Veeoh Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Hi, I want to move the location of my Applications folder to a new drive due to space issues. Is this possible? If so whats the best way to achieve this? Cheers! =V= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 I wouldn't advise it for a lot of the Apple Apps, because that direct path is needed to do any upgrades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedragon1971 Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Hi, I want to move the location of my Applications folder to a new drive due to space issues. Is this possible? If so whats the best way to achieve this? Cheers! =V= As the Moose said, don't do it directly for the Apple apps, but create a second Applications folder on whatever other drive you like and move any other apps you have installed there. There is one way to do it for all of your apps, by creating a symbolic link from your main Applications folder to the folder on another drive. First, move the Applications folder wherever you like, then in Terminal type: sudo ln -s /Volumes/your_other_drive/Applications /Applications This will create a link from the new folder to the original location. I've done this before with my iTunes and iPhoto libraries, but I've never actually tried it with the Applications folder. It SHOULD work the same, however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrrjrr Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 I tried the symbolic link thing on the whole Applications folder a ways back. A few apps broke, but most worked. However, many updates, patches and add-ons to these programs that I installed afterwards were very confused by the symlink, putting some stuff into the linked Applications folder and some into a new "original" Applications folder off the root of the boot drive. It made a big mess in the end. It is better I think to choose just a few large applications and experiment moving them to another folder, and see if they will run from there ok, and then delete the original copies of those that do. When it comes time to do an update or some such on those apps, temporarily move the app back to the original Applications folder, update it, etc, and then move it out again. Install any new apps that will let you install to a remote folder in the other location and make a note somewhere that they don't need to be moved around to update them because the updater will either find them or let you tell it where to look. Avoid moving the entire Applications folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedragon1971 Posted April 12, 2006 Share Posted April 12, 2006 I tried the symbolic link thing on the whole Applications folder a ways back. A few apps broke, but most worked. However, many updates, patches and add-on to these programs that I installed afterwards were very confused by the symlink, putting some stuff into the linked folder and some into the initial fiolder. It made a big mess in the end. It is better I think to choose just a few large applications and experiment moving them to another folder, and see if they will run from there ok before deleting the original copies. Avoid moving the entire Applications folder. Good to know, thanks. I've done it before with iPhoto and iTunes, with no ill effects, but I guess some apps can be much more picky (honestly, it's a poorly coded app that won't correctly follow a symbolic link). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veeoh Posted April 12, 2006 Author Share Posted April 12, 2006 thanks all will try to move all MY apps later and leave the apple ones where they are thanks again, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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