I’ve seen a lot of cluttered and disorganized Downloads folders on Mac. A lot. For me, at least, it’s much easier to keep my downloaded files cleaned up and organized if I download to my Desktop which I’m constantly looking at then to download to the downloads folder which I don’t pay attention to until it gets too cluttered to find anything.

1. How To Open Downloads On Mac From Unidentified Developer
2. How To Open Downloads In Firefox
3. How To Open Downloads On Mac Computer
4. How To Open Downloads On Macbook
5. How To Open Downloads On Macbook Pro

Open Downloads to find TeamViewer.dmg file. Double click on it to initiate the installation. Next, click on Install TeamViewer and confirm you trust the source by clicking Open: Read and accept the license agreement terms: And proceed with installation. During one of the steps, you’ll see the projected storage space the app will take on your Mac. Oct 17, 2019 If the browser where you downloaded a file is still open, you can pull up the download right then and there. In Google Chrome, click the three dots at the top right corner, then click Downloads.

So if you’re the same way, it’s good to know that you can change where Safari, Firefox, and Chrome automatically put their downloads.

So for today’s article, let’s go over how to change the default download folder on the Mac!

Open Safari on your Mac. Click Safari in the menu bar (top left corner) then choose Preferences. At the top of the window, click Websites. Now on the left-hand sidebar click Downloads. In the Safari app on your Mac, click the Show Downloads button near the top-right corner of the Safari window. The button isn’t shown if the downloads list is empty. Do any of the following: Pause a download: Click the Stop button to the right of the filename in the downloads list. To resume, click the Resume button.

Luckily, the process of changing the default download directory pretty similar in the three main Mac browsers.

Change the Default Download Location in Safari

1. Open the Safari app and click on the Safari drop-down menu at the top left.
   
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Make sure General tab is selected and then change the File Download Location to wherever you want.
   

As you can see, I’ve got mine set to “Desktop,” but you can pick an alternate location with that “Other” choice. Clicking “Other” will bring you to the familiar macOS open/save dialog box, from which you can select any folder you want to use.
If you’re feeling really fancy, you could instead change that toggle shown in my second screenshot above to “Ask for each download,” which will mean that you can file away everything you download exactly where you want it to go, every time. While this is a nifty feature but it can get cumbersome to have to choose a download location for each and every download you do.

Change the Default Download Location in Firefox

How To Open Downloads On Mac From Unidentified Developer

With the Firefox browser, you’ll start the same way as you did with Safari.

1. Launch Firefox and click on its named menu(i.e. the FireFox pulldown menu) in the upper lefthand corner.
   
2. Select Preferences.
3. Under the General tab, at the label: Save files to click choose and select the folder you want your downloads to go to.
   

Again, the “Always ask me where to save files” radio button you see above will make Firefox ask you each time you initiate a download.

Change the Default Download Location in Chrome

Google made it just a teeny bit harder to change your default downloads folder in the Chrome browser, but the steps begin the same way as the other two browsers.

1. Launch Chrome and select the Chrome menu from the top of your screen.
2. Select Preferences.
   
3. Scroll down the settings on the side menu until you see Advanced. Click on it.
   
4. Choose Downloads.
   
5. Click on Change next to Location and select the folder you want your downloads to go to.
   

As with Safari and Firefox, there’s a choice to make the browser ask you where to put the file you’re downloading every time.
As Steve Jobs used to say, “Oh yeah, there’s one more thing.”

Mail also uses the Downloads folder to store attachments you save, so if you’d like to be really thorough, you could change that, too.

Click on the Mail pulldown menu at the top of Mail then select Preferences. Next, under the General tab, you can change the download location just as you can with the web browsers:
So now that you’ve got all of your browsers (and Mail!) set to do exactly what you need them to, you can go forward knowing that your Downloads folder will never get too cluttered and disorganized again. Getting things done is so much easier when you stay organized.

If you’re a Mac user and enjoyed this article, you might want to check out this TechJunkie article: How To Flush the DNS in Mac Mojave.

Do you have any tips or tricks for managing downloads on your Mac? If so, we’d love to hear from you in a comment below!

Deleting downloads on Mac can be a pain because It involves two separate things: cleaning up your Downloads folder and then removing the downloads history from your browser. So, in short, you'll need to: find your Downloads folder, remove your downloads, clear your downloads history in your browser, and (finally) empty your Trash.

How to delete downloads on Mac via Finder

Finder is the first place you should look for downloads in on your Mac. If you have a mountain of download files stored, it’d be smart to sort your items and see which of them are the heaviest.

1. Open Finder.
2. Press Cmd+Shift+G.
3. Type in: ~/
4. Open Downloads folder.
5. Righ-click anywhere in the window and select Use Groups.
6. Finder will then gather your downloads in groups such as Applications, PDF documents, Images, and others, so you can quickly look through them and delete files you don’t need.

