The plethora of third-party file managers for macOS could potentially replace Finder in your workflow. But Finder is a customizable file manager. And its extensibility allows third-party apps to natively integrate with it.

We’ll show you some of the best apps that blend with Finder to let you perform extra functions.

1. Mountain: Manage External Drives From Menu Bar

On the File menu, click Page Setup. Click Header/Footer. Add the date or time, slide numbers, or footers to your slides. For details on these options, follow the steps in Add page numbers, the date and time, or footer text to all slides in PowerPoint for Mac. Find the best Power Menu for Finder alternatives based on our research Make OS X Great. The workflow enhancing Finder extension for Mac.

If you manage lots of external hard disks, having to constantly switch between the Finder and Disk Utility to eject and mount the disk is a hassle. Plus, forgetting to safely remove your drives can lead to data corruption. Mountain is a menu bar app that lets you manage all external volumes with ease. You can unmount, eject, and mount volumes with just two clicks.

It automatically ejects external volumes when your Mac goes to sleep and mounts the drives again when waking from sleep. The app also automatically identify apps that block volumes from getting ejected. It quit those apps, then safely ejects the drives. If you use external drives for backups, this tool could make the backup process a lot easier.

Download:Mountain (Free trial, $6)

2. Mountain Duck: Mount Remote Storage in Finder

If you need to manage multiple cloud storage services at once, switching between different interfaces can hinder your workflow. Mountain Duck is a nifty app that lets you mount server and cloud storage as a local volume in the Finder. Open System Preferences > Extensions and check Mountain Duck to integrate the app with the Finder toolbar.

Click the app’s icon in the menu bar to connect and disconnect from cloud storage service with a few easy clicks. As you connect with a particular service, it’ll appear in the Finder sidebar to let you browse contents and move files. The app supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Backblaze B2, and more.

Download:Mountain Duck (Free trial, $39)

3. Default Folder X: Streamline Opening/Saving Files

The built-in Open and Save As dialog boxes don’t have any customization options. When you choose to open and save a file, it’s easy to waste time searching for the right folder. To avoid this, some people save all their data on the desktop, making Finder cluttered and less useful Reduce Finder Clutter and Mac Junk With Aliases, Tags, and MoreA thorough cleanup every now and then is necessary, but it can only take you so far. You need a good strategy for dodging clutter as well as clearing it. Read More .

Default Folder X is a utility that replaces the Open and Save As dialogs with many useful options. The app attaches a toolbar with a series of buttons to give you quick access to the Default folder, Home directory, Favorites, and Recent folders. You can also set the default folder for a particular app and assign a shortcut to save the file directly with a single key press.

The menu bar interface lets you view all Finder windows and access various folders no matter where they’re located. The app also allows you to add Spotlight comments, labels, and tags within the Save dialog. If you’re focused on efficiency and file organization, then Default Folder X will definitely improve your workflow.

Download:Default Folder X (Free trial, $35)

4. Quick Look Plugins: Preview Files Without Opening

Quick Look offers a full or near-full size preview of pretty much any kind of file with a press of Space. With it, you can preview documents, images, and videos. But you can enhance the Quick Look function with better file support through plugins.

Quick Look plugins come as qlgenerator files. All you need to do is to extract the ZIP file and drag them to the ~/Library/QuickLook folder. To bring your plugins into effect, open the Terminal and type in the following:

Press Enter and relaunch Finder. You can find a list of useful plugins with different functions described below:

  • QLColorCode: Preview source code files with syntax highlighting.
  • QLStephen: Preview plain text files with or without unknown file extensions.
  • QLMarkdown: Preview markdown files.
  • BetterZipQL: Preview archive or zip files.
  • qlImageSize: Display image size and resolution.

Download:sindresorhus Github page QuickLookPlugins.com (Free)

5. Resilio Sync: Keep Files Synced Across Devices

Resilio Sync (formerly BitTorrent Sync) uses a synchronization method based on peer-to-peer technology to sync files and folders without using cloud servers. The app integrates with Finder through macOS extensions. It gives each folder a unique ID and tracks metadata to sync files and folders.

To sync a folder, click the Plus button, then choose either a Standard or Advanced folder from the dropdown menu. Although they look the same, see Resilio’s help page for the differences.

A Share window will then automatically appear. Choose the permission type and set the expiry date of your link. Then copy and paste the link on another device.

The Pro version of Resilio Sync allows you to link computers and mobile devices with a single identity without sharing any secret keys. It also has a selective sync feature, which works just like Dropbox. This is useful for mobile devices with less storage space, and gives you flexibility in downloading only selected files.

Download: Resilio Sync for Windows and Mac Android iOS (Free, $60 Pro version)

6. ColoFolXS: Compact Icon Tool for Coloring Folders

Changing the color of a folder in macOS is a great way to dress up your desktop and add visual identity to folders. But the manual procedure for changing the color of a Mac folder How to Change Folder Colors on MacChanging the color of folders on your Mac looks slick and can help you differentiate between them. Read More has some issues in Mojave, and it’s pretty clunky.

ColoFolXS is a utility app that lets you change the color of any folder effortlessly. The app features a minimalist yet comprehensive interface to change the color. It has a collection of predefined cell colors, plus adjustment sliders of different hue and intensity. To use this app, just drag and drop any folder from Finder directly onto one of its color cells.

Download: ColoFolXS [No Longer Available] (Free trial, $5) Koplayer mac.

7. Power Menu: Workflow-Enhancing Finder Extension

Power Menu is a configurable Finder extension that adds powerful actions to the right-click menu and toolbar. When you open the app, it automatically activates the FinderSync extension so the actions menu appears there.

