Ka3ebe asked the Utilities forum for a way to copy all of the .txt or .jpg files on a computer to a particular folder.
- How To Extract Multiple Folders
- Extract Files From Folders Windows
- How Do I Extract Files From Multiple Folders On A Mac
I’ve got two ways to do this. One uses familiar, Windows-based drag and drop methods. The other harkens back to the dark days of DOS, but it still works in all versions of Windows.
How To Extract Multiple Folders
And the difference isn’t only one of user interface. The drag-and-drop method will put all of the files in the same folder. The DOS-like command line approach will preserve the folder structure of the original source. In other words, if you’re copying these files to D:mydocs, the first method will place every file in the D:mydocs folder; the second method will place the files in subfolders of D:mydocs.
New Channel: video shows you how to transfer Files such as: music / photos / folders from you Apple Maci. Unzip multiple files in same directory on Mac OS X. If you have multiple zip files in a directory and you want to extract all of them at once into that directory, then simply do. Open Spotlight and enter “Terminal”. Then enter the following. # go to the containing folder. Rather than double-clicking each.zip file (which most of the time creates folders for each file extracted) you can run a command from the Terminal which will extract all the files in to the same directory. Open Terminal and navigate to the directory where all the zip files are stored. 'cd' to the directory. Unzip multiple files in same directory on Mac OS X. If you have multiple zip files in a directory and you want to extract all of them at once into that directory, then simply do. Open Spotlight and enter “Terminal”. Then enter the following. # go to the containing folder. Cd / Users / phil / Downloads / folderwithzips.
Let’s start with the drag-and-drop method: Using Windows Explorer (or File Explorer in Windows 8), navigate to your root location—the drive or folder containing all of the files you want to grab. That might be your Documents folder, or it might be C:. Once there, click the search field in the upper-right corner and type your search criteria. If you want to copy all files with a particular extension, type *., followed by that extension. For instance, *.docx.
Windows (File) Explorer will then display every file with that extension in your current location and its subfolders. Once the files are visible, press Ctrl-A to select all of them, then drag and drop them to the right location. (If you want to copy the files to another folder on the same drive, remember to hold down Ctrl while you drag and drop; see The many ways to copy, move, or delete multiple files for details.)
If you want to keep the copied files in their folder structure, you should use this command-line trick:
In Windows (File) Explorer, Shift-right-click the root location (such as C: or My Documents) and select Open command window here. This will bring up a black command-line environment that may seem nostalgic if you’ve been computing for more than 20 years.
Once there, type the command:
xcopy *.ext destination/s
where ext identifies the type of file you want to copy, and destination where you want it copied to. For instance, to copy all of your *.docx files to D:alldocx, type xcopy *.docx d:alldocx /s.
This technique, unlike the others, will maintain the folder structure as it copies the files.
Read the original forum discussion.
Reader Al Feldzamen has had about enough of the nested folders on his Mac. He’s looking for a way out, and because he is, he writes:
I have a folder, which contains many files, and also, many sub-folders. Some of these sub-folders contain sub-subfolders, as well as other files. And so on. Is there any simple application—or Automator or Terminal sequence—you might know that will “break open” all these subfolders and sub-subfolders, etc., so that the original folder will contain all, and only, the files within it, with no folder structure within it?
Boy, do I. This can be easily done with Automator.
Control-click on the Desktop and choose Automator > New Workflow.
In the Untitled window that appears choose Finder from the Library pane. Select the Get Specified Finder Items action and drag it into the Workflows pane.
Drag the folder you want to work with into the Get Specified Finder Items action in the Workflow pane to add it.
Select the Get Folder Contents action and drag it into the Workflow pane. Enable the Repeat For Each Subfolder Found option.
Select the Move Finder Items action and drag it into the Workflow pane. In the Finder create a folder where you’d like to move your files to. From the To pop-up menu choose Other and navigate to the folder you just created.
Click the Run button and all the files—even those within subfolders—will be moved into the new folder without their enclosing folders.
Note that these files will be moved rather than copied. When you return to the original folder your files will be gone—only the now-empty enclosing folders remain. The files now reside in the new folder you created. If you want to maintain the original files in their folders as well as have them all in a single folder, use the Copy Finder Items action instead of Move Finder Items.
Presuming that you’d simply like to view all the contents of this folder—including all the contents of all the subfolders—you can accomplish this task without moving a single file. Try this:
Create a new Automator workflow that includes these three steps:
Get Specified Finder Items This will be the folder full of subfolders.
Extract Files From Folders Windows
Get Folder Contents (Repeat For Each Subfolder Found) Again, you’re selecting every file within the folder and its subfolders.
Add Spotlight Comments to Finder Items You’re applying a tag to each file. Enter Swordfish for all I care.
How Do I Extract Files From Multiple Folders On A Mac
Now, return to the Finder and choose File > New Smart Folder. In the New Smart Folder window choose Other from the first pop-up menu (the one that currently reads Kind). From the sheet that appears, choose Spotlight Comment and click OK. Make the first condition read Spotlight Comment Contains Swordfish (or whatever you’ve tagged your files with).
Your smart folder now contains entries for all the files within the main enclosing folder, organized by document type. Save and name the smart folder.