How to change the sidebar in Finder on Mac: add, remove and reorder items

The Finder sidebar is the column on the left side of every Finder window. It holds shortcuts to the places you use most, such as your Desktop, Documents, and external drives. Changing it means three things. You decide what shows, what order it shows in, and how much room it takes up on screen.

Show or hide the sidebar in Finder

The fastest way is the keyboard. Press Option-Command-S (⌥⌘S) while a Finder window is in front. Apple lists this shortcut as hiding or showing the sidebar in Finder windows. Press it again to bring the sidebar back. The same shortcut works in both directions, so you never need to hunt through a menu.

If you prefer the menu, click View in the menu bar. Choose View > Hide Sidebar to remove the sidebar. While it is hidden, the same menu offers View > Show Sidebar instead. Choose that item to bring the sidebar back on screen.

When Show Sidebar is greyed out

Sometimes View > Show Sidebar is dimmed, so you cannot click it. The toolbar is the usual cause. Apple says that hiding the toolbar also hides the sidebar. Choose View > Show Toolbar first. Then open the View menu again and pick Show Sidebar.

You can rearrange toolbar items by holding Command and dragging them. Apple's toolbar page covers that process. It is separate from the sidebar list, so only touch the toolbar if you want to change it.

Choose which items appear in the sidebar

The sidebar is a list of shortcuts. Each entry points to a place on your Mac or a connected disk. Apple calls these items aliases. You control the whole list from one pane. Open Finder > Settings, click Sidebar, then check the items you want and uncheck the rest.

Finder > Settings is where current Apple pages send you. Older guides say Finder > Preferences. The menu sits under the menu named Finder, just to the right of the Apple logo. If Settings is missing, make sure Finder is the active app, because the Finder menu only shows while Finder is in front.

The Settings window has four panes: General, Tags, Sidebar, and Advanced. You want the Sidebar pane. Each item in that pane is a checkbox. Ticked items show in the sidebar. Unticked items disappear from the list, but the folders themselves stay where they are.

Apple says the Sidebar pane also controls the quick-access items you see in Open and Save dialogs. That makes it worth a look if you often save files from other apps. A tidy list in Settings means a tidier list in those dialogs too.

Add a folder, disk, file or app to Favorites

Favorites is the section for places you open every day. You add to it by dragging. Open a Finder window, find the folder or disk, and drag it onto the Favorites section. Let go when the list shows it. Apple says this works for folders and disks.

Files and apps need one extra key. Hold the Command key before you start dragging, and keep it held until you drop the item into Favorites. Apple's instructions call this out for files and apps. Without Command, the drag is meant for folders and disks.

Example: a client folder

Say your client files live in Documents > Clients > Northwind. You open that folder, then drag it into Favorites. It appears in the sidebar, and one click takes you there from any Finder window. The folder itself stays where it is, because sidebar items are aliases.

Now say you also need one spreadsheet from the same project every week. Hold Command, then drag that file into Favorites. It sits beside the folder. This works well for a single file you open often, such as a budget or a list of invoices.

Reorder the items in the sidebar

Drag an item up or down inside the list to move it. Put the places you open most near the top. Move rarely used items toward the bottom. There is no separate ordering menu. The drag is the whole method.

A practical order for many people puts Desktop and Downloads at the top, the active project folder next, external drives after that, and rarely used places last. Check the order after a week. Move anything you have not touched since.

Remove an item without deleting the file

Drag the item out of the sidebar. Keep the mouse button or trackpad pressed, and move the pointer away from the list. Watch for the Remove sign. When it appears, let go. The alias leaves the sidebar.

If you are not sure what an item is, open it first. Check where it lives in a Finder window. Then remove the alias. You can add it back with the drag from the earlier section.

Collapse, expand and resize the sidebar

Hover over a section heading in the sidebar. Show and Hide buttons appear beside it. Click Hide to fold that section away. Click Show to open it again. A folded section keeps a long list short without removing any items.

To change the width, drag the thin divider between the sidebar and the file list. Pull it right to widen the sidebar, so long folder names read more easily. Pull it left to give more room to the files.

Fix a missing Favorites section

Sometimes Favorites does not show at all. Apple's fix is to select at least one item in the Favorites section under Finder > Settings > Sidebar. Open that pane, find the Favorites list, and tick at least one item. The section should return to the sidebar.

Check the toolbar as well. If the toolbar is hidden, the sidebar is hidden with it. Choose View > Show Toolbar, then look at the sidebar again.

Common mistakes when changing the Finder sidebar

• Looking for Finder > Preferences. Current Apple pages say Finder > Settings. Older guides may still use the old name.
• Dragging a file or app without the Command key. Apple's instructions say to hold Command for files and apps.
• Thinking removal deletes the file. Sidebar items are aliases, so the original stays where it is.
• Hiding the toolbar and wondering where the sidebar went. Hiding the toolbar also hides the sidebar.
• Pressing Command-Comma from another app. It opens that app's settings, not Finder's.

Keyboard shortcuts for the sidebar and Finder views

Those four cover most sidebar work. The path bar shortcut is worth knowing too. It shows the folder path in a Finder window, which helps when you are hunting for a file deep in a folder tree.

Command-1 through Command-4 switch the view of a Finder window. ⌘1 shows icons, ⌘2 list, ⌘3 columns, and ⌘4 gallery. Column view shows the sidebar and each level of folders side by side, so a tidy sidebar pairs well with it.

Which macOS version you are on

Finder's customizable sidebar has been around for a long time. Wikipedia says Mac OS X Panther (10.3) added it. The steps in this guide use current Apple naming, so they should match recent macOS releases.

Wikipedia lists macOS 27.0 as released on September 14, 2026, and Apple's keyboard shortcuts page carries that same date. No official Apple changelog I could open lists sidebar changes in macOS 27. If a menu name looks different on your Mac, check the Apple page that matches your version.

What to do after the sidebar looks right

Once the sidebar is set, check the Favorites list about once a month. Remove anything you no longer open. Add the new project folders you started since the last check. A short list is easier to scan, and it keeps Open and Save dialogs quick too.