FileWorks

A lean, native dual-pane file manager for macOS — built for people who move a lot of files: a transfer queue, browsable archives, multi-rename, checksums and your own tools.

Free for macOS

Download for macOS

FileWorks requires macOS 26 or later

Read the manual

Free

No trial, no nag screen, no account

Native

Native macOS app with Quick Look, Finder tags, and comments

Multilanguage

Interface and manual available in English and German

Everything serious file work needs

Not a pile of settings — a set of tools that each remove one recurring annoyance.

Two panes, or one

Source and destination side by side. Hide the second pane with ⌥⌘2 and nothing else changes.

A real transfer queue

Jobs run one after another with progress, speed, ETA and cancel. Failures stay until you've seen them.

Archives as folders

Walk into a ZIP, 7z, tar, rar or iso. Pack with a password, and verify an archive entry by entry.

Multi-rename

Patterns, counters, dates, search & replace, RegEx — with a live preview that blocks every clash.

Checksums that answer questions

Did my copy arrive intact? Do I have this twice? Is this download genuine? SHA-256 says so.

Real Finder tags

The same coloured labels macOS uses — written straight into the file, found system-wide via Spotlight.

Built for the keyboard

⇥ switches pane, ⇧Space marks and moves on, ⌘1 + three letters jumps to any drive.

Your own tools

Turn any app, script, one-liner or Shortcut into a button — with placeholders and safe quoting done for you.

Cloud files, handled

Cloud-only files are downloaded as part of the job — so a copy is a copy, never a hollow placeholder.

Three ways to find

Mask-mark here, quick-filter the list, or search recursively — results stream in live, archives included.

The Drop Shelf

Park files from anywhere in the sidebar, then drag the whole collection out at once — or keep it for the next destination.

Nothing half-written

Every file lands via a temporary copy and is swapped in at once. Cancel anything and the old state is back.

Marks, not luck

Mark first, then act

A mark is a second layer on top of the selection — and it stays. Move the cursor, click elsewhere, filter the list: the marks hold until you clear them.

Every command works on the marks when there are any, and on the selection when there aren't. So if you never mark anything, FileWorks simply behaves like Finder.

Custom tools

Teach it your own moves

The simplest tool takes half a minute and no code: pick an app, and marked files open in it. From there it scales to shell one-liners, scripts and Shortcuts.

Multi-rename

300 files, one pattern

Combine names, counters, dates, and parent folders into reusable rename patterns. Preview every result before anything changes.

[N] for the name, [C10+5:3] for a counter, [d] for the date, [P] for the parent folder — combined however you like, with search & replace and RegEx on top.

Every result is previewed before anything happens, duplicates and invalid names block the rename, and a scheme you like becomes a preset.

Your files go only where you send them.

FileWorks has no account, analytics, or cloud backend. It never uploads your files or configuration to us.

Everything stays local.

Your configuration lives on your device — there is no cloud back end and no user account.

Nothing is collected.

FileWorks does not collect analytics, create user profiles, or upload your configuration to a cloud service.

Notarized by Apple.

Every release is checked by Apple for known malicious software before distribution.

Frequently asked Questions

Is FileWorks really free?

Yes — the whole app, with no trial and no feature behind a wall. FileWorks is free.

If you would like to support its development, take a look at Start, another app from me - available on the App Store and on Setapp.

Your purchase of Start supports the ongoing development of both apps.

Does it send anything home?

No. Everything stays on your Mac: no collection, no transmission, no cloud service. The app is notarized by Apple.

Release Notes

v1.2

The first releases were internal only – now, with version 1.2, FileWorks is seeing the light of day. In that sense, listing the new features doesn’t make much sense … practically everything is new – so just take a look at the website and the online manual :-)