If you have an application and I have an application we have the same file here. The idea here is the Applications themselves are exactly the Applications. So for instance here if I look in the Audio folder here I'll see various things that are used by GarageBand, maybe LogicPro if you have that, and maybe other music and audio recording apps as well. This will contain support files for different apps. Now you also have a folder here called Library.
#APPLE FILE FORMAT INSTALL#
So when you install new apps, say in the Mac App Store or using a third party app installer, it's going to end up here at the System level or Main level in the Applications folder. Install it once in the computer and both user accounts can access Pages. You don't have to install Pages and your spouse install Pages as well. The reason this is at the System level is that if you have multiple user accounts on your Mac, say for you and your spouse, you can share the same apps. Any app that you install on your Mac is probably going to end up here. Things like Pages, Numbers, Keynote, TextEdit, Mail, Safari. The is a good thing because it protects your system against malware because even if you install a piece of malware it can't write to the system. You can't do anything to alter them, at least not easily. You can't actually go in here and edit the files. In Catalina and beyond it is also Read Only.
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This contains the macOS Operating System. The first one that I want to point out is the System folder. In macOS Catalina at the top level we have four folders here. This is also referred to as the Internal Drive or Main Drive of your Mac. But for most of us it's going to be the default Macintosh HD. Now it may be called Macintosh HD but it doesn't have to be. But what we're interested in here is your Macintosh hard drive. I've got two here and an item here to access Network things.
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You'll also see any other external drives. Now here at the top level we'll see our main hard drive. I'm going to go to the computer level, so the top level. But it can be useful to understand how your Mac works and get more out of it. So you don't need to know why different folders and files are in different places on your Mac. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts. There you can read more about the Patreon Campaign. MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 750 supporters.
![apple file format apple file format](https://images.template.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/08161419/Multipurpose-Sports-Event-Flyer1.jpg)
Today let's take a look at your Mac's hard drive to understand how files and folders are organized. Check out Understanding the File And Folder Structure Of Your Mac at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.