Delete Downloads On Mac

| Posted on by

  1. To clear the files in the Downloads folder for Opera, follow these steps. Open the Opera browser. Click in the upper-left corner of the window. In the drop-down menu that appears, select Downloads. In the tab that opens, you may delete each entry individually by clicking the icon on the right side and selecting Remove in the menu.
  2. Is there a setting somewhere that would automatically delete old downloads? Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.1) Posted on Oct 14, 2010 7:56 AM.
  3. The simplest way to delete downloads on your Mac is through the Downloads folder in your Finder. Downloads can fill your Mac‘s memory, and it’s easy to forget about the documents and media.
  4. How to Delete Downloads on Mac. Nearly all files we download to our Macs end up either on your Desktop or in the Downloads folder. While the former is always visible and thus much easier to take care of, the latter quickly turns into the never-ending stream of files.
  1. How To Delete Downloaded Files On Mac
  2. Delete Downloads On Macbook Pro

Once you open an attachment on your Mac, it automatically gets downloaded on your computer. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to delete mail storage on Mac. Attachments are one of the biggest storage consumers. To delete, simply navigate to messages with attachments, click Menu and select Remove attachment.

System cleanup in one click
Make your Mac fast and secure with CleanMyMac X.

For many of us, email is a necessary email. Email makes our student and professional lives significantly easier, as a way of sending and sharing information. Not everything can be sent in a text, Facebook or WhatsApp message, or using Snapchat or Slack.

Often, especially for those in creative professional or knowledge economy roles, we rely on email to communicate professionally and send more complex and detailed information.

Get rid of email junk with CMM X

Remove every mail attachment stored on your Mac with a powerful macOS cleaner, CleanMyMac X. Give it a go!

Do emails take up storage?

How To Delete Downloaded Files On Mac

Mail downloads, also known as attachments, are a big feature in busy inboxes, either taking up space in the cloud - if you use a cloud-based email client - on your phone, and if you use a desktop-based email client, on your Mac too. Attachments are everywhere, and you’ve probably got multiple versions of the same attachments in different places, taking up even more space.

Chances are, once you’ve downloaded and worked on an attachment, you won’t need the original. Or when you’ve worked on a document or folder, you’ve got more than one duplicate on your computer, and you can send back a revised attachment to the sender. In practice, this means one attachment often turns into at least three or four versions of the same document stored in different folders and within inboxes and/or cloud-based email services.

How to find Mail Downloads on a Mac

Apart from inside your inbox, mail attachments are found in one of two - or both - places within your Mac. You may also have some on your iPhone or iPad if you have email on another device.

The common way to view, save or delete email attachments in Mail (the built-in Mac OS email client) one by one:

  1. Select a message that includes attachments. Look for the Attachment icon next to the sender's name in the message list.

  2. In the message, do one of the following: Open an attachment in an app: Double-click the attachment.

Within a Mac OS, those who use Mail can find downloads and attachments in the following folder:

Users > YourName > Library > Containers > com.apple.mail > Data > Library > Mail Downloads

All attachments that you've either opened in Mail or viewed in Quick look gets saved there.

To delete Mail downloads saved in this folder just delete the files you don't need and then close the folder.

People who use a cloud-based, or another desktop email client, should see everything you’ve downloaded from your inbox in the Downloads folder. In some cases, you may have a duplicate of the same downloads in both folders, which means these will be taking up even more space. Now that you know where all your mail downloads are hiding, it’s time to stop your Mail app from wasting gigabytes of your Mac space.

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. This app is available from Setapp and described as “A welcome, fresh new approach to email on the Mac” (Macworld).

Within Unibox mail client you can do the following with email attachments:

  • Preview attachments without launching external apps;

  • Visually browse your attachments and images;

  • Quickly find documents and files with an attachment list.

All of these features make it significantly easier to find and delete attachments, no matter which email service you use. This app will work with every popular and self-hosted email provider, with one simple download and setup process.

Before switching email client, however, you might want to get rid of existing gigabytes of useless attachments. Most people would have attachments and duplicates of those files, images, documents and videos dating back to when they first bought their Mac, with some going back to previous Macs if you synced from one device to another when setting-up a new computer. That is potentially a lot of old downloads and duplicates!

How to free up email space on my Mac?

Downloads

One of the best ways to get rid of Mac Mail downloads is using CleanMyMac X, a popular and easy-to-use app that over 3 million people are using to remove documents, files, images, apps, music and other junk that they don't need anymore.

Also available from Setapp, you can get your Mac tidied up then download a new email client that will keep it more organized.

Setapp uses cookies to personalize your experience on our website. By continuing to use this site, you agree to our cookie policy.

Delete music and music videos

  • To delete music from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, use the Apple Music app or the Settings app.
  • To delete music from your Mac or Android device, use the Apple Music app.

How to delete items in the Apple Music app

  1. Open the Apple Music app and find the item that you want to delete. If you see the download button next to the item, the item is stored in the cloud, not on your device. When items are stored in the cloud, they don't use any storage on your device.
  2. On your Mac, hover your pointer over the item, then click the More options button that appears.
    Or on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, press and hold the item that you want to delete.
  3. Tap or click Remove.
  4. From the menu that appears, choose Remove or Remove Download. Or choose 'Delete from Library' to remove the item from all devices that you use with Apple Music.

How to delete music in Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap General, then tap iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
  3. Scroll to Music, then tap it.
  4. Swipe left on any artist, album, or song. Or if you want to delete all music, swipe left on All Songs.
  5. Tap Delete.

More about deleting music that you purchased

If you deleted an item from your device and you don't want the item to stream to your device or appear in the cloud, hide the item.

If you used your computer and a USB cable to manually sync the music or music videos to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, turn off syncing.

Delete movies and TV shows

  • To delete videos that you downloaded to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, use the Apple TV app or the Settings app.
  • To delete videos that you downloaded to your Mac, use the Apple TV app.

Delete items in the Apple TV app

  1. Open the Apple TV app.
  2. Tap or click Library.
  3. To delete an item from your Mac, hover your pointer over the item, click the More options button , then click Remove Download.
    To delete an item on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap Downloaded, swipe left on the item, tap Delete, then Delete Download.

Delete movies or TV shows in Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap General, then tap iPhone Storage or iPad Storage.
  3. Scroll to TV, tap it, then tap Review Apple TV Downloads. If you don't see Review Apple TV Downloads, you don't have anything downloaded to your device.
  4. Find the movie, show, or episode that you want to delete, then swipe left on it and tap Delete.

If you can't delete your movies or TV shows

If you see the download button next to the item, the item is stored in the cloud and isn't using storage on your device. If you don't want the item to appear in the cloud, hide the item.

If you used your computer and a USB cable to manually sync movies and TV shows to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, turn off syncing.

Movie rentals automatically delete at the end of the rental period.

Delete apps and other media

Learn more

Delete Downloads On Macbook Pro

  • Because you don't download media on your Apple TV, you can't delete songs or shows from your Apple TV. But if you don't want to see a song, movie, or TV show on your Apple TV, use your computer to hide it.
  • Learn how to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or how to free up storage space on your Mac.
  • Learn how to redownload items that you purchased.
  • Depending on your country or region, you might not be able to buy or download certain types of media. Learn what's available in your country or region.