ForkLift for macOS

Description

ForkLift is a dual-pane file manager for macOS that connects to local folders and remote servers in the same window.

Move files between two places

Drag between local folders, or between your desktop and an S3 bucket. The dual-pane view works horizontally or vertically, and you can collapse it to a single pane when you don't need the split.

Connect to remote servers

It talks FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, NFS, AFP and Amazon S3. Add your servers once, then treat them like local folders—including searching by name, extension, text or tags across remote volumes.

Preview without opening

Select a file and the preview pane shows photos, PDFs and other common formats. You can also bounce straight into Terminal, iTerm or Hyper from the current folder.

Fewer beachballs when moving large batches

Version 4.7.6 is a quiet release. The changelog mentions user experience improvements when interacting with files, which in practice means fewer beachballs when moving large batches between panes and smoother drag-and-drop onto remote volumes. If you use ForkLift daily, you notice small things: selection stays put when you switch tabs, and the progress indicator no longer jumps to the wrong file when a transfer queue is long.

The same build fixes two issues specific to macOS 27 Golden Gate. One involved the app misreporting free space on mounted network drives; the other affected keyboard navigation in the preview pane. If you were waiting to update because of either, this is the release that clears them.

System requirements and first launch

macOS 12 or later on Intel

ForkLift 4 runs on macOS 12 or later, on Intel architecture. If you're still on an older system, you'll need to stay with an earlier version of ForkLift. The installer is a standard disk image—mount it, run the Gatekeeper-friendly opener, and drag the app to Applications. If Terminal asks you to press Enter to bypass Gatekeeper, that's normal for this build.

Is it a Finder replacement?

It can be. Many people use ForkLift as their default file manager because it opens archives as folders, searches remote servers the same way it searches local drives, and keeps two locations visible at once. You don't have to abandon Finder—you can use ForkLift only when you need FTP, sync or comparison features.

Can I edit files directly on a server?

Yes. The built-in text editor works on local and remote files without downloading them first. Save, and the file uploads back to the server. For heavier editing, you can open the current folder in Terminal, iTerm or Hyper and work from the command line.

Does it handle archives without extracting them?

It browses zip, tar, gz and similar archives as if they were folders. You can preview a file inside an archive, copy a single item out, or drag files into an archive without unpacking the whole thing first.

Cmd+1 for single-pane view

• Single-pane toggle: Press Cmd+1 for one pane, Cmd+2 for two. The layout stays where you left it between launches.
• Open in Terminal: The keyboard shortcut is Cmd+Shift+T. It opens the current pane's folder in your default terminal app.
• Search modifiers: Type name:, ext: or tag: before a search term to narrow results without opening the search options panel.
• Sync presets: Save a one-way or two-way sync configuration as a favourite. You can run it again from the favourites bar without re-selecting folders every time.
• Archive browsing: Double-click an archive to enter it like a folder. Drag a file out to extract just that file, or drag a file in to add it to the archive.

None of these are advertised loudly, but they're the sort of thing you miss when you go back to Finder for a day.

What’s new

• Improves the feel of day-to-day file interactions.
• Fixes two issues specific to macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Requirements

• macOS 12 or later
• Intel only