captains-deck.com ~/guides/copy-move G.02.A · 6 min read ↑ updated 2026-01-15 --:--:--
Beginner G.02.A 6 min read

F5 copies. F6 moves.

Source on the left. Destination on the right. Press one key. That’s the whole workflow — and it’s genuinely faster than anything else.

The two-pane setup

Every file operation in Captain’s Deck follows the same flow:

  1. Navigate the active pane to the source folder.
  2. Navigate the other pane to the destination folder.
  3. Select files in the active pane (Space to toggle).
  4. Press F5 to copy or F6 to move.

The destination is implicit — it’s always the inactive pane. No drag, no dialog, no surprises.

Copying files — F5

Press F5 to copy selected files from the active pane to the inactive pane.

# Workflow 1. Tab to source pane → navigate to ~/Projects/site 2. Tab to other pane → navigate to /Volumes/Backup 3. Tab back; press Space on each file to select 4. Press F5 — confirm dialog appears 5. Enter to confirm, files copy with a progress bar

The confirm dialog lets you adjust the destination path before committing — useful when you want a sibling subfolder rather than the exact pane location.

Moving files — F6

F6 behaves identically to F5 but removes the source after a successful copy. On the same volume it’s instant — Captain’s Deck uses an atomic rename. Across volumes it’s a copy-then-delete with full progress.

Cross-volume moves are not atomic. If the move is interrupted, source files are kept until every byte lands. You’ll see a “cleanup pending” chip in the queue until the originals are removed.

Progress & the queue

Long operations queue up in the Activity panel (Cmd+Option+A). What you can do from there:

  • Reorder the queue by dragging rows.
  • Right-click any row for Pause / Resume / Cancel. As of 1.4.4.4 the buttons drive real provider-level cancellation — pausing an SFTP or S3 transfer actually stops moving bytes, and resuming picks back up.
  • Cap copy bandwidth from Settings → General → “Throttle local copies to” (Unlimited / 1 / 5 / 10 / 50 / 100 / 250 MB/s), or per-operation from the F5/F6 dialog’s Throttle popup. The cap is re-read on every chunk so you can change it mid-transfer. Applies to local copies and S3; SFTP throttling is on the roadmap.

Captain’s Deck shows speed, ETA, and per-file progress. For directory trees it walks ahead to estimate total size before starting.

Handling conflicts

When a file with the same name exists at the destination, you get five choices:

OOverwrite — replace destination
SSkip — leave destination, drop source
RRename — append “ (2)” to source
AApply to all — repeat choice for remaining
NNewer only — overwrite if source is newer

Advanced options

Hold Shift when pressing F5 / F6 to open the extended options dialog:

  • Filter pattern — only copy files matching a glob (*.swift)
  • Preserve attributes — keep mtime, permissions, extended attributes
  • Follow symlinks — copy targets vs preserve the link
  • Background — drop into the queue, keep working

Pro tips

  • Sync panes (=) — set the inactive pane to the active pane’s path. Useful before a copy to a sibling.
  • Swap panes (Cmd+U) — swap the contents of left and right. Reverse a backup direction in one keystroke.
  • Cmd+Y — Quick Look the cursor file at any point during a workflow.
  • Cmd+Shift+R — batch rename the selected files before (or after) you copy them.
  • Drag and drop — works between panes and to other macOS apps; useful for the occasional one-off.
The orthodox layout makes copy-move visible. You always see source and destination at once. No accidental drops, no “wait, where did it go?”

Tweaks

Theme
Motion