How to Make Finder Always Open Grouped by Kind on macOS

If you’re tired of manually grouping files in Finder every time you open a new window, macOS offers a simple Terminal trick to make it remember your preferred layout — even after restarts. This guide walks you through both the visual method and the command-line solution that guarantees consistency.

🧭 Step 1: Set Finder to Grouped by Kind on macOS

1. Open a Finder window.
2. From the top menu bar, choose View → as Columns.
3. Then select View → Group By → Kind.

This ensures Finder organizes your files by type — Applications, Documents, Images, etc. However, Finder usually remembers this per folder. Let’s make it global next.

⚙️ Step 2: Use Terminal to Make It Global

You can use macOS’s built-in defaults command to tell Finder to always open in Column View Grouped by Kind on macOS

Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal) and enter the following commands:

defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredViewStyle clmv
defaults write com.apple.finder FXPreferredGroupBy Kind
killall Finder

🧩 Explanation:

• clmv → Column View (you can use icnv for Icon, Nlsv for List, or glyv for Gallery)
• Kind → Groups your files by type (Documents, Images, Applications, etc.)
• killall Finder → Restarts Finder to apply the change immediately

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🧹 Optional: Prevent Finder from Changing View Settings

If macOS sometimes resets your Finder preferences, you can disable automatic view adjustments:

defaults write com.apple.finder FXDisableAllViewOptions -bool true
killall Finder

To re-enable customization later, run:

defaults write com.apple.finder FXDisableAllViewOptions -bool false
killall Finder

🎉 Final Result

From now on, every Finder window you open will appear neatly grouped by Kind, in List View, and start in your preferred folder — no extra clicks required.

Want more simple yet powerful macOS tweaks like this? Explore more tips and tricks on Our Blog