Shortcuts, how the pieces fit together, and answers to the questions that come up most.
| Shortcut | Does |
|---|---|
| ⌘⌥N | New turf from a folder |
| ⌘⌥H | Hide everything on the desktop, and bring it back |
| ⌘⌥O | Open the focused turf’s folder in Finder |
| ⌘, | Settings — from the menu bar icon |
| Shortcut | Does |
|---|---|
| ← ↑ ↓ → | Move the selection — inside a turf the grid wraps |
| a–z | Jump to a file by typing the first letters of its name |
| ⌘A | Select everything in the focused turf |
| Space | Quick Look — leave it open and keep arrowing to flip through |
| ⌘[ / ⌘] / ⌘↑ | Inside a folder turf: back, forward, enclosing folder |
| Shortcut | Does |
|---|---|
| ⌘⌫ | Move the selection to the Trash |
| ⌘Z / ⌘⇧Z | Undo / redo — fifty-step history; a multi-file drop undoes as one |
| ⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V | Copy, cut, paste files |
| ⌥ + drag | Copy instead of move when dragging into a folder turf |
| ⌘ + drag | Move out of one turf and into another, instead of adding to both |
| Shortcut | Does |
|---|---|
| ↩ | Rename the focused turf |
| ⌘⌫ | Remove the focused turf — with nothing selected inside it |
| ⌃ + scroll | Resize icons in whatever is under the pointer |
| ⌘= / ⌘- | Resize icons a step at a time |
| ⌥ + drag | Suspend snapping while placing a turf or icon by eye |
The title bar is optional, per turf. Always visible, hidden entirely, or fading in when you hover. Set a default in Settings ▸ Appearance and override it on any single turf from its right-click menu.
Three global toggles live in the View menu. Show Status Bars, Show File Names, and Adaptive Label Color — the last one samples your wallpaper so filenames stay readable over any background.
Tag turfs have a Desktop Only switch in their title bar. On, the turf shows only tagged items on your desktop. Off, it gathers everything with that tag anywhere on the Mac.
Colour tags can be shown four ways. Badge, border, background wash, or off — Settings ▸ Appearance.
Rolled-up turfs can peek on hover. Turn it on in Settings ▸ General and pick how long the pointer has to rest first.
Right-click is where the depth is. A turf’s title bar carries Roll Up, Appearance, Sort By, Combine with, and Reset Icon Size; the desktop carries New Turf, New Folder, Snap to Grid, Sort By and Clean Up By.
Copy Appearance and Paste Appearance. Style one turf the way you like it, then paste that look onto the rest.
Tag turfs are live searches, not folders. Tag a file Red anywhere on your Mac and it appears in your Red turf, wherever it actually lives.
Collections are a shelf, not a location. Pull a project’s files together from six different folders without moving a single one — and they follow the files if you later rename or move them.
Stack turfs as tabs. Drag one turf onto another to group them, then Convert to Tab Group. Hover a tab to peek inside; click to keep it open.
Put Turfs in the Dock and use it as a drop target. Settings ▸ General. Drop a folder to get a folder turf; drop a handful of files to get a collection.
Pin a turf. A pinned turf floats above your app windows — what you want for the one holding today’s work.
Make a turf without leaving Finder. Right-click any folder in Finder and choose Create Desktop Turf.
Select desktop icons, then right-click ▸ Create Turf from Selection. The fastest way to clear a messy desktop into something meaningful.
The one thing worth knowing up front: Turfs is a way of looking at your files, not a place to put them.
A real folder
A window onto a folder on disk. What’s in the folder is what’s in the turf, always. Dropping a file in moves it there for real.
A live search
Everything carrying one Finder tag, gathered from across the Mac. Dropping a file in applies the tag; the file doesn’t move.
A shelf of references
A hand-picked list that points at files wherever they live. Adding and removing changes the list, never the files.
What moves, and what doesn’t
Only a folder turf moves files, exactly the way Finder would — same disk moves, different disk copies, ⌥ forces a copy either way. Tag turfs write a Finder tag. Collections write a bookmark. In both cases the file stays where it is, and removing it from the turf removes the tag or the reference, never the file.
Managing the desktop
With Manage the desktop on, Turfs draws the loose-icon layer instead of Finder. Your files do not move — the same items are in ~/Desktop before and after. Turn the setting off, or quit Turfs, and Finder’s desktop comes straight back.
