Lost Downloads Folder Mac
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.
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!
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Luckily, the process of changing the default download directory pretty similar in the three main Mac browsers.
Change the Default Download Location in Safari
- Open the Safari app and click on the Safari drop-down menu at the top left.
- Choose Preferences.
- 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
With the Firefox browser, you’ll start the same way as you did with Safari.
- Launch Firefox and click on its named menu(i.e. the FireFox pulldown menu) in the upper lefthand corner.
- Select Preferences.
- 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.
- Launch Chrome and select the Chrome menu from the top of your screen.
- Select Preferences.
- Scroll down the settings on the side menu until you see Advanced. Click on it.
- Choose Downloads.
- 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!
You can easily change the Downloads folder location on Mac OS X.
Why Move Downloads Folder?
There may be different reasons why people want to move their Downloads folder location.
These days many of the Apple Macs come with solid state drives (SSD) which are not as large in volume/capacity as the hard disk drives (HDD) used to be. For example, the standard Macbook Pro Retina comes with 256GB of SSD space. Some of that is used for the operating system and then you are left with very little for photos, downloads, files, apps, etc.
As a result of new Macs with smaller internal storage, you may want to move your Downloads folder to another volume such as an external drive, flash drive or SD card connected to your Mac. Yes, you can move your downloads folder permanently to another volume like this.
How To Move Mac OS Downloads Folder
Follow these steps to move your Downloads folder on Mac OS to another location:
1. Create New Downloads Folder
Go to the location where you want your new Downloads folder to be and create a folder named “Downloads“.
For example, I have an external drive plugged into USB where I want the Downloads folder to be. So I find my external drive in Finder and create a new “Downloads” folder there.
2. Copy Existing Downloads Over
If you want to keep your existing downloads, you’ll need to copy it over.
Simply use the Finder app to drag and drop the contents of the existing Downloads folder to the new Downloads folder.
3. Delete Old/Default Downloads Folder
In order to create a symbolic link in step 4 below, you’ll need to delete the old/default Downloads folder in Mac OS. It may not be possible to delete the old/default Downloads folder in Finder directly due to permissions on the folder so you’re better off doing it in the Terminal using sudo command.
Open the Terminal app and type the following command followed by your password for your account:
Note that this deletes your old/default Downloads folder with all it’s contents.
4. Create Symbolic Link
Macos Lost Downloads Folder
Next you’ll create a symbolic link from the default Downloads folder in Mac OS to the new one in the other location.
Open the Terminal and type the following command:
Downloads Folder On Mac
Note that command creates a link (ln command) between a target and source directory. The -sparameter creates a symbolic link.
Be sure to change /Volumes/My Passport 1/Downloads/with the absolute path to your new Downloads folder you created in the new location. In my case, Mac OS gave my external drive the path /Volumes/My Passport 1/and then I add the /Downloads/part to the path in the command. The backslashes in the path is simply to escape the spaces in the folder name of the external drive.
If you’re not sure what the path to the new location is and you’re using either an internal or external storage, you can use the Disk Utility app in Mac OS to determine the mount point.
Mac OS Downloads Folder Moved!
That’s it, you’re all done moving your Mac OS Downloads folder.
The symbolic link you created in step 4 will ensure that any applications putting downloads in the old location ~/Downloadswill go to the new Downloads folder in the new location so that you don’t have to go and edit the Downloads folder in individual applications.