Change desktop location mac

Ive seen a lot of cluttered and disorganized Downloads folders on Mac. A lot. For me, at least, its much easier to keep my downloaded files cleaned up and organized if I download to my Desktop which Im constantly looking at then to download to the downloads folder which I dont pay attention to until it gets too cluttered to find anything.

So if youre the same way, its good to know that you can change where Safari, Firefox, and Chrome automatically put their downloads.

So for todays article, lets go over how to change the default download folder on the Mac!

Luckily, the process of changing the default download directory pretty similar in the three main Mac browsers.

Change the Default Download Location in Safari

1. Open the Safari app and click on the Safari drop-down menu at the top left.
   
2. Choose Preferences.
3. Make sure General tab is selected and then change the File Download Location to wherever you want.
   

As you can see, Ive 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 youre feeling really fancy, you could instead change that toggle shown in my secondscreenshot 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 inFirefox

With theFirefox browser, youll start the same way as you did with Safari.

1. Launch Firefox and click on its named menu[i.e. the FireFox pulldown menu] in the upper lefthand corner.
   
2. Select Preferences.
3. 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 eachtime you initiate a download.

Change the Default Download Location in Chrome

Google made it just a teeny bit harder to change your default downloads folderin theChrome browser, but the steps begin the same way as the other two browsers.

1. Launch Chrome and select the Chrome menu from the top of your screen.
2. Select Preferences.
   
3. Scroll down the settings on the side menu until you see Advanced. Click on it.
   
4. Choose Downloads.
   
5. Click on Change next to Location and select the folder you want your downloads to go to.
   

As with Safari and Firefox, theres a choice to make the browser ask you where to put the file youre downloading every time.

As Steve Jobs used to say, Oh yeah, theres one more thing.

Mail also uses the Downloads folder to store attachments you save, so if youd like to be really thorough, you could change that, too.

Click on theMail 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 youve 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 youre 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, wed love to hear from you in a comment below!