Clean Downloads Folder Mac

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  • Clean up your Downloads folder to regain storage space on your Mac. Sometimes, the most simple and obvious tips are the best. Everybody knows about them because they’re usually based on good old common sense, yet, we usually forget about them. One such tip is to periodically clean up the Downloads folder of your Mac, which, depending on your.

Deleting Mail Download files from a Mac One way to save space and stop mail download overload is to use an email client that makes it easier to find, organize and delete attachments. Take Unibox, for example, which groups emails by sender, making it far more intuitive and easy-to-use compared to Mail or other email services. Download and install PowerSuite on Mac. Run PowerSuite and select Automatic on the left sidebar. Click + button to select a folder, such as downloads, desktop or other older. And select the cleanup rule for the selected folder. You can select clean up Duplicate files, large files, old files, some files with file type, some kind of files.

How to remove downloads from my Macbook Pro? I have installed the apps, but do not want the installation package to take up my Mac storage.

Apple Mac gains lots of users for its clean interface and smooth running. However, like Windows computer or desktop, one thing Mac also suffers from is that everyday's downloads of music, videos, apps, etc. have taken up the space and can also slow down your Mac.

In this post, we will share you 3 ways to delete downloads from your Mac directly, empty download folders from your Safari, Chrome and Firefox, and clean up your Mac downloads with the Mac cleaners.

Delete Downloads on Mac

Part 1. How to clean up Mac downloads permanently and securely

The above ways will help you delete downloads from your Mac manually. However, if you think it a little complicated, you can use the Mac Cleaner to help you delete downloads on Mac automatically. It can helps you delete everything in the folder, including videos, music, files, apps, etc. Moreover, it deletes downloads permanently with recovery.

Step 1. Run Mac Cleaner

Download Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner and launch it. Check the system status of your Mac.

Clean

Step 2. Scan download folder

Click the section you want to scan in the left sidebar, Here we can choose 'Privacy'. Click the 'Scan' button to scan your Mac download history.

'Uninstaller' enables you to delete download apps from your Mac.

Step 3. Delete downloads on Mac

When the scanning done, you can click 'Review' button to review the scan results. Checkmark the items that you want to delete, and click 'Clean' button to start to delete downloads from your Mac.

Downloads

Note: You can hit 'Re-scan' to scan your Mac computer again to get a deep downloads deletion.

Part 2. How to delete downloads from Mac directly

Once you download the files or apps to your Mac, then you can find the downloads and delete them manually by yourself. You should note that this way is available for Mac OS X 10.2 or above.

Downloads

Step 1Find and click 'Finder'.

Step 2Press the hotkeys 'command + Shift +G' to go to the pop-up of 'Go to Folder' and then type in '~/' and click 'Go'.

Step 3Click 'Downloads' from the left sidebar, and view the detailed downloads in the right window. Find a download or downloads that you want to download, right click it with your mouse, and click 'Move to Trash'. Then go to your Trash, to empty the trash.

Part 3. How to delete downloaded programs on Mac from Safari/Chrome/Firefox

Commonly, most downloads are from your browser on Mac, so in this method, we will share the way to delete downloads from Safari, Chrome and Firefox on your Mac. This method will be available for your iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, etc.

Clean up the downloads from Safari

Safari, as the default browser, brings many downloads to your Mac without doubt. Follow the steps as below to delete download history from Safari.

Step 1Run Safari browser, and click 'History' in the menu bar on the top side of your screen.

Step 2Select on 'Clear History' > 'All history' from the drop-down as the time range you wish > 'Clear History' to clear up all download history from your Safari.

Remove download history from Chrome

Chrome is also the browser used widely by many of you. So downloads from Chrome will be not less. Take the steps as the following to delete the downloads on Mac from Chrome.

Step 1Launch the Chrome browser on your Mac.

Step 2Click 'History' in the menu bar > 'Show Full History' > 'Clear browsing data…' > Select 'the beginning of time…' for the time period you wish to erase > Check the deleting content to select 'Cache images and files' > 'Clear browsing data' to delete the downloaded pictures and other files on your Mac.

Empty the download folder from Firefox

Firefox, similar to Chrome, is also popular among users. Check the solution below to empty the downloaded apps or files from Firefox on Mac.

Step 1Run Firefox on your Mac.

Step 2Click 'History' in the menu bar > 'Clear Recent History…' > Select 'Everything' as the time range to clean > Click on the 'Details' arrow to checkmark the 'Browsing & Download History' box > Click on 'Clear Now'.

Here you also delete the download history from your Mac. For more details to delete history from Mac, visit here.

