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Where Is the Applications Folder on a Mac & How to Open It?

Updated on Wednesday, January 3, 2024

iBoysoft author Anna Yuan

Written by

Anna Yuan
Professional tech editor

Approved by

Jessica Shee

English

Where Is the Applications Folder on a Mac & How to Open It?

The Applications folder on Mac holds all of your default macOS applications and the third-party applications. It also contains another folder named Utilities which includes the frequently-used macOS software such as Terminal, Activity Monitor, Disk Utility, Screenshot, and more.

For new Mac users, maybe it's not so easy to find where is the Applications folder on Mac. But don't worry, this post gives a clear guide on how to find the Applications folder on Mac. Just keep reading.

where is Applications folder on Mac

Table of Contents:

Where is the Applications folder on Mac

To find where is the Applications folder on a Mac is not so hard actually. Here we conclude 3 ways to open the Applications folder on Mac, you can try them one by one.

How to find the Applications folder on Mac using Finder sidebar

The easiest way to access the Applications folder on a Mac is using Mac Finder. You just need to launch Finder on your Dock, and then in the Finder sidebar, you can see the Applications folder over there.

How to access the Applications folder on a Mac with the Go menu

Another way to open the Applications folder on your Mac is also using the Mac Finder app. But this time, use the Go menu instead. Here's how to do it:

  1. Open Finder from your Dock.
  2. Select Go on the top menu bar.
  3. Choose Applications from the context menu or you can press the Shift + Command + A keys to bring up the Applications folder on Mac. 
    open Applications folder from Finder Go menu

How to open the Applications folder on Mac from Spotlight Search

The fastest way to open Mac's Applications folder involves using Spotlight Search. Just do the following:

  1. Click the Spotlight icon (the magnifying glass icon) at the top right corner of your Mac screen to open the Spotlight Search bar. Alternatively, you can press the Command + Space keys.
  2. Type in 'Applications' in the search box. 
  3. When the Applications folder shows up, select and double-click it to access it.
    find Applications folder using Spotlight Search

How to add the Applications folder to the Dock

As you can see, there are a few alternatives to find where is the Applications folder on Mac. But if you want to open the Applications folder from Mac Dock, here's the way:

  1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock to open a new Finder window.
  2. From the Finder sidebar, select the Applications folder.
  3. Right-click (control-click) it and select Add to Dock. And then the Applications icon will be put in the Dock and then you can access the Applications folder from Dock every time.
    show Applications folder on Dock

Can't find the Applications folder on Mac

If you follow the above tutorial step by step but still can't find the Applications folder on Mac. Maybe the Applications folder is hidden by macOS. You can make it appear in the Finder sidebar by doing the following:

  1. Open Finder and click Finder from the top menu bar.
  2. Select Preferences.
  3. Switch to the Sidebar tab.
  4. Check the Applications option under Show these items in the sidebar.
    cant find Applications folder on Mac