This brief guide will show you two different ways to easily display the total size of folders or multiple files in OS X.
- By default, Finder isn’t particularly great at giving you info when it comes to file sizes for folders or multiple files.
- Only when you select an individual file do you get file size information.
- If you install FinderFileSizes that all changes. Admittedly, the info isn’t displayed in Finder itself, rather your menu bar. But it’s very quick, easy to spot, and very helpful. As the screenshot below illustrates, when you select a folder, you’ll get the total size for all of the files it contains.
- If you select several files at once, the sum of those files is displayed.
folder view – number of files and total free space
number of files selected, total number of files and total free space
Individual file – file size finally displayed
- OK – maybe your menu bar is a bit cluttered as it is, and you don’t want to give away any more space just to display file sizes. That’s where CalculateSizeCM comes in. Once installed (very straight forward) and Finder is restarted, you can right-click (ctrl-click for you single button folks) and select Calculate Size….
- A small pop-up will appear with the info you were looking for (and then some).
- CalculateSizeCM works with volumes/drives too.
Thanks for your post on FinderFileSize.
What about the Inspector? Shouldn’t that get a mention?
Press Option-Command-I to get the inspector window, then click on any file or folder.
However it doesn’t tell you how many items inside each folder, only the total size, and the number of items you have selected.
So if you’re in a folder filled with multiple file types, say a mixture of JPEGs and PDFs, and you want to know how much room the JPEGs are taking up, change to List View and sort by Type. Then select all the JPEGs and press Option-Command-I to see the inspector window.
it could maybe also be a help for your readers to mention liquifile (www.liquifile.info) here. it does not only show you the sizes by number, but it is also vizualizing them. in addition it calculates the number of objects that are within folders/subfolders. if you flatten folters you will also spot the big files that are hidden deep within complex folder hierarchies. (calculating size of selected objects is planned for version 2.0).
all the best,
carsten