Where your setup is kept
Your turfs, their positions and their appearance live in ~/Library/Application Support/com.bloo.turfs/. Nothing about your files is sent anywhere — the only network calls Turfs makes are the update check and, once, licence activation.
Spaces and displays
A turf belongs to the Space it was made on. Settings ▸ Mission Control decides whether turfs show in Mission Control as windows — handy for dragging one to another Space — or stay on the desktop where Mission Control leaves them alone. Positions are remembered per display: unplug a monitor and its turfs park on the built-in screen; plug it back in and they return, even across a restart.
Permissions Turfs asks for
Accessibility, once, on first run. Without it macOS silently swallows the global ⌘⌥ shortcuts and desktop icons behave badly under Show Desktop. Grant it in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Accessibility. The Finder right-click item is a separate extension, enabled in System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items & Extensions ▸ Finder Extensions.
Tag turfs depend on Spotlight
A tag turf is a live Spotlight query. If the index is unavailable or mid-rebuild, the turf says so, offers a Retry, and recovers on its own once Spotlight answers again.
Trial, licence and updates
Ten days, everything unlocked, no account. When the trial ends Turfs becomes a viewer: your turfs stay on screen and keep working, but changes — new turfs, drops, renames, appearance — are held until you buy. One-time purchase, free updates, updates arrive through the app: menu bar icon ▸ Check for Updates.
If your question isn’t here, write to us — the list grows from what people actually ask.
Getting started
Do I have to move my files into turfs?
No. A folder turf shows a folder you already have. A tag turf and a collection gather files without touching where they live. You can organise your whole desktop without a single file changing address.
There’s no Turfs icon in my Dock, and it’s not in ⌘-Tab.
That’s deliberate — Turfs runs in the menu bar so it doesn’t take up a Dock slot for something you rarely click. Look for the grid icon in the menu bar. If you’d rather have the Dock icon, turn on Show Turfs in the Dock in Settings ▸ General.
How do I get the welcome tour back?
Menu bar icon ▸ Welcome Tour. It’s also in the Help menu when a Turfs window is frontmost.
Which should I use — a folder turf, a tag turf or a collection?
Use a folder turf when the grouping already exists on disk and you want dropping something in to genuinely file it. Use a tag turf for a status that cuts across folders — Red for urgent, Blue for approved. Use a collection for a temporary shelf: this week’s work, files from six places, none of which you want to move.
Desktop and displays
My desktop icons look slightly different since I installed Turfs.
With Manage the desktop on, Turfs draws them rather than Finder, so spacing and labels can differ a little. Nothing has moved. Settings ▸ Desktop turns it off if you’d prefer Finder’s own layer.
I double-clicked the desktop and everything vanished.
That’s the hide gesture — double-click again to bring it back, or press ⌘⌥H. In Settings ▸ Desktop you can choose what it hides: nothing, just the loose icons, or icons and turfs together.
A turf has disappeared.
Three usual causes: (1) Everything is hidden — press ⌘⌥H. (2) The turf is set to show on hover only — move the pointer over where it lives. (3) It’s on another Space. Turfs stay on the Space they were made on.
Can I move a turf to another Space?
Yes. Set Settings ▸ Mission Control to Show turfs as windows, open Mission Control, and drag the turf onto the Space you want.
I undocked my laptop and my turfs moved — some stacked on top of each other — and didn’t come back.
That was a bug, fixed in 1.2.1. Update from the menu bar icon ▸ Check for Updates. Turfs now records each turf’s real home position before parking it, so reconnecting restores the arrangement exactly.
Icons keep snapping to the grid and I want to place one by eye.
Hold ⌥ while you drag to suspend snapping for that one move. To turn it off altogether, Settings ▸ Desktop ▸ Snap.
How do I get the ordinary Finder desktop back?
Turn off Manage the desktop in Settings ▸ Desktop, or just quit Turfs. Either way Finder takes the desktop back immediately.
Tag turfs
My tag turf is empty, but I know files have that tag.
Check in order: (1) The Desktop Only switch in the turf’s title bar — switch it off to gather the whole Mac. (2) The tag name must match exactly, including case. (3) Spotlight — if its index is unavailable the turf will tell you and offer a Retry.
It says Spotlight’s index is unavailable.
