everyday mac tools

Make Finder open to the folder you use instead of Recents

· 5 min read

Finder opens new windows to Recents unless you tell it otherwise. To change it, click the desktop so Finder is in front, choose Finder, Settings (Command-Comma), click General, and pick a folder from the “New Finder windows show” menu. Choose Other at the bottom of that menu to use any folder you like, such as a projects folder.

That one setting decides what you see after Command-N, and when you click Finder in the Dock with no windows open. A handful of related settings decide how that window behaves once it is there, and they are worth setting at the same time.

Change the starting folder

  1. Click the desktop or any Finder window so Finder is the active app.
  2. Choose Finder, Settings, or press Command-Comma.
  3. Click General.
  4. Open “New Finder windows show” and pick your home folder, Desktop, Documents or iCloud Drive, or choose Other and browse to any folder.
  5. Close the settings window and press Command-N to check.

Pick a folder that is always present. A folder on an external drive or a network share cannot open when that drive is not connected, and Finder will show you something else instead.

Why Recents is the default, and why it is sometimes empty

Recents is not a folder. It is a saved search that lists files you have opened lately, built from the Spotlight index. Nothing is stored there, so removing it from the sidebar, or never seeing it again, deletes nothing. To take it out of the sidebar, open Finder, Settings, Sidebar and untick Recents.

If Recents comes up blank or misses files you know you opened, Spotlight indexing is usually why. Spotlight cannot find a file you know exists has the checks. And if what bothers you is other people seeing your recent files, Clear recent files on a Mac covers Recents along with the Open Recent menus in apps.

Open folders in tabs, not new windows

General settings also has “Open folders in tabs instead of new windows”. With it on, anything that would open a folder in a separate window, such as Command-double-clicking it, opens a tab in the current window instead. Command-T opens a new tab at your chosen starting folder.

If windows have already piled up, Window, Merge All Windows gathers them into tabs of a single window.

Make the view stick

Finder remembers a view for each folder, so your new starting folder may open as icons when you prefer a list. To set a default:

  1. Open the folder and choose View, as List (Command-2).
  2. Choose View, Show View Options (Command-J).
  3. Tick “Always open in list view” and “Browse in list view”.
  4. Click Use as Defaults at the bottom of the panel.

Folders you have already customized keep their own view; open each and repeat the steps if they matter. To keep folders above files when sorting by name, see Keep folders at the top when Finder sorts by name.

Jump to the folders you use most

The starting folder handles new windows. For everything else, the Go menu has shortcuts that work in any Finder window:

  • Shift-Command-H: your home folder
  • Shift-Command-D: Desktop
  • Shift-Command-O: Documents
  • Option-Command-L: Downloads
  • Shift-Command-A: Applications
  • Shift-Command-F: Recents, when you do want it
  • Shift-Command-G: Go to Folder, where you type or paste a path

For folders without a shortcut, drag them into the Favorites section of the sidebar. They appear in Open and Save dialogs too, which saves clicks in every app.

Search the folder you are in

By default, a search started in a Finder window looks across the whole Mac. To make it search the folder you are looking at first, open Finder, Settings, Advanced, and set “When performing a search” to Search the Current Folder. You can still widen any search to This Mac with one click. Search inside one folder only on a Mac has more on narrowing searches.

The Finder settings that are not in Settings

Advanced settings also hold “Show all filename extensions” and “Keep folders on top”, and the View menu has Show Path Bar and Show Status Bar. Several useful Finder behaviors have no switch in Settings at all, though: the full path of a folder in the window title, a Quit command for Finder, and stopping .DS_Store files on external drives. Each takes a Terminal command, and each needs another command to undo.

Mainspring shows settings like these as one-click power-ups, labeled in plain English. Each is a real macOS setting, snapshotted before it changes so it flips back in one click, and the Finder Power recipe applies a set of them together and reverts them together. Mainspring runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later and costs $29 once for up to three Macs, after a free one-day trial with every feature.

Questions

Can different Finder windows open to different folders? No. There is one setting for every new window. Tabs, the Go menu shortcuts and the sidebar cover the rest.

Does this change where Open and Save dialogs start? No. Each app remembers the last folder you used in its own dialogs. Find a file fast in the Open or upload dialog has the shortcuts that work there.

I changed the setting and Finder still shows Recents. Why? Some actions open Recents directly, such as Shift-Command-F or clicking Recents in the sidebar. If Command-N still shows it, reopen Finder, Settings, General to confirm the choice saved, then relaunch Finder: hold Option, Control-click its Dock icon and choose Relaunch.