When you keep your Desktop and Documents
folders local, rather than moving them to
iCloud Drive, it’s not difficult to move most of
or all of your Home folder to a volume other
than the macOS startup disk. You can relocate
your iTunes and Photos libraries to a different
location in each app’s preferences.
Rather than moving the whole of your
Documents folder, you can make an alias in it
using Finder or (if you prefer) a symbolic link
to any folder on the other drive, and access
the bulk of your docs through that. It’s still
wisest to keep your most frequently used files
in the Documents folder on your SSD, so that
they benefit from its fast access.
However, if you put your Desktop and
Documents folders in iCloud Drive, macOS
links those two folders with iCloud and you
don’t have this option. In that case, create
a new folder named, say, OtherDocuments
on your hard disk, and use an alias or
symbolic link to that from your Home
folder on the SSD.You can then place your less frequently
used files in OtherDocuments, which won’t be
stored in iCloud and will remain local. You’ll
also need to ensure that Time Machine backs
up both your external SSD and any folders
created on the internal hard disk.> Can I move my Documents folder?
To speed up my iMac running Mojave, I have set it to start up from an external SSD
rather than its internal hard disk. However, this puts my user account’s Documents folder
on the SSD; because that’s shared in iCloud, I want to move it onto the larger internal
hard disk. Can I?CAN I RESIZE AN APFS
DISK IMAGE?
As of macOS 10.14.4, you
can’t change the size of
such images using Disk
Utility, which reports an
error. It works fine with Mac
OS Extended images,
though. To do this for APFS
images, you need the hdiutil
command in Terminal (see
bit.ly/apfsimg).WHY CAN’T I SHOW FILE
EXTENSIONS IN FINDER?
In its preferences, select
Advanced and tick the top
item, “Show all filename
extensions.” Close that
window and extensions
should then appear in Finder
windows. If they don’t,
restart in safe mode (see bit.
ly/mfsafemd). Leave your
Mac running for a couple of
minutes, then restart your
Mac as normal. Check that
preference is still ticked.When your Desktop and Documents folders are
stored in iCloud, you can’t move them from your
startup disk to another location.Unless you can identify a specific problem
causing this, it’s tempting to go for a generic
panacea. It’s worth running a diagnostic app
like EtreCheck (free, etrecheck.com) first,
and trying its suggestions.
Before proceeding with a totally clean
reinstall, download the latest Combo Update
at support.apple.com and try installing that,
as it’s relatively quick and non–destructive.
If that doesn’t fix the issue, restart in macOS
Recovery (bit.ly/mfrcvry), open Disk Utility,
and run First Aid on your startup disk to
ensure that it’s healthy.The difference between a “regular” and
“clean” reinstall is that the latter is preceded
by erasing your startup disk. Performing
a regular reinstall, you still need ensure that
you have good, up–to–date backups, but you
shouldn’t have to use them, as only macOS
system files should be replaced.
For a clean reinstall, after erasing the
existing system you’ll need to migrate or
copy back at least your apps and Home
folder. Only do this if your startup disk is
seriously awry and a regular reinstall isn’t
good enough. It should be your last resort.> Reinstalling Mojave
My MacBook Pro now takes almost a minute from logging in to showing the desktop.
Would it be best to reinstall Mojave, and should that be a regular or a clean installation?Installing a Combo update over your
current macOS should be quick and
non–destructive. Back up anyway!
Ask
78 AUG 2019 maclife.com