How to delete downloads on a Mac

1. How to delete downloads on a Mac

1. Open Downloads: in Finder, press Option-Command-L, or choose Go > Downloads.
2. Select what to delete. Click one file, Command-click to pick several, Shift-click to select a run of them, or press Command-A for everything.
3. Press Command-Delete, or Control-click and choose Move to Trash.
4. Empty the Trash to get the space back: choose Finder > Empty Trash, or press Shift-Command-Delete.

Want to skip the Trash? Select the files and press Option-Command-Delete. macOS asks once, then deletes them for good, so only do this when you're sure.

2. Delete only the old or the big ones

• Oldest first. In Downloads, choose View > as List, then View > Show View Options and tick Date Added. Click the Date Added column, then select from the bottom up: Shift-click selects everything between two files.
• Biggest first. In the same list, click the Size column. A few video files and installers are usually most of the space.
• Installers can always go. Files ending in .dmg and .pkg have done their job once the app is in Applications. Type .dmg into the Finder search field, choose to search Downloads rather than This Mac, and delete them together.

3. Get the space back

• Empty the Trash. Deleted files still use space until you do.
• Let macOS show you. Open System Settings, choose General > Storage, and click the info button next to Documents. It lists your largest files and your downloads, with a Delete button.
• Empty the Trash automatically. In Finder > Settings > Advanced, turn on “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days”.

4. When a download won't delete

• “The item is in use”. An app still has it open. Quit that app, or restart the Mac, and try again.
• An installer won't go. The disk image is probably still open. Click the eject button next to it in Finder's sidebar, then delete the .dmg.
• The file is locked. Select it, press Command-I, and untick Locked.
• The Downloads folder itself won't delete. That's on purpose: macOS keeps the folder. Delete what's inside it instead.

5. Clear the download history

The list of downloads in your browser is separate from the files. Clearing one doesn't touch the other.

• Safari: press Option-Command-L to show the downloads list and click Clear. To clear it on its own, choose Safari > Settings, click General, and set “Remove download list items”.
• Chrome: open chrome://downloads and choose Clear all. The files stay in Downloads.

6. Before you delete everything

Downloads usually holds a few things you'll want again: an invoice, a contract, a statement, a boarding pass. Sort by Date Added and look through the last month or two first, and move anything worth keeping into its proper folder. If you'd rather not decide today, put everything into a folder called Downloads Archive. If you haven't missed it in a few months, delete the lot.

7. Stop it piling up again

• Ask where to save. Set Safari, Chrome or Firefox to ask for a folder on every download. Here's where each one keeps that setting.
• Make a habit of it. A Friday clear-out of Downloads takes a minute if it's weekly.
• Or catch files as they land. iFiley is a file catcher for Mac. When something downloads, it asks where it goes, with its best guess already on top, so the files you keep go straight into their folders and Downloads only ever holds what you can delete. It moves files, never deletes them, and every move has Undo.