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I have my Finder window set up to display in "list" view so that it shows all folders with triangles on the left to click to expand. I have a number of levels of nested folders. Is there any way (keyboard shortcut, menu item, etc.) to expand all, so I don't have to click through each level to see the files contained?

3 Answers 3

74

Select the folder you want (or command + A to select all) and then press:

  • Command + right arrow

And the left arrow undoes what the right arrow did, should you want to close things back up again. Using option instead of command works on all folders enclosed in the selected folder. Both option and command modify a mouse selection on the folder toggle icon “triangle” or “arrow” to execute these shortcuts using the GUI.

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  • 9
    [option] + [right arrow] is enough Dec 21, 2013 at 10:35
  • 17
    [option] + [right arrow] expands all subdirectories as well, whereas [command]+[right arrow] expands only the selected directories Dec 10, 2014 at 14:47
  • 1
    option click recursively expands all subfolders whereas option right arrow expands all the selected folders but not the subfolders Aug 10, 2017 at 18:30
16

I find mouse/trackpad-clicking the triangle while holding the Alt/Option or Command key works too.

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  • 2
    This is a much better solution if you wanna expand the whole tree, including sub-trees!
    – M.K. Safi
    Jul 27, 2015 at 23:28
  • It does not work in all use cases. For example in "iCloud Drive", where you have no 'root' to click on. In these cases the accepted answer still works. But I agree, I use ⌥+click more often :) But it is still useful to have the accepted answer in your 'knowledge box' as well.
    – Kai Mechel
    Jul 6, 2018 at 8:21
8

To expand one single level folder

Command Right arrow

To expand all levels of subfolders under the selected folder.

Command Option Right arrow

OR

Option and click the triangle in folder view in Finder

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