Mergd — Safe folder merging for your MacWhy Mergd

Preview first, always<br>Every copy, every skip, every conflict — laid out before a single file moves. The Merge button is the only thing that makes anything happen.

Nothing is ever deleted<br>Files that lose a conflict go to the Trash, recoverable as always. On volumes without a Trash, Mergd quarantines them in a folder instead. There is no code path that erases a file.

Bundles stay sealed<br>Photos libraries, apps, GarageBand projects — anything that is secretly a folder is compared and moved as one unit. Mergd never reaches inside.

How it works

Select two folders in Finder, right-click, and choose Merge Safely… — or drop them onto the app. Mergd walks both folders, works out what&rsquo;s new, what&rsquo;s identical, and what genuinely conflicts, then shows you the whole plan. Conflicts resolve by a policy you choose — keep newest , keep both, keep destination, or decide file by file — and whichever version loses goes to the Trash, not oblivion .<br>Everything runs locally in the Mac App Store sandbox — no network access, no account, and your source folder is never touched until you opt in to tidying it away. One-time purchase. No subscription, no nonsense.

Built for the messy cases

Case-insensitive volumes<br>Photo.jpg and photo.jpg collide on a default Mac disk but not on a case-sensitive one. Mergd plans against the volume you’re actually merging onto.

iCloud placeholders<br>An undownloaded file looks like 0 bytes. Mergd flags it instead of letting a ghost win a conflict — silently merging a placeholder is data loss wearing a success dialog.

Symlinks & aliases<br>Copied as links, never followed — so a merge can’t wander outside the folders you picked.

Interrupted merges<br>Every operation is journaled as it completes. Sleep, crash, or eject mid-merge and Mergd resumes or rolls back — never a half-merged tree you don’t know about.

APFS clones<br>Same-volume merges use Apple’s clonefile: near-instant, and the copies take no extra disk space.

Finder noise<br>.DS_Store, Icon files and .localized don’t count as conflicts. A toggle shows them if you really want them.

Why this exists

Mergd exists because of a Reddit thread: someone dragged a folder onto a same-named folder, clicked Replace , and lost part of a photo library. macOS does have a hidden option-drag merge — but it&rsquo;s inconsistent, easy to miss, and can&rsquo;t be made the default. One wrong click is unrecoverable.<br>We can&rsquo;t change Finder&rsquo;s dialog. We can make the safe path one right-click away.

Merge without holding your breath<br>On the Mac App Store now — $4.99 once, macOS 14.0 or later, and not a byte leaves your Mac.<br>Get Mergd on the Mac App Store