How to change build directory in QtCreator?

You can click the Project button on the left side of QtCreator, then you can specify the output directory. Notice, the default is for debug version, you need to specify the release version folder either.

Once you set a different folder, you will see that you need to rerun the cmake command to generate these files. This should work, I also use it on Mac.

You can change default build directory template By changing the Default build directory setting in Options->Build & Run.

Or directly in ~/.config/QtProject/QtCreator.ini:

[...]

[Directories]
BuildDirectory.Template=.../%{JS: Util.asciify("build/%{CurrentProject:Name}/%{CurrentKit:FileSystemName}-%{CurrentBuild:Name}")}

[...]