Over time, I’ve started to realize that the Share Sheet on both macOS and iOS is kind of a mess. I don’t feel like I ever really know what’s going to be there, and I can’t tell why Files will sometimes be there as a save location, but other times only Dropbox. And if Files, why not the most-often used folder? Personally, I almost only ever want to save something to Downloads, and then I’ll sort it out later.
Is the Share Sheet just a mess, or am I using it wrong?
The share sheet is context specific based on what content you’re looking to share. So if you’re sharing a link or a pdf, you’ll likely get different suggestions.
Of course with Apple’s “magic” sauce, there is no other rhyme or reason to it.
“Clean up my share sheet” is one of those tasks that I have intended to do for a long time but have yet to find the energy or time to do so.
I suspect that if I spent an hour manually de-listing the apps and actions I never use, the Share Sheet would become 10x more useful, and I’d think of new ways of using it.
Maybe a new year’s resolution!
You are not using it wrong.
This topic was recently discussed on the MacStories podcast. The TL;DL is that the Share Sheet needs work.
Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. Sometimes, when I’m on Reddit, I’ll see a meme or an image I want to save (this was so easy on Apollo), and I can only save it to Dropbox. I wish I could save to iCloud Drive immediately, but it’s a no-go.
So where would we even begin with that? Maybe I need to become an MPU member and make a request for this.
Like in Apple Music, there are two (maybe three) things I want on the share sheet: Music Box and Messages, and possibly “copy link,” but that’s it. I don’t need a context menu with ten items.
As suggested above, you don’t have complete control. You can use the “Edit” buttons to remove some options, and you can edit individual Shortcuts to prevent them from appearing in the Share Sheet, but you can’t do so per-app/filetype, and (for some reason) some apps can’t be removed.
I’d really like the option to see two rows of apps since I have seven regular share targets. Pruning and re-arranging the share options has paid for itself in time saved; it just takes a few minutes and the follow-up prunes just seconds.
I’m back on this because, once again, as I try to save an image, I only get Dropbox. This is from the bad site, but it happens on Reddit and other places.
It’s annoying because I don’t run Dropbox on my Mac, so I can’t use Hazel to monitor that folder to move it later.
Anyway, just a frustration that I don’t even think AI is going to fix.
It’s just a mess. I’m regularly frustrated by it.
