Smart Folders are a very useful feature in the Finder for providing live search results based on simple to extremely complex criteria. For example, if you want to keep an eye on large files on your drives, you can create a smart folder to find all files over 1 GB. Or do what I did and recreate the missing All My Files search that Apple removed from the Finder for no apparent reason with macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
However, there is an annoying aspect to Smart Folders: while creating one, you can choose to add it to the sidebar in the Finder. If you don’t choose to add it at the time, you’re probably wondering why you can’t link later. It has to do with how Apple stores these searches as pseudo-folders.
Here’s the trick to adding a sidebar link to a smart folder after it’s created:
- Select Go > Go to Folder.
- Enter
~/Library/Saved Searchesand press Return. - Select the saved search, which appears as a purple folder.
- Press Command-Control-T or choose Finder > Add to Sidebar.
- The link will appear at the bottom of your Favorites listings. Drag it to the desired position in the list.
You can also prune smart folders by removing their entries from the Saved Searches folder.
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