Filed under: Mac 101
Mac 101: Don't move those files!
No, this won't be another post where I explain my reasons for loving and ordering the MacBook Air. That will come later when I actually have the MBA in my hands. Until then, I want to pass along a little bit of knowledge I learned while doing Mac consulting many moons ago: many files and folders on your Mac should be left alone and not moved or thrown away.One particular incident that illustrates this point happened to a user who called me one day saying his entire Microsoft Entourage store of emails, contacts, etc. had just "disappeared" and Entourage had "reset to when it was new." Well, naturally that sounded a bit odd to me so I went over to see what I could do to resolve this little problem.
After a bit of searching around I discovered the user had "accidentally" moved a very important folder out of a folder called "Documents" (which is located in his individual "Users" folder) to the Trash. For the win, can you guess which folder he threw in the trash? iI you guessed it was his "Microsoft User Data" folder, you would be correct.
Fortunately for this particular user, after moving the folder back where it belonged all was well with Entourage and his data was restored. Let's go over that again, just to be clear. This particular folder, the "Microsoft User Data" folder, is located in your particular "Documents" folder on the hard drive of your computer.
So, if your user name is "john" for example, then your "Documents" folder is located inside the "john" folder inside the "Users" folder on the main level of your Mac's hard drive. Microsoft Office, like many other programs, stores important data in your individual user folder. Due to the way OS X works, you have full access to your individual user folder and can pretty much move or throw away anything you want.
However, don't do it. Unless it is a file or folder you know for sure you actually created yourself, leave it alone. Folders with names like "Microsoft User Data", "Library", "Application Support," etc. are placed where they are for a reason and if you mess with them or move them somewhere else, like to the Trash, you might be in for some real problems.
While we're on the subject of moving files and folders, OS X also has a certain way in which it likes many of its other default folders and files to be. Folders with names like "Applications", "System", "Library" and "Users" need to stay exactly where OS X puts them and should not be moved. Also, when you install Applications they usually get put into the "Applications" folder automatically so leave them there. In other words, let OS X put things where it wants and don't try to interfere -- it knows best.
There are, of course, some exceptions to this structure and if you know what you're doing you can often feel more free to make changes. But for most users, leaving things where they are is the best way to go. Sure, you might get lucky and not do too much damage by moving a folder or installing something somewhere other than "Applications", but then again you might run into issues and have to spend time figuring out what's wrong with your Mac instead of actually using it. And really, who wants to do that?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Alex said 6:12PM on 1-25-2008
I have the same problem, but in my case - i lost everything - mail, preferences, bookmarks and passwords.
And that's all was - when i've renamed my home folder in OS X.
Os X automatically get all my mail and etc. and throw it in the trash box. I accidentally click to empty trash can - and lost everything.
That's what can be if you start to change some things in OS X. Be careful!
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anonymous said 7:38AM on 1-25-2008
Or, you could just stop using Microsoft Products. That solves all kinds of problems.
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Mo said 7:49AM on 1-25-2008
Indeed.
Storing internal databases (rather than actual *documents*) under ~/Documents is specifically prohibited by Apple's developer guidelines.
The sooner Microsoft stops doing it, the better. It's nothing short of retarded.
Mo said 7:49AM on 1-25-2008
Indeed.
Storing internal databases (rather than actual *documents*) under ~/Documents is specifically prohibited by Apple's developer guidelines.
The sooner Microsoft stops doing it, the better. It's nothing short of retarded.
Bender Bending Rodriguez said 9:47AM on 1-25-2008
To backup Mo's comment, MS should be putting this folder in ~Library/Application Support.
Why they are "still" doing seems to just be a big f@#k you to Apple and nothing more.
Then again, Apple isn't exaclty following Windows developer guidelines with iTunes and Safari.
dubsak said 7:52AM on 1-25-2008
Why Microsoft doesn't put this folder in Library/Application Support is beyond me.
