Documentation
Everything you need to know about using Trove File Explorer
Getting Started
Trove File Explorer is designed to feel familiar while offering powerful features. If you've used Windows Explorer or Finder, you'll feel right at home.
Key Concepts
- "New" Menu: Create new Text, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, CSV, JSON, XML, HTML, and ZIP files directly from the context menu
- Tabs: Open multiple folders in tabs, just like browser tabs
- Panels: Split your view into up to 4 independent panels
- Sidebar: Navigate using favorites, locations, and a recursive tree view
- View Modes: Switch between Grid, List, and Gallery views
- Archive Support: Compress to ZIP, TAR.GZ, or TAR — extract ZIP, 7-Zip, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, and more
- Cloud Storage: iCloud (with status badges, Download Now & Remove Download), Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox appear automatically
- Open in Terminal: Open any active folder in your terminal shell with a click
View Modes
Trove offers multiple ways to browse your files. Switch between them using keyboard shortcuts or the View menu.
| Shortcut | View Mode | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘ 1 | Grid View (Small) | Compact icon grid for browsing many files |
| ⌘ 2 | Grid View (Medium) | Balanced icon size with thumbnails |
| ⌘ 3 | Grid View (Large) | Large thumbnails for visual browsing |
| ⌘ 4 | List View | Detailed list with sortable columns |
| ⌘ 5 | Gallery View | Full preview with horizontal filmstrip |
Zoom Controls
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘ + | Zoom In (increase icon size / row height) |
| ⌘ - | Zoom Out |
| ⌘ 0 | Reset Zoom |
Tabs & Panels
Work with multiple folders simultaneously using tabs and multi-panel layouts.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘ T | Open new tab |
| ⌘ W | Close current tab / window |
| ⌘ ⌃ T | Add panel (cycles: Single → Split V → Split H → Quad) |
| ⌘ ⌃ W | Close panel (cycles back) |
Multi-Panel Layouts
- Single: Standard single-panel view
- Vertical Split: Two panels side by side
- Horizontal Split: Two panels stacked
- Quad: Four independent panels
Each panel has its own navigation history, view mode, and file operations.
File Operations
Manage your files with familiar shortcuts. Trove supports full undo/redo for all operations.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Quick Look preview |
| Enter | Open selected item |
| ⌘ ⇧ R | Rename selected item |
| ⌘ C | Copy |
| ⇧ + Right-Click | Copy as Path (or enable permanently in Settings) |
| ⌘ X | Cut |
| ⌘ V | Paste |
| ⌘ A | Select All |
| ⌫ / Delete | Move to Trash |
| ⇧ ⌫ | Delete Immediately (no Trash) |
| ⌥ + Drag | Show Move/Copy Menu on Drop |
| ⌘ Z | Undo |
| ⌘ ⇧ Z / ⌘ Y | Redo |
Conflict Resolution
When copying or moving files, if a conflict occurs you can choose:
- Skip: Don't copy/move the conflicting file
- Replace: Overwrite the existing file
- Merge: Combine folder contents (folders only)
- Keep Both: Rename the new file automatically
Search
Find files quickly with powerful search filters.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘ F | Focus search input |
| Escape | Clear search / Deselect all |
Search Filters
- Scope: Current folder only, or include all subfolders
- Content: Search inside file text and document contents
- Type: All, Folders, Documents, Images, Videos, Audio, Archives
- Date: Today, Yesterday, This Week, Last Week, This Month, etc.
- Size: Small (<1 MB), Medium (1-10 MB), Large (10-100 MB), Very Large (>100 MB), Huge (>1 GB)
- Tags: Filter by one or more Finder tags
- Glob/Regex: Use patterns like
*.pdfor regex matching - Group by Location: Group results by parent folder
Display & Toggles
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘ ⌃ S | Toggle Sidebar |
| ⌘ ⇧ . | Toggle Hidden Files |
| ⌘ ⌥ I | Toggle File Information Panel |
| ⌘ R | Reload / Refresh |
Network & Servers
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌘ K | Connect to Server |
The Connect to Server dialog supports:
- SMB shares (Windows/Samba)
- AFP shares (Apple Filing Protocol)
- FTP & SFTP servers
- NFS mounts
- WebDAV servers
- Auto-discovered servers via Bonjour
Complete Keyboard Shortcuts Reference
Print-friendly reference of all keyboard shortcuts.
Tabs & Panels
| ⌘ T | Open new tab |
| ⌘ W | Close tab / window |
| ⌘ ⌃ T | Add panel |
| ⌘ ⌃ W | Close panel |
Navigation
| ⌘ ← | Go Back |
| ⌘ → | Go Forward |
| ⌘ ↑ | Enclosing Folder |
| ⌘ L | Edit path |
| ⌫ | Go Back |
View Modes
| ⌘ 1–3 | Grid (S/M/L) |
| ⌘ 4 | List View |
| ⌘ 5 | Gallery View |
Display
| ⌘ ⌃ S | Toggle Sidebar |
| ⌘ ⇧ . | Hidden Files |
| ⌘ ⌥ I | Info Panel |
Zoom
| ⌘ + | Zoom In |
| ⌘ - | Zoom Out |
| ⌘ 0 | Reset |
File Operations
| Space | Quick Look |
| Enter | Open |
| ⌘ ⇧ R | Rename |
| ⌘ C | Copy |
| ⇧ + Right-Click | Copy as Path |
| ⌘ X | Cut |
| ⌘ V | Paste |
| ⌘ A | Select All |
| ⌫ | Trash |
| ⇧ ⌫ | Delete |
| ⌘ Z | Undo |
| ⌘ ⇧ Z | Redo |
General
| ⌘ R | Reload |
| ⌘ F | Search |
| ⌘ K | Connect to Server |
| ⌘ ⌥ T | Open in Terminal |
| Home | First item |
| End | Last item |
| Escape | Deselect all |
FAQ
Why don't MKV files (and other video formats) show thumbnail previews?
Trove uses macOS's built-in Quick Look framework to generate file thumbnails. Quick Look only supports a limited set of formats natively — common formats like MP4 and MOV work out of the box, but containers such as MKV, AVI, FLV, WebM, WMV, and others are not supported by macOS itself.
The fix is to install a Quick Look plugin that adds support for these formats. We recommend QuickLook Video — a free, open-source plugin that adds thumbnail previews, QuickLook previews, and metadata support for a wide range of video and audio formats including MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV, and many more codecs like HEVC, VP9, AV1, and DivX.
Trove will automatically pick up any installed Quick Look plugin and display thumbnails for the newly supported formats — no additional configuration needed. After installing the plugin, you may need to restart Trove for the changes to take effect.