Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Let's
look at why you've got multiple application folders on your Mac.
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So this is a common question that I hear, why are there multiple application folders.
There's the Main application folder which seems to hold all of your apps. But there
is also a separate applications folder in your Home folder and those apps that
are in the main applications folder, some of them aren't really there. They are in another
Application folder. Let's take a look at all of these and learn what they are used for.
In the Finder if you use the Go Menu and go to Applications then you'll get to your
main Applications folder. I'm going to Command Click up here and you could see
that this is at the top level of the drive. There's my hard drive. There's
a folder named Applications. In fact if I do Go and then to Computer and then go to
my hard drive there's the Applications folder and I'm here at the same place. This seems to
hold all of my Applications. Indeed, for most Mac users every app that you have will be in
this one Applications folder. It's the only one you need to really know about.
But you may have already noticed a second Applications folder. I'm
going to create a new Finder window here and I'm going to go to my Home Folder.
So my Home folder is my User Account folder. It has folders in it like movies, music,
pictures, and so on. If you're not using iCloud Drive, Desktop and Documents will
be in here as well. But another folder you may or may not see in here is Applications.
This Applications folder is usually empty. In fact, you may not find this at all. You may have
deleted it at some point in the past and since it has not been used by anything deleting it is fine.
Now the Home folder Applications folder is different from the main Applications folder
in that the main Application folder is for all users on your Mac. So say you and your spouse
both have user accounts on your Mac. Or say you're like me and you've got one for work, one for other
purposes. Each of those accounts will have its own Application folder in its own Home folder.
Any applications installed in there will only be of available when you're logged in as that user.
Any application in the Main Applications folder at the top level will be available to all users
on the Mac. This is handy because you can purchase just an app, say in the App Store, install it for
you and then your spouse or whoever else that has an account on your Mac can use that app as well.
However, sometimes you may want to install an app just for one user. When installing a third party
app sometimes you're asked whether or not you want the app installed for all users on the Mac or just
the current user. If you select just the current user in that case this Home application folder is
exactly where the app would go and it would only be available to that user. But you could also move
applications here if you like. If I wanted to move an application and make it only available
for one user I could select that app, like for instance let's use this app from the App Store,
and I can move it to this Application folder. Notice how the cursor changes to a little
curved arrow there. That means it is going to create a link to the app. Not move the
app itself. That's not what I want here. So I want hold down the Command Key. Then
I'm going to be prompted because this isn't something that should be done lightly. Then
the application moves. Now Compressor can only be used by this one user. Another user on this
Mac wouldn't even see that the app is installed and couldn't use it. You could bring this back
to the system level by dragging it back here and dropping it in and now I've moved it back there.
Although if a third party app has the option to install for System
or for User you should use that instead. Dragging and Dropping may
not work for those apps because they are maybe other components involved.
Now there's a third Applications folder and you may never actually even see it unless you look
closely. Let's go and take a look here at an app that was installed by the App Store. If I
do Command i, for get info, you can see its location is Macintosh HD Applications. That
is exactly where it is. But what happens if I selected this app. This app is one that's part
of macOS. It comes when you install macOS and you can't uninstall it. If I get info
on that one the location is my hard drive System Applications. But this is hard drive Applications.
So it is showing a different location under Where and Info than what we're actually seeing here.
Now if we go up to the computer level again and then we go into the hard drive,
there's that Application folder we were just looking at, and we look in System we can see
that there is Applications folder in there as well. A third Applications Folder. In this one
you're going to find just the apps that are part of macOS. So you've got Apps here you
can't uninstall and they don't update through the App Store. You update them by updating
macOS. So these are things like the Photos App, Music, TextEdit, Stickies, you know Contacts,
Clock. Anything that is built into the Operating System. Most of these actually tie into the
Operating System in some way, although not all of them. For instance the Chess App,
how does that really tie in except as the prime example of using Game
Center. But all of these apps are actually located here inside the System folder.
Since macOS Catalina the System folder is protected. It's Read Only. The only time things
in there change is when you do a System Update. This is a security feature. These Applications,
since they are under System, are part of that Read Only section of your drive.
Now backup at the top level of the Applications Folder you're going to see these Apps there.
That's done through a little Finder magic. The Finder has a special code in it to say,
hey in the Applications Folder show what is in the Applications folder. Also show
what is in the System Applications' folder. You don't have two copies of
these apps. The actual location is in the System Applications' folder. But they are
just shown here so you don't have to look in two separate places. Realistically, you never
have to look in the System Applications' folder at all. Just look in the Applications folder to
find any apps that you need. Or better yet use the Dock or Launchpad or Spotlight to launch an app.
Now there is actually a fourth Applications folder. That's even harder to find. You'll
find that at the top level in System and then the Library folder in System which is different
than the Library folder at the top level. Then in there there's a folder called Core Services
and in Core Services there's an Applications folder. As a matter of fact, Core Services
itself holds a lot of applications. These are small services and other things that you may
use while you're using macOS. For instance, here's Archive Utility and that will launch
automatically, say, if you double click a Zip File. Here's About This Mac. You don't
launch that normally as a regular app but you go to the Apple Menu and choose About This Mac.
Of course if you have multiple users each user has their own Applications Folder in their own
Home Folder. But the main one, and really the only one that most Mac users need to deal with,
is your Main Applications folder. I hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.