How to Automate File Tasks With the Shortcuts App on a Mac

October 14, 2026 · 7 min read

The Shortcuts app on a Mac does more with files than its iPhone origins suggest. It lists a folder, keeps the files that match, then moves, renames, compresses, converts or deletes them. Since macOS Tahoe, it can also run a shortcut by itself: when files arrive in a folder, when a drive is connected, or at a set time.

The short answer: build the file steps with Shortcuts' own actions, run the shortcut from the menu bar, the Finder or an automation, and add the actions of the apps you already use. Folia Files brings its own to Shortcuts: open a saved set of panes or a favorite folder, apply one of its automatic rules, start a sync or a backup, connect to a server, search inside your files. Here is what each side does, and how they fit together.

A Folia Files tab with three panes: the Atlas project as a tree on the left, the trip photos as icons above the invoices in a list on the right. Saved as a scene, this tab reopens exactly like this from a shortcut

What Shortcuts does with files on its own

The file actions

Create a shortcut in the Shortcuts app, then look for these in the action library:

Get Contents of Folder lists what a folder holds.
Filter Files keeps the files whose name, extension, size or dates match your conditions.
Move File, Rename File and Create Folder put them where they belong.
Delete Files moves them to the Trash, unless you turn on Delete Immediately.
Make Archive, Extract Archive, Resize Image, Convert Image and Make PDF turn them into something else.
Get Selected Files in Finder starts from what you selected, and Reveal Files in Finder shows the result.
Repeat with Each handles a list of files one at a time.

A shortcut that files your PDFs takes three actions: Get Contents of Folder on Downloads, Filter Files to keep the PDFs, then Move File to a folder in Documents.

Ways to run a shortcut

In a shortcut's details, Pin in Menu Bar puts it in the menu bar. Use as Quick Action adds it to the Finder's Quick Actions and to the Services Menu, so it can work on the files you selected. Add Keyboard Shortcut gives it a key combination, and Spotlight finds it by name.

Automations, since macOS Tahoe

The Automations section of the Shortcuts sidebar runs a shortcut without you. The triggers that matter for files:

Folder: when items are added to a folder you choose.
File: when a file's contents change or it's renamed.
External Drive: when a drive is connected or disconnected.
Time of Day: at the time you set.
App: when an app opens or closes.

Two limits come from macOS itself: a folder automation can't watch a folder on an external drive, and macOS turns it off when the folder holds more than 10,000 items.

Where Shortcuts stops

A shortcut doesn't show you what it is about to move, and Shortcuts has no Undo for a move or a rename once it's done. Every condition and every destination is an action you assemble, test and keep up to date yourself. For a short chain you run now and then, that's fine. For filing that never stops, you want a preview first and an undo afterward.

The Folia Files actions in Shortcuts

Folia Files adds 13 actions to Shortcuts, 12 in the Mac App Store edition, which has no sync action. They act on what you have already set up in the app, so the shortcut itself stays short.

Open your workspace: scenes and favorites

A scene is a tab saved under a name: its panes, their folders and how each pane shows its files. Arrange a tab, then choose Window › Scenes › Save Tab as Scene… (also in the toolbar's Layouts button).

Open a Folia Files Scene opens a scene in a new tab; turn on Instead of the Current Tab to replace the tab you're in.
Open a Folia Files Favorite opens a folder of the left sidebar's Favorites in a new tab.
Open in Folia Files takes the files or folders of an earlier action: folders open in new tabs, a file shows selected in its folder.

An App automation that opens your project's scene when you launch your editor, or a Time of Day one at 9:00, puts the right folders on screen before you go looking for them.

Run your rules, syncs and backups

Apply a Folia Files Rule runs one of your automatic rules (Tools › Automatic Rules…) right away, on whatever matches in its folder, even if the rule is switched off. It returns the number of items handled. What it moves, renames or trashes goes into the history of the toolbar's Operations button, where it can be undone.
Run a Folia Files Backup starts a saved backup (Tools › Backups…), as Back Up Now does.
Run a Folia Files Sync, in the website edition, starts a saved sync (Tools › Sync…) the way a scheduled sync runs: it never stops to ask, and a mirror sync that would delete many files, or that writes to a destination you never confirmed, is skipped instead of run.

The Sync tool of Folia Files with a saved sync: the Iceland trip photos copied to pCloud every day, last run two hours ago. Run a Folia Files Sync starts it from a shortcut

Folia Files already runs these on its own: a rule when something lands in its folder, a backup every hour, day or week, or When the destination disk is connected. The actions are for the times you'd rather pick the moment, or chain several steps. One handy pattern: leave a rule off, check what it would do in its Now preview, and let a Time of Day automation apply it each evening.

Connect, search and the Shelf

Connect with Folia Files mounts a saved connection, such as a NAS or a server, and returns its folder, so the next action can work in it. Open It in Folia Files, on by default, also shows it in a new tab. In the Mac App Store edition, it offers the connections that edition can open.
Search File Contents with Folia Files looks through the text of documents, what photos show and the text in screenshots, by words, or by meaning in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. It searches what Folia Files has read on your Mac (Documents, Desktop, Downloads and Pictures, under Settings › Files and Network › Content Search), never online, and returns the files. This guide to searching inside files shows the same search in the app.
Search Files with Folia Files finds items by name in Folia Files' own index, instantly, without Spotlight.
Get Folia Files Selection and Get Folder Shown in Folia Files return what's selected in the active pane and the folder it shows: the Folia Files counterpart of Get Selected Files in Finder, ready for Rename File, Make Archive or Convert Image.
Put on Folia Files Shelf and Get Folia Files Shelf Contents fill and read the Shelf, where Folia Files keeps files at hand.

In Spotlight

On macOS Tahoe, Spotlight runs app actions and shortcuts directly, in its Actions category, so Folia Files' actions are there without opening the Shortcuts app. Folia Files also gives Spotlight the names of your scenes, favorites and connections (from macOS Sequoia on), and updates them a few seconds after you change one, so they come up by name when an action asks for one.

Three shortcuts to start with

Start the day: a Time of Day automation with Connect with Folia Files for your NAS, Open It in Folia Files off, then Open a Folia Files Scene for your work tab.
End of day: Apply a Folia Files Rule to tidy Downloads, then Run a Folia Files Backup for Documents. Pin it in the menu bar, or give it a Time of Day automation.
Find and gather: Search File Contents with Folia Files with What You're Looking For set to Ask Each Time, then Put on Folia Files Shelf. The files you were after wait on the Shelf, ready to drag into an email.

Which one to use

Shortcuts' own file actions are enough for a quick chain you run from time to time. For filing that runs all day, with a preview before and an undo after, set the step up as a Folia Files rule and let Shortcuts decide when it runs. Rules sit with the other file tools, and syncs and backups have their own page. If the sync itself isn't set up yet, this guide to keeping two folders in sync walks through it.