MoloCommander › User Guide

MoloCommander User Guide

MoloCommander 1.0 · 1 November 2026

How to use MoloCommander, the dual-pane file manager for Mac: panes and tabs, copying and moving, the operation queue, undo, folder sync, thumbnails, cloud drives, themes and every keyboard shortcut.

1. Getting started

Requirements: a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

1. Open the downloaded MoloCommander-x.y.z.dmg and drag MoloCommander into Applications.
2. Start MoloCommander from Applications or Launchpad.
3. Paste the license key from your purchase page or e-mail and click Activate. The key is checked on your Mac — no account, no internet connection needed.

When you open folders such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads or an external drive for the first time, macOS asks whether MoloCommander may access them. Click Allow. You can change this later in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Files and Folders.

2. The window

The window has two equal panes. Usually the left one is the source and the right one the target, but both work the same way. The active pane is highlighted (an accent line, or the coloured path header in the classic themes); commands always act on it.

• Tabs — each pane can hold several tabs (⌘T new, ⌘W close, click to switch).
• Location bar — the drive menu, back / forward / up, the clickable path (double-click it to type a path), list or thumbnails, the filter field and the favourite star.
• File list — name, extension, cloud status, size, date modified and kind. Click a column header to sort.
• Status line — number of items, what is selected and its size, free space on the disk.
• Function-key bar — View, Edit, Copy, Move, New Folder, Trash, Rename and ZIP as buttons, so everything works with the mouse too.
• Toolbar — Undo, Compare, Synchronize, Swap panes, Workspaces, Hidden files and the operation queue.

3. Moving around

• Double-click a folder (or press Return) to open it; Backspace or ⌘↑ goes up; the .. row goes up too.
• Tab switches between the left and right pane.
• ⌘[ / ⌘] go back and forward in the pane's history.
• The drive menu (left of the path) lists system folders, cloud drives, disks, favourites and recent folders.
• ⌘= opens the same folder in the other pane; ⌘U swaps the panes.
• Type to filter: just start typing in the list — only matching names stay visible. Esc clears the filter.
• ⇧⌘. shows or hides hidden files.

4. Selecting and marking files

Choose the keyboard style under MoloCommander ▸ Settings ▸ Keyboard:

• Commander mode — the cursor bar moves with the arrow keys; Insert or Space marks the file under the cursor and moves down; ⇧↑ / ⇧↓ mark while moving. If nothing is marked, commands act on the file under the cursor.
• Mac mode — normal macOS selection; Space opens Quick Look.

In both modes a click selects, ⌘-click adds or removes a file, ⇧-click selects a range and ⌘A selects everything.

5. Copying and moving

• F5 copies and F6 moves the selection to the other pane. A small dialog shows the destination — you can type a different path.
• Drag and drop works between the panes, from and to Finder and other apps, and directly onto a folder. Between panes a drop copies; hold ⌘ to move or ⌥ to copy. Drops into cloud folders copy by default. You can make same-disk drops move in Settings ▸ Drag & Drop.
• Mac mode: ⌘C then ⌘V copies, ⌥⌘V moves (also between MoloCommander and Finder).

When a file already exists you choose Replace, Keep Both (the new one gets “(1)”), Skip or Stop. The dialog compares size and date and tells you which file is newer. Tick Apply to all to use the same answer for the rest of the job. Folders with the same name are merged; conflicts are then resolved file by file.

How copying stays safe: files are written under a temporary name and renamed only when they are complete, so an interrupted copy never leaves a half file. A replaced file goes to the Trash first. A move between two disks deletes the original only after the whole copy succeeded. On the same disk a move is instant.

6. The operation queue

Every copy, move, sync, ZIP and Trash job appears in the queue at the bottom of the window (toolbar button or ⌘J). Each job shows progress, files, bytes, speed and time left.

• Pause / resume and cancel any job; change the order of waiting jobs with the arrows.
• Copies and moves run one after another; Trash jobs run immediately.
• A job that skipped or could not copy something ends as Finished with problems — click problems to see which files and why, then Retry runs just those items again. MoloCommander never reports success when something was left out.
• If you quit while a job is running, MoloCommander asks first.

7. Trash, delete and undo

• F8 (or ⌘⌫, or forward delete fn⌫) moves the selection to the Trash. You can turn the confirmation off in Settings ▸ Safety.
• ⇧F8 or ⌥⌘⌫ deletes permanently — after a clear warning. This cannot be undone.
• Undo (⌘Z or the toolbar arrow) reverts the last rename, batch rename, new folder, copy, same-disk move, Trash, ZIP or sync — one step at a time. Moves between two disks and permanent deletes cannot be undone.
• Some cloud services have no Trash; MoloCommander tells you so instead of deleting silently.

8. New folders, renaming and batch rename

• F7 (or ⇧⌘N) creates a new folder.
• F2 (or ⇧F6) renames the selected item; the name is selected without the extension.
• Batch rename (⇧⌘M, or F2 with several files selected) builds new names from a pattern: [N] original name, [E] extension, [C] counter (start, step and digits are adjustable), [D] date modified. Add find & replace and lower/UPPER/Title case. The preview shows every new name and warns about duplicates before anything changes. One ⌘Z undoes the whole batch.

