Moving Applications out of the Applications folder

jowie74jowie74
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi there,



I read somewhere (or dreamt) that you could now move applications outside of the Applications folder and it would not affect them or their being updated using the Software Updater. Is this true?



Personally, I would just like to group my Applications within the Applications folder into sub-folders for different types, such as Chat, Video, Audio, Games, Network etc. My Applications folder has become rather unruly and difficult to navigate and although I have Spotlight for quick-launching apps, it would also be nice to scan the apps I do have, removing any I don't use any more. So a cleaner Applications folder would be much nicer for me.



Does anyone have any opinions on this? Should I be able to do this (with caution) or is it a bad idea?



Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    areseearesee Posts: 776member
    Your applications should still work after moving them to another location. But your Apple applications may not update properly after the move. There have been numerous posting about system supplied apps (like Safari) not being fully upgraded if the app was moved from where Apple placed it.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    jowie74jowie74 Posts: 540member
    Thanks - that's what I was thinking would be the case. However I thought I read somewhere that as of the latest release of Leopard, you can actually move Apple apps and they will still update properly. Does anyone know if this is the case or did I just dream it?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    fluffyfluffy Posts: 361member
    I have always had my Apple applications in subfolders of /Applications, and thus far have had very little problem with updates. Full system updates (10.4.9, etc.) have always completed without problems. In my experience it has primarily been the Quicktime updates that can't seem to find Quicktime Player, but even then it doesn't matter much; the updater always just dropped a full version in /Applications, which I could just copy over the older version.



    10.5.1 did indeed add support for moved Applications, but obviously only Apple knows what that really means and how effective it is; whether it's installer.app that has changed or what.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    k squaredk squared Posts: 608member
    In OS 9 I used to move applications around, but what's the point anymore? With the dock and spotlight, finding and launching applications is an easy as ever. I haven't looked in my applications folder for months.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    jowie74jowie74 Posts: 540member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by k squared View Post


    In OS 9 I used to move applications around, but what's the point anymore? With the dock and spotlight, finding and launching applications is an easy as ever. I haven't looked in my applications folder for months.



    That is true, however when I do look inside my Applications folder, it's much nicer seeing and understanding what's going on in there. If it's well organised, you can easily point out the apps you haven't used and could possibly delete, along with the ones you'd forgotten about.



    But the main reason is, rather embarrassingly, because I can then make stacks of all the subfolders without having to create aliases for all my applications in groups... I can't put up with stacks showing piled-up aliases.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    All the applications that came with OS X, I left in 'Applications'. Everything I've added goes into a file labeled AddedApps. I know that I can do whatever I want to with those apps without a problem. Whenever I add a new app, I back up the AddedApps file. In five years, I've never had a problem with this system - that I know of.
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