The menu comes with preset actions for missing Finder features, like moving and copying a bunch of files with one click, converting images to different formats, creating new files, opening the selected directory in a new Terminal window, and more. The app also supports custom shell scripts What Is Shell Scripting and Why You Should Use ItIn addition to being able to accept and execute commands interactively, the shell can also execute commands stored in a file. This is known as shell scripting. Here we cover the basics of shell scripting. Read More .

To create a shell script, click on the Plus button next to the Actions List title in the Manage Actions menu. They have many uses; I use shell scripts to clean up garbage HTML tags and weird formatting errors, and to convert Markdown to PDF and DOC formats with Pandoc. If you work in Finder all day long, this app will save you time and improve productivity.

Download:Power Menu ($10)

8. Extend the Power of Finder With Services

The Services menu in macOS is probably its most underused feature. The sole purpose of this menu is to give you more options for the tasks you perform regularly by borrowing features from other apps.

For example, you can select text from a website in Safari and send an email using the selected text. You can access Services item via the app menu or with a right-click. If you don’t use Services to its full potential, then try these utilities.

Markdown Service Tools is a collection of macOS Services that lets you do more with Markdown text. It includes utilities to clean up smart punctuation, convert HTML to Markdown, indent or outdent text, a feature to automatically grab links from clipboard, and more.

SearchLink is a system service that lets you search multiple sources and automatically generate links for text. If you write on your Mac, this tool will save you time compared to manually pasting links into your writing app.

Download:Markdown Service Tools SearchLink (Free)

Finder Is a Great File Manager on Mac

Newcomers to Finder might find it tough to utilize the manager effectively because many features are out of sight. You’ll find lots of tweaks hidden behind menus and keyboard shortcuts. And to go deeper, these third-party apps integrate directly with Finder for tons of extra features.

If Finder doesn’t suit your workflow out of the box, you should get to grips with all of the Finder shortcuts The Finder Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for MacOur Finder keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet will help you transform how you manage files, folders, and apps on your Mac desktop. Read More . You can also customize it according to your needs. Check out our tips on how to use Finder more efficiently 9 Top Tips for Using Finder on Your Mac More EfficientlyFeel like Finder on your Mac isn't cutting it? These tips will help you browse files in Finder more efficiently than ever. Read More

Before we get our hands dirty, here’s a word of warning. If you’re wondering how to reboot a MacBook Pro, bear in mind it’s the last resort when all other methods to unfreeze your Mac had failed. Don’t try it too often as it may harm your system. No question, your Mac can handle rapid power losses and your hardware most likely won’t be hurt. What’s at risk though, is your data because each time you force reboot a Mac it affects the consistency of the file system. Now that you’ve been warned, let’s go.

Symptoms your frozen Mac needs a force restart

  • Applications are not responding
  • Pointer is not responsive
  • Loud fan noise
  • The screen goes black
  • Mac unable to restart

Can you move the cursor? If yes, try this

Before you force restart a Mac, it’s always recommended to first try a software solution.

Go to the Apple menu
Choose Restart
Click Restart in the menu that appears

Two ways to force restart a Mac

The simplest method: hold down the Power button till your Mac shuts down. Press the button again to restart it.

If your Mac hangs for good and the pointer is inactive:
Hold down Control + Command while pressing the Power button.

This is an alternative key combination to force restart a Mac. By the way, if you are on an iMac, the Power button is found on the back of your Mac. Voila!

Is Shut Down any different from Restart?

The difference between Shut Down and Restart is quite self-explanatory. When you perform a restart, your Mac will turn on again loading its previously active apps. As for shut down, your Mac won’t start until you press the Power button again. Interestingly, all new Macs have an automatic reboot feature built-in. So even if you sit and do nothing, your frozen Mac would eventually reboot by itself, though it takes a bit of patience.

How to force shut down a frozen Mac

If you need to force shut down a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, all you need is again to press a Power button on your Mac’s keyboard.

Press and hold Power button for 2 seconds
Choose Restart, Sleep or Shut Down in the menu that appears


If you don’t want to reload the baggage of your previously opened apps, tick off “Reopen windows when logging back in”. We do recommend you to deselect this option when your Mac is slow in order to lighten the weight on your RAM.

If your Mac won’t shut down:

Press and hold Power button for about 6 seconds
Hold the button until the Mac shuts down.

Needless to say that when you force restart a Mac all your unsaved projects may be lost. It’s unfair, we know.

Why does my Mac keep freezing?

The obvious explanation is your Mac lacks memory. Or to put another way, there are too many active processes running on your Mac. First off, go to Activity Monitor to check your memory usage.

Go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
Click the Memory tab

Now, look into how heavily your Memory is loaded. Quit apps that eat up too much memory for no reason. While this may work as a temporary solution, it doesn’t stop your Mac from freezing up again. You can either force reboot your Mac each time or opt for a radical solution. Below are a few more ideas you can try.

More ways to fix a frozen Mac

Restart your Mac in the Diagnostics mode

Shut down your Mac and reboot while pressing D key. Within the menu that appears, launch the Apple Diagnostics tool. This will check your Mac’s drive for errors. From then, follow the prompts to finish the diagnostics.

Clean up your Mac

Look up titles, filenames, SHA1, PN #. Warcraft 2 for mac.

Remove old unused apps, system junk, and pervasive browser extensions. For this purpose, try running CleanMyMac application on your Mac.

It’s quite effective in removing all junk from your Mac and has a number of helpful utilities, like RAM free up or app uninstaller. Download it for free here .

Reinstall your macOS

This is the most radical of all methods, that’s why it’s so effective.

Check out how to clean install macOS Sierra
Instructions for macOS High Sierra
How to clean install macOS Mojave

How to clean install macOS Catalina

Hope this guide has helped you. Before you force shut down this article, feel free to share it, using the social buttons below. Cheers!

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