What Is a Smart Folder on MacBook?

2-Minute Introduction to Smart Folders

Despite their name, Smart Folders are not technically folders. They are saved searches that automatically update to show files matching specific criteria. That's why any Smart Folders you create are located in the Saved Searches category in Finder.

Because Smart Folders are not real folders, the same file can appear in multiple Smart Folders simultaneously without creating duplicates. Likewise, deleting a Smart Folder won't delete any of your actual files (only the saved search is removed).

Smart Folders work by scanning file metadata (the hidden information that every file on your Mac contains), such as:

• Filenames: The actual name of your file, allowing searches for specific words, phrases, or naming patterns.
• Extension: The file type indicator after the dot (.pdf, .jpg, .docx) that identifies what kind of file it is.
• Content: Text within documents, spreadsheets, or PDFs that can be searched even if it's not in the filename.
• Date information: When files were created, last opened, or modified.

Other available metadata includes the presence of an alpha channel in an image, the bit rate of the audio in a media, who the editors of a document are, phone numbers associated with a searched item, and many more.

💡 Best of all, you can combine multiple metadata criteria to create highly specific Smart Folders. For example, you could create a "Hawaii Vacation 2024" Smart Folder that automatically collects all image files (.jpg, .png) with "Hawaii" in the filename that were created between June 1-15, 2024.

How to Create and Edit Smart Folders on Mac

Now that you can easily answer the question "What is a Smart Folder on MacBook Pro?", you're ready to learn how to create them on any Mac running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, or later.

To create your first Smart Folder:

1. Open Finder and click File → New Smart Folder from the menu bar (or press Command + Option + N).
2. Choose your search scope at the top of the window ("This Mac" searches everything), while you can select specific folders to narrow the search (navigate to the folder first so that it's available for selection).
3. Click the plus (✚) button on the right to add your first search criterion.
4. Select your criteria from the dropdown menus. Choose attributes like Kind, Name, Created date, or File size.
5. Add more criteria by clicking additional plus buttons. The more criteria you add, the more relevant the Smart Folder will be.
6. Click Save when you're satisfied with your search parameters.
7. Give your Smart Folder a descriptive name and choose where to store it (the default location "Saved Searches" is fine). The Add to Sidebar checkbox should be checked by default for quick access to the Smart Folder from any Finder window.

Your Smart Folder will now automatically update whenever files matching your criteria are added, modified, or removed. This automatic organization approach is similar to how Apple Mail rules can automatically sort incoming emails without manual intervention.

💡 To access a Smart Folder, you simply need to click on it in your Finder sidebar. Alternatively, you can use Spotlight to search for your Smart Folder by name.

To modify an existing Smart Folder:

1. Locate the Smart Folder you want to edit in Finder.
2. Right-click the Smart Folder and select Show Search Criteria.
3. Adjust your criteria by modifying the dropdowns, adding new rules with the plus button, or removing rules with the minus button.
4. Once you're done, click Save.

💡 Sometimes, it's easier to create a new Smart Folder from scratch than to edit an existing one. In such cases, you need to navigate to the following location and delete the corresponding saved search you no longer need:

You can also right-click the Smart Folder in the Finder sidebar and choose to remove the folder from it, but that won't delete it from the Saved Searches library (although it doesn't really matter too much since no files are duplicated and the actual Smart Folders are tiny).

Practical Use Cases for Smart Folders

Smart Folders have many practical use cases for all kinds of Mac users, from students to professionals to regular everyday home users. Let me share with you several examples of how I've been personally using them to address my needs:

• Active Projects: My Active Writing Projects Smart Folder shows all .md (Markdown) files modified in the last 7 days. As a freelance writer, my work is scattered across dozens of client subfolders within my main portfolio directory. This Smart Folder instantly surfaces everything I'm currently working on without digging through the hierarchy of Client A → Project X → Draft 3 folders.
• Unprocessed Photos: This Smart Folder captures RAW files from both my Fujifilm and Canon import locations that don't have "edited" in the filename. I also have another similar Smart Folder that shows RAW files with "editing" in the filename (these are the files I've decided to post-process).
• Storage Hogs: I use this Smart Folder to find files over 500 MB that haven't been opened in 3 months. Last week, it revealed a 4 GB download from the web I'd completely forgotten about, plus several massive PSDs from an old project that were just sitting there eating space.

Once you've created a few Smart Folders tailored to your workflow, you'll understand that the time saved from not manually organizing files adds up quickly, and it's always better to spend it on something more productive or more fun.