 - do a Select All (⌘+A). This will select all files in the 2024 subfolders.

5- use the key combination of ⌘+Delete to move all of the selected files to the Trash.

6 - use the key combination of Shift+Command+Delete to empty the Trash.

It works quite easily and well.

Put the paths there. For example, if the folder is /Users/Shared/2023/:

cd "/Users/Shared/2023/"

find . -type d | while read dir; do mkdir -p "/Users/Shared/2024/$dir"; done

(248864)

Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal

cd "to the folder with the directory tree you want to clone"

find . -type d | while read dir; do mkdir -p "/new/path/$dir"; done

Before doing this for real, you may want to change the mkdir to echo, and look at the output to see if the new path information is correct. Then, put the mkdir back and go for it.

nickjb wrote:

Brilliant! Took 45 seconds, exactly what I was looking for. If I was doing this with Giga or Terrabytes of data, might be a different story, but with PDF's and other simple doc's, works perfectly!

Thank you and Happy New Year!!

Right back at you!

Actually, with APFS as the current file system on macOS, if you duplicate a file, it doesn’t actually take up any extra space in storage until it’s modified. If you had a 1TB file or directory and duplicate it, it will be duplicated instantly and your available storage space will not change. APFS will only save a new copy once there are differences in the files.

This was super helpful~ Thank you!