{"id":73579,"date":"2021-04-16T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-16T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=73579"},"modified":"2021-04-13T11:46:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-13T16:46:48","slug":"managing-your-mac-downloads-folder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/73579-managing-your-mac-downloads-folder\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep It Clean: Managing Your Mac Downloads Folder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Whenever you download something on your Mac, it goes into one place by default \u2014 the Downloads folder<\/strong>. Normally you download files from your web browser, but other apps also use Downloads as a repository for files transferred to your Mac. Today we look at managing the Mac Downloads folder and keep it from taking up a lot of storage on your computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The Downloads Folder Dock icon, usually found to the left of Trash in the Dock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Where is the Mac Downloads folder?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Downloads folder<\/strong> is accessible from two places: the Dock, where it may appear as a \u201cpile\u201d of files or as a folder (image above), and in the Home folder.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Home folder contains a lot of things: Movies, Music, and Pictures, first and foremost. For those who don\u2019t use iCloud Drive, Desktop and Documents folders are also in the Home folder. Home is the location for many folders and files for your user account. It\u2019s also where the Downloads folder lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How files are saved to the Mac Downloads folder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned in this article’s opening paragraph, anything downloaded in a web browser goes into the Downloads folder by default. As an example, let\u2019s say that you want to send a friend a picture of the awesome OWC Envoy Pro Elektron<\/a><\/strong> you just bought. On the website, you see a perfect picture to send, so you right-click the image (a two-finger click on a trackpad) and see this pop-up menu:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Right-click<\/a>
Right-click a website image to view this menu with “Save Image to ‘Downloads'” on it<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Select \u201cSave Image to ‘Downloads’\u201d, and the image is downloaded to the Downloads folder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other times you may be downloading an app or driver from a software developer, and you see a Download button. Click it, and you\u2019ll see an animation showing the file zipping from the website to your computer. When the file download is complete, the Downloads folder (or stack) in the Dock bounces to indicate that the file has arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When receiving an email with attachments in the Mail app, click the paperclip button that appears when you hover over the top center of an email message (see image below). By default, the attachments are saved to \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 the Downloads folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Click<\/a>
Click the attachments (paperclip) button to save Mail attachments to the Downloads folder<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Why you should manage your Downloads folder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s very easy to download apps, documents, PDFs, photos, installers, and other media to your Mac. If you don\u2019t watch it, your Downloads folder suddenly has hundreds or thousands of files in it. Don\u2019t believe me? Every day I download dozens of files for articles that I\u2019m writing, and within weeks I\u2019ll have hundreds of files. I finally decided that I needed to do something about that mess!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back when I was a Certified Apple Consultant, I had a client who was complaining about not having enough storage space on his Mac. A quick look showed that the client wasn\u2019t aware of the Downloads folder for some reason and had well over 110GB of files stored there. We moved some of them to another folder, but the majority were deleted.\u00a0Problem solved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way I personally found to handle all of those files was to figure out what I wanted to do with them as soon as they were downloaded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How to manage downloaded files<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That installer package (.pkg) or disk image (.dmg) file? Install the app, then delete the installer! If you need the app again at a future date, it\u2019s always available for download from the original source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Images? The chances are that you downloaded an image for a reason \u2014 perhaps you needed it for an email or a document you\u2019re writing, Open the Downloads folder by right-clicking the folder icon and selecting Open Downloads<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To view a downloaded image, just highlight it with a click and press the space bar on the keyboard to open it in Quick Look. Need to edit the image? Double-click most any JPG, PNG, HEIC, or similar image file and it opens by default in Preview. Right-clicking provides other options for editing an image through the Open With command. It shows all apps that can open and edit a file of that type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once it is in your document or email, dump it into the Mac trash. My motto? “Use it, then lose it!<\/strong>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the default download folder<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Downloading a lot of images? Why not save them right into your Photos folder or a project folder? You can change the default download folder to any other folder on your Mac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is quite easy to do. In your browser (Safari as an example), select Safari > Preferences<\/strong>. In the General tab, click the dropdown menu next to “File download location” (see image below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How<\/a>
How to change the default download folder location or be asked each time something is downloaded<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To have Safari ask you each time for a location for saving downloaded files, select \u201cAsk for each download\u201d. how do things end up in your Downloads folder? Want to save all those images into the Photos folder? Click on \u201cOther\u2026\u201d and select the Photos folder or a subfolder within it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving files to an iCloud Drive folder<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Want to move some of your downloaded files to a folder on your iCloud Drive so they’re available on all devices? Simply open the Downloads folder, click on the file you want to move, and drag it to the proper folder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

macOS has what are called \u201cspring-loaded folders<\/strong><\/a>\u201d that make it very to just drag files from one place to another. The link here provides detailed directions on how spring-loaded folders work. This video also demonstrates what I’m talking about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n