How To Open Downloads In Firefox

Then you can sort downloads by size: right-click in Finder, click Group By pop-up menu and choose Size.

If you want to remove multiple downloads from your Mac at once, you can do that with CleanMyMac X. This app has a Large and Old Files feature that detects all massive files and lets you delete them all. I will explain how to quickly get to downloads on your Mac using CleanMyMac X later in the article. You'd be surprised at how many GB of space you can reclaim!

How to delete downloads from software (e.g. Skype) which are hard to find

It can be a challenge to find the files you downloaded from different apps, such as Skype, on your Mac. By default, all the items you want to save go into the Downloads folder. But, if you have changed these settings, your files would be stored elsewhere. So, how to find those downloads on your Mac.

If you search for Skype downloads, here’s how to locate them:

1. Open Skype.
2. Go to the Skype menu and choose Preferences.
3. Select Messaging from the list on the left.

In the end, there’s “When I receive a file” setting. It’s set to Downloads, which means all files you download from Skype automatically go into this folder. Open it to locate the files Skype saved and delete them. You can change directory to save your Skype files elsewhere.

The pretty similar route applies to all other apps you save files from. For example, to find out the Slack downloads location, I opened the app and then navigated to its Preferences.

To make it easier to find files you saved, choose one download location for all your apps. You will eliminate clutter in lots of folders and will be able to delete many files at once.

How To Open Downloads On Mac Computer

Once you’re done deleting your downloads, it’s time to clear the downloads history from the browser you use. Select the section below based on the browser you use.

The easy way to delete large and old files on Mac

However, if you’re looking for a solution that makes clearing out your large downloads (including your Skype downloads history) simple, check out a cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X.

Large and Old Files feature scans your storage for heavy files piling up on your Mac for a long time. It shows how much space each file takes and helps to quickly get rid of all old documents, .dmg files, and archives that clutter your storage.

Large and Old Files helps you clean up your Downloads folder with just a few clicks. Here's how to clear old downloads on your Mac:

1. Download the free version of CleanMyMac X.
2. Install and launch the app.
3. Click Large & Old Files.
4. Scan your Mac and then select whatever you wish to remove.
5. Click Remove.

And you’re done. As you can see, it’s incredibly easy to remove your downloads on Mac with CleanMyMac X.

How To Open Downloads On Macbook

But, if you’d still like to clean up your downloads and download history manually, just follow the steps below.

How to delete old .DMG files on Mac

On macOS, the majority of apps you download come in .dmg format. '.dmg' is a disk image that contains a compressed download file. These files work like hard drives: they can be mounted and ejected.

When you open the .dmg file, you’ll see the application you’re about to install. After installing the application (dragging it to the Applications folder), the .dmg file will stay on your Mac until you delete it. Imagine how many .dmg files you may have unintentionally stored on your Mac. Now, let’s see how to delete them.

First, you need to eject those .dmg files that are still open.

1. Open Finder.
2. Under the Locations you will see the list of all .dmg files.
3. Press the Eject icon to eject a disk image.

To delete .dmg files:

How To Open Downloads On Macbook Pro

1. Open Finder.
2. Type “.dmg” in the search field and press Return.
3. Move the unneeded files to the Trash.

Voila! Now, your Mac is much cleaner.

How to clear downloads history in Chrome

To clear downloads history in Google Chrome browser manually:

1. Launch the Chrome browser.
2. Type chrome://history/ in the search field and press Enter.
3. Select Clear browsing data.
4. Select the time range and check the 'Download history' box.
5. Click Clear data.

How to clean downloads history in Safari

To clean downloads history in Safari browser:

1. Launch the Safari browser.
2. Click View in the menu bar and select Show Downloads.
3. Safari will show you all the files you downloaded. Press Clear to remove downloads history.

You can alternatively press the arrow down button (↓) to see and clear downloads.

Clearing your Mac of downloads once in a while helps to save some space. If you are up to a full spring cleaning of your MacBook, CleanMyMac X has another useful feature — Space Lens. It analyses your storage and shows precisely how much space each folder takes. If your Mac is short on space, Space Lens can help you to locate the heaviest folder and remove it. Download the app for free, to try it yourself!

How to remove downloads history in Firefox

To remove downloads history in Firefox directly:

1. Launch the Firefox browser.
2. Click History, in the menu bar.
3. Select Clear Recent History.
4. Select the time range.
5. Check the “Browsing & Download History” box.
6. Click Clear Now.

Now, your Mac is probably clean of old downloads that used to take space. Keeping your digital space tidy and organized will help you locate files faster and avoid clutter in your folders.