Before you use the Finder to sync content to your iOS or iPadOS device, consider using iCloud, Apple Music, or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. This way, you can access your music, photos, and more on your devices when you aren't near your computer. Learn more about using Apple Music or iCloud Photos instead of the Finder.

See all your devices on a map. Is your iPad at home or back at the office? Use the map to get a full. When you call up the Finder Search Window, it makes Finder the active app. From there, you can press Command+N to open a regular Finder window. If you want to go the extra mile, you can use a third-party shortcut manager, such as Quicksilver or Spark, to create a keyboard shortcut that will open a normal Finder window.

If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up to date across all of your devices, some syncing features through the Finder might be turned off.

What can you sync with the Finder

• Albums, songs, playlists, movies, TV shows, podcasts, books, and audiobooks.
• Photos and videos.
• Contacts and calendars.

Sync or remove content using the Finder

1. Open a Finder window and connect your device to your computer using a USB cable. If you connect your device to your computer with a USB cable and your computer doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod, learn what to do.
2. Your device appears in the sidebar of the Finder window. Click the device to select it.
3. If prompted, trust your device.
4. Select the type of content that you want to sync or remove. To turn syncing on for a content type, select the checkbox next to Sync.
5. Select the checkbox next to each item that you want to sync.
   
6. Click the Apply button in the lower-right corner of the window. If syncing doesn't start automatically, click the Sync button.

* You can only sync your device with one Apple Music or Apple TV library at a time. If you see a message that your device is synced with another Apple Music or Apple TV library, your device was previously connected to another computer. If you click 'Erase and Sync' in that message, all content of the selected type on your device will be erased and replaced with content from this computer.

Sync your content using Wi-Fi

After you set up syncing with the Finder using USB, you can set up the Finder to sync to your device with Wi-Fi instead of USB.

1. Connect your device to your computer with a USB cable, then open a Finder window and select your device.
2. Select “Show this [device] when on Wi-Fi.'
3. Click Apply.

When the computer and the device are on the same Wi-Fi network, the device appears in the Finder. The device syncs automatically whenever it's plugged in to power.

Get help

• Learn how to sync content with iTunes.
• Learn what to do if you see an error when you try to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
• Learn how to redownload items that you purchased on another device.
• Learn how to import photos and videos to your computer.

The Finder is the first thing that you see when your Mac finishes starting up. It opens automatically and stays open as you use other apps. It includes the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen and the desktop below that. It uses windows and icons to show you the contents of your Mac, iCloud Drive, and other storage devices. It's called the Finder because it helps you to find and organize your files.

Open windows and files

To open a window and see the files on your Mac, switch to the Finder by clicking the Finder icon (pictured above) in the Dock. Switching to the Finder also reveals any Finder windows that might be hidden behind the windows of other apps. You can drag to resize windows and use the buttons to close , minimize , or maximize windows. Learn more about managing windows.

When you see a document, app, or other file that you want to open, just double-click it.

Change how your files are displayed

To change how files are displayed in Finder windows, use the View menu in the menu bar, or the row of buttons at the top of the Finder window. You can view files as icons , in a list , in columns , or in a gallery . And for each view, the View menu provides options to change how items are sorted and arranged, such as by kind, date, or size. Learn more about customizing views.

When you view files in a gallery, you can browse your files visually using large previews, so it's easy to identify images, videos, and all kinds of documents. Gallery View in macOS Mojave even lets you play videos and scroll through multipage documents. Earlier versions of macOS have a similar but less powerful gallery view called Cover Flow .

Gallery View in macOS Mojave, showing the sidebar on the left and the Preview pane on the right.

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Use the Preview pane

The Preview pane is available in all views by choosing View > Show Preview from the menu bar. Or press Shift-Command (⌘)-P to quickly show or hide the Preview pane.

macOS Mojave enhances the Preview pane in several ways:

• More information, including detailed metadata, can be shown for each file. This is particularly useful when working with photos and media, because key EXIF data, like camera model and aperture value, are easy to locate. Choose View > Preview Options to control what information the Preview pane can show for the kind of file selected.
• Quick Actions let you easily manage or edit the selected file.

Use Quick Actions in the Preview pane

With Quick Actions in macOS Mojave, you can take actions on a file without opening an app. Quick Actions appear at the bottom of the Preview pane and vary depending on the kind of file selected.

• Rotate an image
• Mark up an image or PDF
• Combine images and PDFs into a single PDF file
• Trim audio and video files

To manage Quick Actions, click More , then choose Customize. macOS Mojave includes a standard set of Quick Actions, but Quick Actions installed by third-party apps also appear here. You can even create your own Quick Actions using Automator.

Use Stacks on your desktop

macOS Mojave introduces Stacks, which lets you automatically organize your desktop into neat stacks of files, so it's easy to keep your desktop tidy and find exactly what you're looking for. Learn more about Stacks.

The sidebar in Finder windows contains shortcuts to AirDrop, commonly used folders, iCloud Drive, devices such your hard drives, and more. Like items in the Dock, items in the sidebar open with just one click.

To change the items in your sidebar, choose Finder > Preferences from the Finder menu bar, then click Sidebar at the top of the preferences window. You can also drag files into or out of the sidebar. Learn more about customizing the sidebar.

Search for files

To search with Spotlight, click the magnifying glass in the menu bar, or press Command–Space bar. Spotlight is similar to Quick Search on iPhone or iPad. Learn more about Spotlight.

To search from a Finder window, use the search field in the corner of the window:

When you select a search result, its location appears at the bottom of the window. To get to this view from Spotlight, choose “Show all in Finder” from the bottom of the Spotlight search results.

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In both Spotlight and Finder, you can use advanced searches to narrow your search results.

Delete files

To move a file to the Trash, drag the file to the Trash in the Dock. Or select one or more files and choose File > Move To Trash (Command-Delete).

To remove a file from the Trash, click the Trash to open it, then drag the file out of the Trash. Or select the file and choose File > Put Back.

To delete the files in the Trash, choose File > Empty Trash. The storage space used by those files then becomes available for other files. In macOS Sierra, you can set up your Mac to empty the trash automatically.