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i have Seriously Nested Folder Heirarchy Syndrome (SNFHS) sometimes and i would like a tool that will let me manage this condition by extracting all the files from any particular parent folder and all subfolders.
is there a balm for this condition in the form of an app or script even if i won't cure it?
TIA
Open the parent folder and type Command + F. Select Kind = Document. That should display a list of all files in the folder and sub folders.
You can then select all and drag them to a single designated folder.
Open the parent folder and type Command + F. Select Kind = Document. That should display a list of all files in the folder and sub folders.
You can then select all and drag them to a single designated folder.
I know this thread is a few years old but I read through it and felt compelled to reply. I had an SMS folder from my iphone that contained over 1,000 pictures. The folder had literally 500 sub folders. It would've taken me hours to sort it. I thought there might have been an application I could get to sort it. I was almost willing to pay for such app but a simple google search brought me here. Your solution worked PERFECTLY and showed me I had no need for any app outside of my Mac's own finder. The fact that the OP of this thread couldn't figure out your instructions and had the temerity to accuse you of giving bad advice is comical. You tell him how to open a file in finder and he thinks "this thread almost trashed my system." LOL You said nothing about trashing anything. Well that's about it. Your advice was extremely helpful and the OP is the one who owes you an apology if any apology was required.
hi OT.
not to sound cranky here but i think it is really bad form to give advice and then assume that someone has run a backup prior to attempting the suggestion. i mean, i am not ungrateful for the help on the list but this is probably a good time to remind everyone of the importance of being scrupulous about verifying that a backup has recently occurred.
i probably could have thought of this myself so it is a good reminder for me as well!
regards.
Open the parent folder
That was my first statement. I assumed you would know which was the parent folder you were referring to. If you had done that and then typed Command + F the top would have shown this:
As for checking your backup at some point you're going to have to take responsibility for your own actions or, in this case, inactions. If making sure the backup was good is so important now why didn't you do it without having to be reminded?
hi OT.
oh gosh, i think i just made a big mistake here.
is there a way to undo this operation?
there is something really sort of confusing about this (i am on ML at the moment) in that the FINDER window that gets opened up just says "searching This Mac" at the top and then it shows "Search: This Mac | All My Files" in the top just under the title of the window. i mean, there does not appear to be any way to determine that i am actually searching this one folder that i opened that is on my desktop /except/ by assuming that it was the window that was in fact open when i ran CMD + F.
am i missing something here or do you know what i mean? i mean, if i happened to accidentally click on another open finder window before running CMD + F there would be no way for me to know that i was about to move a bajillion files from the wrong folder. - or god forbid all my documents from THIS MAC or something?
i just went back to look to check the folder that i moved everything to just in case and i am actually thinking that i have made a big mistake while time machine is off...
can you help?
- jon
that is an admirably elegant and measured response. Sir, 1000 blessings on your head, I bought an iXpand thumb drive to take some videos and photos off my phone, but the drive has a nested fold structure, with one folder per month, so it's very difficult to double-check that every photo/video is indeed backed up before deleting them, and I didn't even know if there was a way to display them all in one list, like the All Photos folder on an iPhone but by God there is, and what an beautifully simple solution, thanks to you ! Not only that, but it will also be very handy for my OSX Photos app backups, (and old Time Machine backups) since they too have the nested folder structure by default. No doubt that structure has advantages but it has always felt counter-intuitive to me, so I'm overjoyed to have a found an easy way around it. Have a great day Mr Toad !!!!! 🙂
hi OT. i was trying to reply to make sure i understood what i just did because it was a tad confusing in the UI. is there something totally messed up if you try this with a folder on the desktop or something? i ran CMD + F and then pulled down to documents and i think i just moved all my documents from somewhere /else/ and CMD + Z is not running an undo...
You are searching all of the file on your Mac's hard drive.
You haven't moved any files yet, have you? Just close that window. Then open the parent folder manually and try again. Be sure the folder name you're searching is highlighted next to This Mac before starting.
i just moved them all and i have 4000 files in this folder and no undo worked.
i just got in there and started sorting but i just ran into my PVM file which is 70 GB and is for my virtual machine.
i am certain i just hosed this this big time but it is not possible that i moved all the documents on my hard drive to this one folder so i have absolutely no idea what i just did...
not a good day on the computer today
yeah, the name of the folder does not highlight and AFAIK it has never highlighted. i don't know if this is an issue when doing this from a folder on the desktop though.
anyone remember where my pvm file goes?
if i put that back i only have 3 GB of miscellanous and now sorted files to put back.
also, anyone have any ideas where these files came /from/?
