# How do I move the Applications folder?



## carmv (Apr 6, 2002)

I just installed OS X 10.1 after getting a bigger hard drive. I've created a separate partition for Applications. How can I move OS X's Applications folder permanently into this partition (besides drag and drop which just copies the folder)? I want all my applications to launch from this specific partition. How much of a hassle will it be to accomplish this?

Thanks for your help. I've been lurking around these boards for about a month now (ever since we got OS X but have been waiting for the new HD) and it seems to be a very helpful place around here.

~Carm


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## Securion (Apr 6, 2002)

If you can copy something you must be able to delete something?
Press the "delete" button after you have copied the files?
But I dont know, I dont have a Mac yet... 
Im still stuck with my PC shit... Grr.

But posts like this one makes me wonder... How stupid does Apple think their users are?

"Not stupid enough to buy a PC" would be a killer answer here... anyone...?


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## carmv (Apr 6, 2002)

but copying the folder to the other partition and deleting the old folder won't set all references to the old folder over to the new one. i want to know if it's possible to move the Applications folder as well as all the references to it (such as the button for Applications in the Finder), or would I have to change them manually. 

Thanks,

~Carm


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## ksignorini (Apr 6, 2002)

I think you will have problems if you move the Applications folder.  I believe that OS X requires it to reside at:  /Applications    and that having it at, say:   /Volumes/AnotherPartition/Applications   might confuse some of the built-in utilities.  I think this is the one place where OS X just needs to have apps in a certain location.  

I might be way off here.  

Anyone else?

Kent!


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## chenly (Apr 6, 2002)

You don't want to move the /Applications folder. If you're fortunate enough to have a separate partition, tell UNIX to use that as a dedicated swap file partition; this WILL speed up your machine, which I assume is your intent in wanting to move the /Applications folder, which will NOT speed up a UNIX system.


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## simX (Apr 6, 2002)

It is true that moving the Applications folder will cause some trouble, but you can always leave a symbolic link behind so that the system knows to go to the new location.  Here's how to do this.  Note that a symoblic link is VERY, VERY different from a Mac alias, and a Mac alias usually doesn't work in situations like these.

1:  Copy your Applications folder to its new location.

2:  Open up the Terminal.  Now type "ln -s ", without the quotes, but with the trailing space.

3:  Go back to the Finder, and find the place where you put the new Applications folder.  This is where you are going to install new applications.  Drag that folder to the Terminal window you made.  The UNIX path to your new applications folder should have been inputed into the Terminal.

4:  Type " /Applications" without the quotes, but with the first space.

Your Terminal should have something like this ready to execute:
ln -s /Volumes/HAL9000/Applications /Applications.  If your command looks like this, you can proceed to the next step.

5.  Just press return, and let your command execute.  You should now have a UNIX symbolic link named "Applications" at the root level of your OS X partition.  If you double click it, it should take you to your new Applications folder.  Software Update and most other processes will most likely follow this symbolic link to the new place.

6.  If you want to make it invisible, just grab ResEdit or something to make it invisible.  Note that if you put a "." in front of the name it will make the alias invisible, but then because the name is different, Software Update and other such utilities will probably not be able to find the Applications folder  so in this case ResEdit is the recommended way to make it invisible.


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## carmv (Apr 6, 2002)

thank you so much, simx! i'll give it a try. 

~Carm


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## dricci (Apr 6, 2002)

I was thinking about doing something like this next time I reformat my hard drive. Please let us know if it works!


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## rharder (Apr 8, 2002)

I think the more Unix-y solution would be to mount your other hard drive at /Applications. That way everyone thinks they're still residing at /Applications (they are, in fact), but it's physically on another drive.

Now, how to do that...I forget. If someone could fill us in again, that'd be great. I did it once when I set up a separate partition for my swap file (wish I hadn't though).

-Rob


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## ladavacm (Apr 8, 2002)

by placing the required line into /etc/fstab.  it is picked up by /etc/rc around line 95

take a look at man fstab to get the idea of the required syntax; use mount to find out the device node of the partition you want to mount.  is ugly.


