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canadia Author

Level 1

10 points

Cut & Paste in Finder

Can somebody explain how to use cut and paste in macOS Sierra? I'm new to the Mac and used to things like working shortcuts and menu options. On Ubuntu the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl-X to cut, Ctrl-V to paste. Or right-click in the finder and choose "Cut" or "Paste" as needed.

I'm trying to move a folder of music files from ~/Music to ~/Downloads. It's just plain old music files. I created them and have all the permissions.

On my iMac and MacBook the usual cut and paste methods don't work at all. Command-X gives a bing-bing sound, right-click gives a greyed-out menu with Cut and Paste made inaccessible.

Is there a secret or trick to making it cut and paste or am I doomed to copy/paste and delete every time I want to move a folder or file?

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS Sierra (10.12), null

Posted on Sep 30, 2016 10:20 AM

Top-ranking reply

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,184 points

Posted on Apr 14, 2017 6:39 AM

the file goes below that folder and all of its contents. If I double-click on the folder to open it in another window, then the file goes into that folder like I wanted.

What you got is exactly as Barney-15E explained. The open folder is the one where the paste goes. It would be nice if the OS were smart enough to realize if you highlight a folder within an open folder, that's where you want the paste to go, but that's not the way Apple's engineers have it set up.

You can request an OS change or enhancement by providing feedback. No guarantee anything will happen, but at least they'll know.

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18 replies

Nov 1, 2016 12:43 PM in response to canadia

I found the answer on another thread. Copy files with cmd-c as usual and then use cmd-alt-v to move the copied file to the new location.

Nov 1, 2016 1:38 PM in response to canadia

Not sure if you have this sorted but using Terminal can be very powerful when wanting to move files around. Simply open Terminal (in Application, Utilities) and write the following amending to your needs:

mv ~/Music/folder_to_move ~/Downloads/

Hope this is helpful.

Cronist

Level 1

4 points

Feb 1, 2017 2:01 PM in response to canadia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=842ddJSpILw

Cut & Paste in Finder