Finder Get Info on Mac: Every Section Explained

Select any file in Finder and press Cmd+I: the Get Info window is the closest thing macOS has to a file’s ID card. Size, kind, location, extension, default app, permissions — it’s all in one panel, and half of it is editable. Here’s what every section actually does.

The sections, top to bottom

• Header and tags: the icon, name, and total size, with a tags field right underneath — type here to tag the file without leaving the window. Click the small icon and paste (Cmd+V) to give the file a custom icon; select the icon and press Delete to restore the default.
• General: the file’s Kind (what macOS thinks it is), exact Size in bytes, Where (its full path), and Created/Modified timestamps. Two checkboxes live here: Stationery pad makes every double-click open an untitled copy instead of the original — great for template files — and Locked blocks edits, renames, and casual deletion.
• More Info: metadata that varies by file type — pixel dimensions for images, duration for media, “Where from” (the download URL) for files that came off the internet, and the last-opened date.
• Name & Extension: rename the file, or toggle Hide extension. If a file seems to have “lost” its extension, this checkbox is usually why.
• Comments: free-text notes that Spotlight indexes — an underrated place to stash keywords for files with cryptic names.
• Open with: which app opens this file when double-clicked. Pick a new app in the menu to change it for this file only; click Change All… to make that app the default for every file of the same type. That’s the setting people hunt for when PDFs keep opening in the wrong app.
• Preview: a live thumbnail — audio and video will even play here.
• Sharing & Permissions: who can read or write the file. Click the padlock and authenticate to change privileges. See our full guide to changing file permissions on Mac before you edit anything here.

The Inspector: one window that follows your selection

Press Option+Cmd+I instead and you get the Inspector — visually almost identical, but it updates live as you click different files. Open it once, arrow through a folder, and watch the details change. It’s the fastest way to eyeball sizes or image dimensions across many files without a screen full of Info windows.

Get Info on many files at once

Select several files and press Cmd+I and you’ll get one window per file — messy past three or four. Hold Control too — Ctrl+Cmd+I — and Finder opens a single summary window showing the combined size of everything selected. That’s the quick way to answer “how big are these 200 photos?”, and checkboxes like Locked apply to the whole selection at once.

Three Get Info jobs worth memorizing

• Fix “opens in the wrong app”: Get Info → Open with → pick the right app → Change All…. Two clicks, permanent, and it beats fighting the Open With submenu every time.
• Find out where a download came from: More Info → “Where from” keeps the source URL of anything Safari or most browsers saved. Useful months later when you need the page again — or when you’re deciding whether to trust a file.
• Measure a folder: select a folder and press Cmd+I; the Size line starts as “calculating…” and fills in with the true total, including everything nested inside. For several folders at once, use the Ctrl+Cmd+I summary window instead of opening one panel each.

Everything in Get Info takes effect immediately — there’s no Save button. To undo a change, just flip the same control back: re-pick the old app, uncheck Locked, restore the extension checkbox.