Help · Mac storage

How to clean out your Downloads folder.

By Grant and Brad, who make Pangalin's apps · Updated 11 October 2026

Everything you download lands in one folder and usually stays there: app installers, zip files you've already opened, PDFs read once, videos. On many Macs it's tens of gigabytes. It's also the easiest folder to clean, because you know what's in it.

Sort it, biggest and oldest first

1. In Finder, open Downloads (⌥⌘L).
2. Switch to list view (⌘2). Click the Size column to sort biggest first. Choose View › Show View Options and tick Calculate all sizes so folders get sizes too.
3. Right-click the column headings and add Date Last Opened (or Date Added). Files you haven't opened in months are good candidates.

Usually safe to remove

• Installers: .dmg, .pkg, .iso and .xip files for apps you've already installed. You can download them again if you ever need to.
• Archives you've already opened: a .zip next to a folder of the same name is usually a spare copy.
• Duplicates: names ending (1), (2) are repeat downloads.
• One-time files: tickets, statements and forms you've saved elsewhere.

Keep or move anything you'd struggle to get again: personal documents, photos, purchased downloads, licence files. Move those to Documents, or to an external drive.

Move what you don't need to the Trash, check nothing's missing, then empty it. Emptying the Trash is permanent.

Keep it tidy

• Check monthly, or after installing something.
• Empty Trash Automatically: in System Settings › General › Storage, or Finder › Settings › Advanced › Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.
• Safari's download list: Safari › Settings › General › Remove download list items only tidies Safari's list, not the files themselves.