How to find downloads on a Mac

The Downloads folder

Apple describes the Downloads folder as the default location for files you download from the internet, receive as attachments or accept using AirDrop. There are three quick ways in:

• The Finder: press Option-Command-L, Apple's shortcut for opening the Downloads folder.
• The Dock: click the Downloads folder or stack. Click a file to open it, or click Open in Finder to see the whole folder.
• Go to Folder: in the Finder, press Shift-Command-G and type ~/Downloads.

To put the newest download first, Control-click the Downloads folder in the Dock and sort by date added. The same menu shows it as a folder or a stack, and as a fan, grid or list.

Find a file you downloaded in Safari

1. Click the Show Downloads button near the top-right corner of the Safari window. It is not there when the downloads list is empty.
2. Click the magnifying glass next to a file's name to see it in the Finder.

If you have moved the file, or changed the download location since, Safari cannot find it. Safari also clears the list itself: by default an item is removed from it after one day, which you can change in Safari → Settings → General, under Remove download list items. Two more things that can make a download look missing: Safari decompresses files such as .zip files after downloading them, so you may see a folder rather than the zip, and if you download something you already downloaded, Safari removes the older copy.

If your downloads are going somewhere else

In Safari, choose Safari → Settings, click General, and look at File download location. That pop-up menu is where downloads go, and where you choose a different folder. Other browsers keep a download setting of their own, so a file from Chrome or Firefox can be in a different folder from one you got in Safari.

If you know the name, or part of it, press Command-Space bar to open Spotlight and type it: Spotlight searches the Mac for it, wherever it was saved.

How much your Downloads folder holds

du -sh ~/Downloads 2>/dev/null
ls -lt ~/Downloads | head -20

The first line is the folder's size; the second lists the 20 most recent items, newest first. macOS may ask whether Terminal can access your Downloads folder: allow it, or the commands see nothing. They delete nothing. Installers for apps you have already installed, and archives you have already opened, are usually the easiest things to remove. Move them to the Trash, and empty the Trash: until you do, the space is not freed. For the largest files anywhere, see how to find large files on a Mac, and for attachments Mail keeps out of sight, Mail is taking up space on a Mac.

Where the app comes in

RefreshYourMac's Downloads Folder measures everything in ~/Downloads and lists it item by item, rated Review before deleting; what you clean goes to the Trash. It is in both editions, and the Mac App Store edition can read Downloads without asking. Large Files picks out anything over 200 MB there and in Movies, Desktop and Documents (in the Mac App Store edition, the last two once you allow them in Settings → Folders). In the download edition, Installers & System Images finds macOS installers, iPhone restore images and Xcode archives in Downloads, Desktop and Documents, and says beside each whether it is already installed. It only looks in your own Downloads folder, so a browser set to save elsewhere is outside it. For everything else worth checking, see how to free up space on a Mac.