Clean

Way 3. How to clean up Mac downloads permanently and securely

The above ways will help you delete downloads from your Mac manually. However, if you think it a little complicated, you can use the Mac Cleaner to help you delete downloads on Mac automatically. It can helps you delete everything in the folder, including videos, music, files, apps, games like Fortnite, etc. Moreover, it deletes downloads permanently with recovery.

Downloads

Step 1. Run Mac Cleaner

Download Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner and launch it. Check the system status of your Mac.

Step 2. Scan download folder

Click the section you want to scan in the left sidebar, Here we can choose 'Privacy'. Click the 'Scan' button to scan your Mac download history.

'Uninstaller' enables you to delete download apps from your Mac.

Step 3. Delete downloads on Mac

When the scanning done, you can click 'Review' button to review the scan results. Checkmark the items that you want to delete, and click 'Clean' button to start to delete downloads from your Mac.

Note: You can hit 'Re-scan' to scan your Mac computer again to get a deep downloads deletion.

Conclusion

Here are 3 ways to delete downloads on Mac. You can use the first and second method to remove downloads from Mac manually. Moreover, you can use the last recommended way to clean up downloads on Mac permanently and securely. Last reminder is that you had better backup Mac before deleting everything to avoid any regret.

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June 04, 2019 15:55 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup

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When was the last time you looked at your Downloads folder? More importantly, when was the last time you cleaned it out? Unless you have reconfigured settings in both Mail and Safari, as well as some other applications, any file that you download gets put into the Downloads folder. I recommend that all users regularly review the contents of their Downloads folder. Move files that you want to keep into another folder and delete files you no longer need.

As a Mac consultant, I regularly find Download folders with hundreds and sometimes thousands of files in them. When an email attachment arrives in Mail it is connected to a specific email message. Each time you double-click that file to open it, a new copy is added to your Downloads folder. Thus, I often see 3, 4, 5 or more copies of the same file in a person’s Downloads folder. Many people also get confused when trying to install applications such as Adobe Flash. They manage to download the installer, but they don’t know that they need to go to the Downloads folder, open the installer and follow its prompts to actually install the application. Then, a few days later they are again notified that Flash still needs to be updated and they dutifully download yet another copy of the installer. Consequently, it’s easy to understand how and why the Downloads folder accumulates large numbers of files. (Note: Once an application or application update has been installed then the installer located in the Downloads folder can be deleted.)

I try to keep my Downloads folder empty or close to empty. I just checked and there are 29 items in it currently, most of those from the past few weeks. So the next time you are procrastinating on an important work project, go clean out your Downloads folder. At least you can feel good about doing that task!

How to find your Downloads folder
Finder window method

Clean Downloads Folder Mac Os

  • Click on the Finder icon on your Dock. This will open a Finder window.
  • On the left-hand Sidebar, the Downloads folder is typically listed, though you could have removed it from the Sidebar.
  • If it’s not on your Sidebar then you can click on the Go menu, at the top of your screen, and select Downloads. (You’ll only find Downloads listed in the Go menu if you have Mac OS X 10.6 or higher.)
Go menu method
Clean Downloads Folder Mac

Clean Up Downloads Folder Mac

  • This method will work on all Macs running Mac OS X 10.2 or above.
  • Click on the Finder icon on your Dock.
  • Click on the Go menu, at the top of your screen, and select Go To Folder.
  • In the window that appears type in ~/Downloads. Use the picture below as a guide.

How Do I Clear The Downloads Folder On My Mac

Clean Up Guidance

Once you’re in your Downloads folder, here’s some guidance on how to clean it up.

  • Click on the View menu and select As List.
  • You’ll now see the contents of the Download folder listed with lots of detail.
  • Look at the column headers such as Name, Date Modified, Size and Kind. One of these column headers will be shaded blue. (See image below.) This indicates that you’re sorting the Downloads folder by that Column.
  • I recommend that you click on the Size column header to find the files taking up the largest amount of space. Save or delete these big files to free up storage space.
  • Next, sort the Downloads folder by Kind. Now the files are grouped by type. This allows you to easily select all of the jpeg files, for example, and drag them into iPhoto to add a copy to iPhoto, then delete them from the Downloads folder. Or you could easily review all of your Word and Excel documents and file or delete as needed. Most likely you’ll see many files whose kind is Disk Image. Disk Images are most commonly application installers. If you’ve successfully installed a given application, you can delete its disk image.
  • Some people also like to sort the Downloads folder by Name, Date Added, Date Created or Date Modified to help them weed through all of the files.

Clean Downloads Folder Mac Version

If your Downloads folder does not list all of the date-related columns, go to the View menu and select View Options to see which are available to you. Apple has added some of these in OS X 10.6 and 10.7, so you may not have all of them.