i can't tell if they came randomly somehow from folders on my desktop, from my dropbox, or what but if it picked up a pvm file it sure must have been doing something somewhere….
ach. this was a nightmare.
with all due respect i seriously suggest not recommending this to others and if you do to advise them to "MAKE SURE THE FOLDER YOU WANT TO UNCOLLAPSE IS LISTED IN FINDER". i say this in part because i have never found this search function to work very well in Mountain Lion and even in this case it is unclear as to what i exactly did.
i think i have this under control but does anyone know what may have happened here based upon the screenshot?
i /seem/ to have moved a large number of files from my dropbox but i also move my pvm file from the Parallels folder in my Documents folder. additionally there seems to be a decent number of email attachments that got moved.
in all i can't quite tell what i did by attempting this and beyond not doing it again it could be helpful to get a handle on what happened. that said, this find feature in Finder in Mountain Lion has always behaved squirrelly in my opinion so i never use it...
What was bad about the advise. You wanted a way to extract all files, image files, from a folder and it's subfolders. I gave you that. The fact that you selected the wrong parent folder is called user error. And the fact that you don't have some sort of a backup is your responsibility. I'm sorry it happened but the suggestion I gave you was good.
where to start? stop and think about this for a minute.
first off, you gave me advice to use finder to move all files from a folder - whereas the other poster suggested i use terminal commands - and the very real result of this suggestion for /anyone/ including expert users is to not catch and/or not see and/or not understand what is being searched in what by any stretch of the imagination is a visually un-intuitive Finder interface for the Search Function. the logical consequence of not catching this is to catastrophically move files - with potentially no option to UNDO - or tellingly at least no advice to make sure to run an Undo if it screws up for some reason...
for instance, my Finder Find interface right now shows This Mac, All My Files, and Shared.
then you blithely suggest that i should restore from the backup that i ran prior to attempting this. what's wrong with my telling you to STRONGLY SUGGEST to someone that they verify their backup before they run this when you suggest it? what is wrong with your STRONGLY SUGGESTING they verify that they MAKE SURE the folder they are searching shows up in the top left of the Finder window when they attempt this for the first time? why not recommend running an Undo immediately after trying this if it runs for a very long time or appears like it didn't perform as needed?
also - if your advice doesn't work on the other end i would think that you would want to try to figure out and/or want to get to the bottom of why it wasn't working instead of just blaming user error or assigning responsibility for my backups or simply saying your advice "was good".
i just ran your suggestion /again/ on a folder on my desktop and two folder in my documents folder and in all three cases Finder defaulted to searching THIS MAC. in fact, i've never found Finder to get me a search in this manner of the folder i am actually in so i have never really used it from Finder. maybe this is something peculiar to my OS or my install or maybe it is due to Preference settings of some other issue i have no idea.
but again, this isn't really about the fact that i followed the advice and it created a tremendous problem almost trashing my install. what i am suggesting is that you alter your advice in this case so it doesn't end catastrophically for someone else...
OK. again, your recommendation was to open the parent folder and type CMD + F. in my case this does not bring up the image you show as i indicated in my last post (it brings up This Mac, All My Files and Shared as i have indicated). so again, i am going to recommend that you advise others as i have indicated in my follow up post. since you've been very helpful in a pretty reliable way i am not sure why you would be resistant to advising others in this manner in the future.
i mean, for those following the danger here is to trash your system to a point of - well - being trashed.
i think you are being a little passive aggressive with the discussion on backups so i am not going to respond except to say that i think the original advice to "Restore your hard drive from the backup copy made prior to this happening" was in itself putting the proverbial cart before the horse. what i am saying is that IF you think you may need to advise someone to restore from a backup, any clown would advise that the recipient of their advise should make sure they have a backup prior to taking the advice. also, for a lot of us who do a lot of work at any particular time - restoring from a backup is not a simple matter and should not be treated as cavalierly as i think you are treating it.
futhermore - IF you didn't think you would need to advise me to restore from my backup after taking your advice then i am telling you now that you need to do so in the future if you are going to continue with this kind of suggestion.
everything else on this thread is just words so i will reiterate the facts.
1. following your advice on this thread almost trashed my system.
2. it is highly advisable to advise others to make sure they have a backup prior to issuing advice that almost trashed the system of a previous recipient of this advice.
3. don't treat restoring from a backup cavalierly (it is not).
if you continue to insist that your advice was good on this thread and that somehow i didn't follow it correctly then i would advise others to be very cautious of any future suggestions you might have...
somehow i find it interesting that after almost having my system trashed - five days later i am advising you as to a good way to help others in the future - and instead of asking any questions you continue to issue advice on this thread and tell me why your advice was correct….
Extract all files from Parent Folder and Subfolders
