How do I move a folder in 10.9 Mavericks?

I am trying to move a large (100GB+) folder from the Desktop into a subfolder on the Desktop. When I drag and drop, it invokes a copy, and I do not want to wait an hour while it goes through with this (I will need to do several such moves.) I have read that holding CMD while drag-dropping will invoke move, but it does not. If I wait for a folder to finish the alleged "move" operation, it turns out to be a copy, with the original folder left behind.

Interestingly, if I attempt to move (drag/drop) a smaller folder, it does so without issue. What am I doing wrong?

Open your terminal (Terminal.app)

Then do:

mv source_folder destination_folder

e.g:

mv /Users/foo/Music/ /Users/foo/something

This is way faster than copying as it maintains inode

You can use option + command + V for moving a file or folder to destination folder after copy it using command + C.

If you are comfortable using /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app, you can use the mv command.

mv <source folder> <destination folder>

To make typing simpler, type mv (with a space after) then drag the folder icon of the source folder into the Terminal window, then drag the folder icon of the destination into the Terminal window. This will construct the correct paths to the folders, including escaping space characters should they exist in the folder names.

This operation works in the background so you can get on with other things, and can be quite speedy as it doesn't rely on the Finder. I've found this method the best for transferring (copying cp or moving mv) hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of files, which the Finder can choke on. I suggest you do a few tests to make sure you get the hang of it.