Tag turfs are live Spotlight queries, so an index that’s rebuilding, disabled or damaged leaves them empty. Turfs keeps checking and refills on its own once Spotlight answers again. If it never recovers: sudo mdutil -E / in Terminal, then give it time to finish.
I dragged a file into a tag turf — has it moved?
No. A plain drag adds the tag and leaves the file exactly where it was. Hold ⌘ while dragging if you want it to leave the turf you took it from.
If I remove something from a tag turf, is it deleted?
No — it removes that tag from the file. To actually delete, use Move to Trash or ⌘⌫.
Files
If I delete a turf, do I lose the folder and the files in it?
Never. Deleting a turf removes the turf — the window and its settings. A folder turf’s folder, and everything inside it, is untouched.
I dragged files into the wrong turf.
⌘Z. A drop of twenty files undoes as one action, and the history goes back fifty steps.
Dragging into a folder turf moved my file — I wanted a copy.
Folder turfs follow Finder’s rule: same disk moves, different disk copies. Hold ⌥ as you drop to force a copy. ⌘Z puts an unwanted move straight back.
An item in a collection is showing as missing.
Collections track files by bookmark, so renaming or moving a file is fine — the reference follows it. Missing means the file was deleted, or it’s on a volume that isn’t mounted. Reconnect the drive and it returns on its own.
Some files show a cloud icon.
Those are iCloud Drive items that aren’t downloaded yet, badged the same way Finder badges them. Opening one downloads it.
The Finder right-click menu
“Create Desktop Turf” isn’t in Finder’s right-click menu.
Open Settings ▸ Finder Extension — it shows the extension’s live status and checks for the three things that break it: (1) The extension isn’t enabled — System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items & Extensions ▸ Finder Extensions, tick Turfs Finder Sync. (2) There’s a second copy of Turfs.app on your Mac — keep only /Applications/Turfs.app, delete the rest, and restart Finder. (3) Too many Finder extensions are enabled — turn some others off, then restart Finder. The Settings pane has a Restart Finder button.
Licence and purchase
How does the trial work?
Ten days from first launch, everything unlocked. No account, no card. The menu bar icon grows a small dot as the end approaches.
What happens when the trial ends?
Turfs becomes a viewer. Your turfs stay on screen, still showing your files, and Quick Look and opening files keep working. What pauses is making changes — new turfs, drops, renames, appearance edits — until you buy. Nothing is deleted and nothing is hidden.
What am I buying?
A one-time purchase for Turfs on your Mac, with free updates. No subscription.
How do I activate my licence?
Settings ▸ Licence. Enter the email you bought with and your licence key, and we’ll email a six-digit code to confirm it — valid for fifteen minutes. Lost the key? Reply to your purchase confirmation and we’ll resend it.
I reinstalled, or moved to a new Mac, and it’s asking me to activate again.
That’s expected — activation is per Mac. Use the same email and key. If you’re retiring a machine, click Deactivate on it first to free the activation.
Can I get a refund?
Within fourteen days, no argument. Reply to your purchase email.
How do I update?
Menu bar icon ▸ Check for Updates. Turfs also checks on its own and tells you when there’s something new.
Something’s wrong
The global shortcuts don’t do anything.
⌘⌥N and ⌘⌥H need Accessibility permission. System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Accessibility, switch Turfs on, then quit and relaunch.
A folder turf is showing files that aren’t there any more.
Folder turfs watch the folder and update themselves, so this is rare. If it happens, quit Turfs from the menu bar and reopen it — and please tell us what the folder was, because it’s a bug worth fixing.
Turfs feels sluggish with iCloud files.
Working out whether a file is downloaded means asking iCloud, which can be slow when a folder is mostly cloud-only. Turfs does that off to one side and caches the answers, so the first look at a large iCloud folder is the slow one and the rest are quick. If it stays slow, tell us the folder size and roughly how much of it is cloud-only.
Can I start over without losing my files?
Yes. Quit Turfs, move ~/Library/Application Support/com.bloo.turfs/ to your desktop, and launch again — you’ll get a clean setup with no turfs. Your files are untouched, and you can put the folder back to restore your old arrangement.
How do I report a problem usefully?
Email us with your Turfs version (menu bar ▸ About Turfs), your macOS version, and what you were doing just before it went wrong. A screenshot of the desktop helps more than you’d think.
