How to delete downloads on a Mac, and stop them piling up
Open Downloads with Option-Command-L, select, press Command-Delete, then empty the Trash. How to find old and large downloads, and keep the folder small.
Open Finder and press ⌥⌘L to open Downloads (can’t find it?). Select the files (⌘A for all of them), press ⌘⌫ to move them to the Trash, then empty the Trash with ⇧⌘⌫. The space comes back only once the Trash is empty.
Before deleting everything, spend two minutes on the steps below: Downloads often holds the only copy of a PDF you signed or a photo someone sent you.
1. Delete the old ones first
- In Downloads, switch to list view (⌘2).
- Press ⌘J and tick Date Added, then click the Date Added column to sort by it.
- Click the first file older than a month, then ⇧-click the last one to select the whole range.
- Press ⌘⌫.
Date Added is the day the file landed in Downloads, which is the date that matters here. Files that came out of a .zip often keep a much older Date Modified.
2. Find the large ones
In list view, sort by Size. Folders show no size until you press ⌘J and tick Calculate all sizes.
The usual heavy files in Downloads:
- Installers (
.dmg,.pkg): safe to delete once the app is in Applications. Eject the disk image in the Finder sidebar first if it is still mounted. - Archives (
.zip) you already opened: macOS unzipped the content next to the archive, so the.zipis a second copy. - Videos and screen recordings.
macOS also lists them for you: System Settings > General > Storage, then the ⓘ next to Documents. The Downloads tab shows the folder’s content sorted by size, and the Large Files tab shows the biggest files anywhere in your home folder.
3. Keep what matters
Before the Trash, move what you want to keep out of Downloads: a signed contract to Documents, photos to Photos or Pictures. A folder system to move them into is in how to organize files on a Mac.
4. Stop Downloads from filling up again
- Empty the Trash on its own. Finder > Settings > Advanced, tick Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.
- Delete old downloads on a schedule (macOS 26 Tahoe). In Shortcuts, open Automation, click +, choose a Time of Day trigger, weekly. Build the shortcut with Get Contents of Folder (Downloads), Filter Files where the creation date is not in the last 30 days, and Delete Files. Delete Files asks for confirmation unless you turn that option off; test the shortcut on a copy of the folder first.
- On older versions, the same job needs Automator or a script run by
launchd. For most people, a weekly reminder to sort by Date Added is simpler. - Change where the browser saves files. Safari: Settings > General > File download location. Chrome: Settings > Downloads. A
Downloads/To sortfolder is not a solution; a folder per project sometimes is.
Removing a download from the list in Safari (the arrow in the toolbar) or Chrome (Remove from list) only clears the list. The file stays in Downloads.
Where the free method stops
Deleting takes seconds; deciding what to keep takes the time. In a Downloads folder of 600 files, the long part is finding the 20 worth keeping among installers, duplicates and one-time PDFs. Finder sorts by one column at a time, and the scheduled deletion above deletes blindly by date.
The one-click version
DeclutrDeclutr does not delete anything. It sorts Downloads, the Desktop or any folder into category folders by file type: Documents, Images, Videos, Audio, Archives, Apps, Code & Scripts, 3D Models and more. After a sort, the archives sit in one folder you can review and trash in one move, and the PDFs sit in Documents for a closer look. One Undo button puts every file back where it was.
The sort is free. Pro, a one-time $8.99 purchase in the US, adds a watched Downloads folder, scheduled cleanups, and rules by name, extension, age or size, such as “installers older than 30 days go to a folder to review”.
What it does not do: it will not empty the Trash or delete old files for you, and it does not read what is inside a file. It needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.
For any file on the Mac, and the ones that won’t delete: how to delete files on a Mac. To get space back beyond Downloads: how to free up disk space.
Questions people ask
How do I delete all my downloads at once on a Mac?
Open Finder, press Option-Command-L to open Downloads, press Command-A to select everything, then Command-Delete to move it all to the Trash. Empty the Trash with Shift-Command-Delete to free the space.
Does the Downloads folder delete files automatically on a Mac?
No. Files stay in Downloads until you remove them. macOS can empty the Trash of items older than 30 days (Finder > Settings > Advanced), and a Shortcuts automation can delete old downloads on a schedule, but neither is on by default for Downloads.
What does Remove from list do in Safari or Chrome downloads?
It only clears the entry from the browser's download list. The file stays in your Downloads folder. To delete the file, delete it in Finder.
Is it safe to delete .dmg files in Downloads?
Yes, once the app is installed in Applications. A .dmg is only the installer. Eject its disk in Finder first if it is still mounted, then move the .dmg to the Trash.