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jigme said 7:59AM on 1-25-2008
i never use Entourage, so i wouldn't know about this for sure, but certainly in Win MS Office applications, if you root around in the preferences/options you can usually specify where the app stores its data files.
not much help for the non-power user tho', i guess.
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Larry said 8:03AM on 1-25-2008
There's a better solution:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040213183918963
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Ethan said 8:03AM on 1-25-2008
I hate that folder.
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Steve said 8:06AM on 1-25-2008
I knew a kid who deleted files because the icons were blank pieces of paper, so he thought they were "empty".
Blew my freakin' mind.
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James Madley said 9:13AM on 1-25-2008
Once a computer came into a Next Byte store because files weren't appearing on the desktop.
Silly person had moved the Desktop folder to the Documents folder.
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CALI said 8:49AM on 1-25-2008
Consulting, who are you kidding ??? This is barely tech support...
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Daniel said 8:53AM on 1-25-2008
Coming soon - 500 words describing how to plug in a keyboard.
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Luigi193 said 11:11PM on 1-26-2008
Nice
Shig said 9:14AM on 1-25-2008
Back when I worked in a campus computer lab (about 15 years ago, so we're talking System 7 here), one of our duties was to go through at the end of the day and clear up whatever the users had done to our machines. We used to find the weirdest things in the weirdest places--system files sitting on the desktop, that sort of thing. We referred to this as the "monkey factor," because the only way any of it made any sense was if the user had sat there going "Ook ook" and moving things around entirely at random.
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iMachias said 9:22AM on 1-25-2008
My favorite are the users the move files to the Trash to take them off the hard drive, but they don't want the trash emptied because then they'll lose the files. They're just putting them there so they don't take up space, but they still need the files.
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Mark Sieber said 9:34AM on 1-25-2008
Microsoft is clusmsy--I also dislike having a data file in my Documents...
A similar issue: I have divided my Applications folder into sub-folders, which I display in Leopard Stacks. (I prefer not to have lots of extra folders filled with aliases, which was my first approach.) I created a separate master folder under Applications for documentation subfolders from all applications--preference folders, uninstall files etc.--each in an application-specific folder.
The only applications that couldn't find (or be redirected to) these separate folders were Microsoft apps (even the Adobe applications behaved when moved out of their baroque system of nested file folders.) So I was forced to use aliases in the topic folders and retain the main 'Microsoft Office' folder under Applications. Microsoft really is 'special.'
Yes, this was a lot of work to make Stacks work, but even in Tiger it was helpful to have my Graphics, Video, Web and office productivity applications grouped. I don't like a gigantic Dock filled with occasionally used apps, but digging through the Applications folder in Finder isn't a great alternative. I do use Spotlight for launching my most frequently used apps.
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chuck said 4:12PM on 1-25-2008
I made a subfolder in /Applications called /iLife and moved (drag&drop) all iLife 08 programs there. Everything was fine until I first used iWeb'08. HTML snippets and GoogleMaps tools did not work. Several people on the discussion boards had the same problem without finding the cause. We all thought it was a bug with the app.
I incidentally moved iWeb back up to the default /Applications folder one day and found out that this was the problem. The other discussion board users also found their HTML/GoogleMaps problems went away when they moved iWeb'08 back to the default /Applications folder.
Dave said 10:02AM on 1-25-2008
Actually, you can move the 'Microsoft User Data' folder to ANYWHERE in the user 'Library'...I just moved mine to /Library/Preferences and opened Entourage (I use an Exchange server, so I have LOTS of data in there) and everything worked fine. No complaining at all. Try it...
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Bob S. said 10:05AM on 1-25-2008
Microsoft's far from the only offender here, including some very respected shareware authors, whom you'd think would be a little more user-centric. (One shareware app's documentation actually had a long, arrogant rant about how he was putting his data folder there because he didn't want to put it into the Library directory, and I'd better just suck it up if I wanted to use it. I use it, but he ain't getting his money.)
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