9. Quick Look, info and opening files

• F3 (or Space in Mac mode) opens Quick Look. Use the arrow keys to step through the files.
• F4 opens the selected files in your editor (TextEdit by default; choose another in Settings ▸ Editor).
• ⌘I shows Get Info: size (folders are measured), dates, kind, permissions, owner, cloud status, and for photos the resolution and camera, for videos the duration and resolution.
• The right-click menu offers Open, Open With, Show in Finder, Copy Path, Open in New Tab, Add to Favorites, Open in Terminal and more.

10. Thumbnails (media view)

Switch any pane between the list and thumbnails with the buttons in the location bar or ⌘1 / ⌘2 (on some keyboard layouts the menu shows a different symbol for the same key). Thumbnails show photos, HEIC, RAW (with macOS codecs), videos and PDFs, with resolution, size and — for videos — duration.

• A folder that is mostly photos and videos opens as thumbnails automatically (Settings ▸ Media). Your own choice is remembered per folder.
• All / Photos / Videos filters the view; the slider changes the thumbnail size.
• Files that live only in the cloud show their icon instead of a thumbnail, so nothing is downloaded just for a preview.

11. Folder sync

1. Open the two folders in the left and right pane.
2. Press ⇧⌘S or the Synchronize toolbar button.
3. Choose the direction: → left to right, ⇄ both ways or ← right to left; whether to include subfolders and hidden files; and how to compare — date and size, size only or content (byte by byte, slower).
4. Check the list. Every row shows both sides and the planned action; click the action to change it, or right-click several rows. Show identical also lists files that are already the same.
5. Click Synchronize. The sync runs in the queue and can be undone in one step.

Safety rules: a one-way sync never overwrites a newer file in the target and deletes nothing — unless you switch on Mirror, which moves items that are missing in the source to the Trash (after asking). In a two-way sync the newer file wins; files with the same date but different content are left for you to decide.

Compare folders (⇧⌘D) is the quick version: it only marks and selects new and changed files in both panes (green = only here, blue = newer here, orange = different size).

12. ZIP archives

• ⌥F5 (or Compress to ZIP in the right-click menu) packs the selection into a ZIP next to it — one item becomes name.zip, several become Archive.zip.
• ⌥F9 extracts the selected ZIP into the other pane. An archive with a single top-level folder gives you just that folder; otherwise a folder named after the archive is created.

13. Cloud drives, external disks and the network

• iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, Proton Drive — if the service's Mac app is installed, its folders appear in the drive menu under Cloud (each account separately). A small icon shows the state: cloud only, available offline, downloading or syncing.
• Right-click a cloud file: Make Available Offline downloads it, Remove Download frees space while it stays in the cloud.
• External SSD/USB drives appear under Disks; eject them from the drive menu.
• SMB / NAS: Go ▸ Connect to Server (⌘K) and enter an address such as smb://nas.local/share. macOS mounts it and it appears in the drive menu.
• For FTP, SFTP and FTPS servers use our sister app MoloFTP (the drive menu has a shortcut).

14. Favourites, history and workspaces

• The star in the location bar adds the current folder to Favourites (drive menu). Recently visited folders are under Recent.
• Workspaces save the tabs of both panes — e.g. “Photos → SSD” or “Projects → Dropbox”. Save with toolbar ▸ Workspaces ▸ Save Current as Workspace…, restore with one click.
• When you quit, MoloCommander remembers the open tabs and restores them next time.

15. Themes and settings

Choose a look under Settings ▸ Theme or View ▸ Theme:

• System — native macOS look, follows Light and Dark mode.
• Classic Commander — grey 3-D panels, navy cursor bar, marked files in red, folders in [brackets].
• Blue DOS — blue text-mode panels with a double frame, cyan cursor and yellow marks.

Other settings: keyboard mode, what a drag between panes does, the Trash confirmation, automatic thumbnails and the editor used by F4.

16. Keyboard shortcuts

On Mac keyboards the F-keys control brightness and volume by default. Hold fn while pressing them, or turn on “Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys” in System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ Function Keys.

17. Language, updates and your license

• The app speaks English, Slovak, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Croatian and Serbian. By default it follows the language of macOS; pick another one in MoloCommander ▸ Language — the app restarts and reopens your tabs.
• MoloCommander checks for updates once a day. Check now with MoloCommander ▸ Check for Updates…. Updates within version 1.x are free.
• MoloCommander ▸ License… shows your license ID. Keep the license e-mail — you can activate MoloCommander again on a new Mac with the same key.
• The license is for the Macs you own or use. For a team or company, write to support@molocommander.com.

18. Troubleshooting

• F-keys do nothing — see the note under Keyboard shortcuts (fn key), and check that the keyboard mode is set to Commander if you expect Commander keys.
• A folder can't be opened — macOS may have denied access. Allow MoloCommander in System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Files and Folders (or Full Disk Access for system folders), then refresh with ⌘R.
• The license key is not accepted — copy the whole key starting with MOLOC1., without spaces at the end.
• A copy finished with problems — open the problem list in the queue; typical causes are missing permissions, a full disk or a file in use. Fix the cause and press Retry.
• A cloud file opens slowly — it was cloud-only and is being downloaded by the cloud service first.

Still stuck? Chat with our AI assistant on WhatsApp +1 505 808 6915 (text only) or e-mail support@molocommander.com with your MoloCommander and macOS version.