How to See The Number of Files in a Folder on A Mac

Did you know that there is a simple way for you to see the number of files in every folder that you open on your Mac computer? This is information that you many not think you need, but once you have it turned on, you will appreciate it more than you think.

A bonus, is that not only will you see the number of files, you will also see the amount of available disk space on the disk that contains the folder you are looking at. This could be your internal hard drive, your Apple Cloud Drive, or an external drive.

I will walk you through the tutorial here.

Why This Information Is Helpful

Without going into too much detail, I will give you a few examples of how I use this information.

This week I was working on organizing my digital photos. I had a bunch of old photos stored on a cloud drive that I no longer use. So, I was downloading these to my computer for further processing. To make sure that I did not miss any photos, I simply checked the number of files in the cloud folder against the number of files in the folder I was using for these photo downloads on my Mac. It was a simple way to verify that I had not missed anything.

An easy way to “eyeball” it was to compare the total number of files in the old folder to the number of files in the new folder.

A second example, is from a time management perspective. I typically clean out my downloads folder on a regular basis, but I had gotten behind in my efforts. So, one day, I had a small block of time to spare. I took a look at the number of items in my downloads folder and immediately knew that there was too much for me to deal with in the time that I had available, so I chose to tackle a different project instead.

This little piece of information is useful to have and can aid in decision making without you even realizing it.

But how do you find this information?

I know my way around a Mac computer, but I couldn’t find the number of files in a folder on a Mac anywhere.

So, I did some research and figured it out – and decided to share it with you!

To View The Number of Files In A Folder Do This

If you have ever wondered how to view the number of files in a folder on a Mac, the process is really easy and this is how you do it using Finder.

1. Open a Finder Window

Open your folder in Finder (preferably the one that you want to know the count for).

2. Click on View in the Menu Bar

In the top menu bar, click on the View option.

3. Click on Show Status Bar

In the dropdown menu that opens up, click on Show Status Bar.

4. Look at the Bottom of Your Finder Window

Now at the bottom of your finder window, you should see a gray bar that tells you how many files or items are in that folder on your Mac. This will show on every Finder window that you open.

How To Turn It Off

If you don’t want to see the file count anymore, just reverse the process.

When you click on view in the menu bar now, the option in the dropdown menu has changed to “Hide Status Bar”.

Just click on this to turn it off.

More Technology Tips for You

I hope this technology tip makes your organizing your digital life a little easier. In my Digital Organization Guide, one point that I like to stress is that it important for you to know how to use the technology that you own. Being able to make full use of the features on all your devices can help to improve your personal productivity.

I have put together the following tutorials about features on Mac computers that have been helpful for me:

• Learn How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac
• How to Batch Rename Folders on a Mac
• How to Set Up the Right Click on a Mac

If this tutorial helped you out – please share!