The Downloads folder on a Mac

1. Where is the Downloads folder on a Mac?

Every account on a Mac has its own Downloads folder, inside your home folder: /Users/your-name/Downloads. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Mail and AirDrop all save there unless you tell them otherwise. Four ways to open it:

• From Finder: press Option-Command-L, or choose Go > Downloads.
• From the sidebar: click Downloads under Favourites in any Finder window.
• From the Dock: it's the stack next to the Trash.
• From Spotlight: press Command-Space, type Downloads and press Return.

Where do AirDrop files go on a Mac?

Into Downloads too. Anything someone AirDrops to your Mac lands in your Downloads folder, and macOS has no setting to send it anywhere else.

2. Downloads missing from the Dock or sidebar

The folder is almost never gone. Only the shortcut to it is.

• Back in the sidebar: in Finder, choose Finder > Settings, click Sidebar and tick Downloads.
• Back in the Dock: in Finder, choose Go > Home, then drag the Downloads folder to the right-hand end of the Dock, beside the Trash.

3. Find something you just downloaded

• Sort by Date Added. In Downloads, choose View > as List, then View > Show View Options and tick Date Added. Click that column and the newest file is on top, whatever its name.
• Ask the browser. In Safari, Option-Command-L shows its downloads list. In Chrome, open chrome://downloads. Both have a button that shows the file in Finder.
• See where a file came from. Select it and press Command-I. Under More Info, “Where from” shows the website or email it was downloaded from. The browser writes this down for every download.

4. How to change where downloads go on a Mac

There's no single setting for the whole Mac. Each app keeps its own.

Safari

Choose Safari > Settings, click General, and change File download location. Pick a folder, or “Ask for each download”.

Chrome, Edge and Brave

Open Settings and go to Downloads. Next to Location, click Change to pick a folder, or turn on “Ask where to save each file before downloading”.

Firefox

Open Settings, stay on General, and scroll to Files and Applications. Under Downloads, choose a folder for “Save files to”, or choose “Always ask you where to save files”.

Mail attachments

In Mail, choose Mail > Settings, click General, and change Downloads folder.

AirDrop

AirDrop always saves to Downloads. There's no setting to change it, so move AirDropped files on by hand, or let something catch them as they land.

A different folder for every browser moves the mess around rather than ending it. “Ask every time” files each download as it arrives, at the cost of a save dialog on every single one.

5. Files that never finished

While a download is still arriving, browsers keep it under a temporary name: .crdownload in Chrome, Edge and Brave, .download in Safari, .part in Firefox. If one is still there after the browser says it's done, the download failed. Delete it and download again.

6. How to keep the Downloads folder empty

Downloads fills up because filing takes twenty seconds and a train of thought, every time, so it waits for later. Clear the backlog once, then deal with each file as it lands.

• Clear the backlog. (How to delete downloads on a Mac has every step.) Delete installers (.dmg and .pkg have done their job once the app is in Applications), file the last month or two, and move the rest into a Downloads Archive folder. The full steps are in our guide to organising files on a Mac.
• Ask where to save, using the settings above.
• Or catch files as they land. iFiley is a file catcher for Mac. It watches Downloads and wherever each browser really saves, even a folder you've changed it to, then asks where each file goes with its best guess already on top. Return files it, or type any folder.