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## Klink (Apr 8, 2002)

Found this application the other day in /usr/sbin/ that seems to be tailored for disk manipulations. It's undocumented in the man pages but the usage error output gives a fair description and some examples.
Nice for on the fly disk manips.

[lmnop:~] alphabetcity% disktool
disktool:  Disk Arbitration Command Tool
disktool:  disktool -rauempd deviceName [options]
Usage:  You can use disktool to refresh, eject, mount or unmount disks and volumes
Usage:  The acceptable command line parameters are
Usage:          -r -- Refresh Disk Arbitration (ex. disktool -r)
Usage:          -a -- Notify of mount.  Adds the disk to the Disk Arbitrations internal tables.  Useful when you have already forced the mount and want to let applications know it. (ex. disktool -a disk1 AFPVolName AFPFlags)
Usage:          -u -- Unmount a disk, the flags parameter is rarely used (ex. disktool -u disk2 0)
Usage:          -e -- Eject a disk, the flags parameter is rarely used (ex. disktool -e disk2 0)
Usage:          -m -- Mount a disk (ex. disktool -m disk2).  Useful when a disk has been unmounted using -p or -u above
Usage:          -o -- Open Vacant Drive Doors
Usage:          -p -- Unmount a partition, the flags parameter is rarely used (ex. disktool -p disk1s2 0)
Usage:          -d -- Notify of dismount.  Removes the disk from Disk Arbitrations internal tables.  Useful when you have already forced the unmount and want to let applications know it.  (ex. disktool -d disk1)
Usage:          -n -- Rename volume.  Renames the volume specified as the first argument..  (ex. disktool -n disk1s2 newName)
Usage:          -x -- Run and disallow ejects and unmounts .  Runs the disktool and refuses to allow volumes to unmount or eject. (ex. disktool -x)
Usage:          -y -- Run and allow ejects and unmounts .  Runs the disktool allows volumes to unmount or eject. (ex. disktool -y)
Usage:          -g -- Get the hfs encoding on a volume. (ex. disktool -g disk1s2)
Usage:          -s -- Set the hfs encoding on a volume. (ex. disktool -s disk1s2 4)
Usage:          -va -- Adopts the given device into the volinfo database.
Usage:          -vd -- Disowns the given device from the volinfo database.
Usage:          -vs -- Displays the status of the device in the volinfo database.


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## Francium (Jul 19, 2006)

simX said:


> It is true that moving the Applications folder will cause some trouble, but you can always leave a symbolic link behind so that the system knows to go to the new location.  Here's how to do this.  Note that a symoblic link is VERY, VERY different from a Mac alias, and a Mac alias usually doesn't work in situations like these.
> 
> 1:  Copy your Applications folder to its new location.
> 
> ...




Ive been trying to find instructions to move my apps folder that were easy to follow for a while now, thanks for posting this. Now the reason why im doing this is because my startup volume has only 300 mb avail. so i need to move it to my other partition which has 7gb avail. (i know i need a new HD) I need alot more than that acutally. but this will be a temp fix. 

so i tried step one and was confronted with the message "One or more items have special permissions and cannot be copied. Do you want to skip them?"

so i Canceled the copy.
What i want to do is move everything in that folder without resetting the permissions. if you familiar with Carbon Copy it copies disks, without changing any permisions, i think this is what is necessary here.

any ideas how to procede? im using 10.4.4


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## Francium (Jul 23, 2006)

Just wondering how to move (or copy to another partition) a folder without changing any of the permisions of the folder, or it's contents


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## fryke (Jul 23, 2006)

ditto. And I don't mean that I want to know the same thing, I mean the command line tool "ditto".  ... Go to the Terminal.app and type in "man ditto" or "ditto --help" and hit return. Should get you started.


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## Francium (Jul 23, 2006)

fryke said:


> ditto. And I don't mean that I want to know the same thing, I mean the command line tool "ditto".  ... Go to the Terminal.app and type in "man ditto" or "ditto --help" and hit return. Should get you started.



LOL
ill do that, and let you know how it goes.
To me using ditto should be better than just moving the apps folder like was suggested by simX.


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## fryke (Jul 23, 2006)

That was suggested a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago, though, if you look at the time stamps.


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