There’s no Books folder in your user directory, and there’s no Show in Finder option when viewing downloaded books in the app. The answer is that the downloaded Apple Books location depends on. Oct 17, 2019 It's easy to find downloads on your Mac computer in three different ways. When you download a file on your Mac, you can find it in the downloads folder on the dock, or by navigating to that.
- My Downloads Folder Icon
- Where Is My Downloads Folder On Mac
- Show Me My Download Folder
- Where Did My Downloads Folder Go Mac
The scenario is straightforward: You receive a message with an attachment in Mail and double-click the attached file to open it in the appropriate app. But what happens next is anything but straightforward: file attachments are stored in a hard-to-find folder; they are sometimes downloaded more than once; and different apps treat these opened files in very different ways.
Where is /Mail Downloads?
When you open a Mail attachment with a double-click, it opens in its parent app, just as you’d expect. But it’s also automatically (and secretly) downloaded into the aptly named Mail Downloads folder.
The folder’s name is the only thing that’s obvious about it: it’s deeply buried in a series of folders, one of which is invisible. To view its contents, choose Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, type (or copy and paste from here) ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail Downloads, and click Go.
You should visit this folder sometime if only because it probably has at least a gigabyte of detritus, much of which you could probably trash. You’ll likely find hundreds of folders (my husband’s Mac had 1800 of them) with alphanumeric names, each holding a downloaded attachment. That seemingly inefficient setup is necessary in order to avoid having identically named attachments saved to the same folder.
Prior to OS 10.9 Mavericks, this folder was located at ~/Library/Mail Downloads. If you upgraded from an earlier system, that folder may still be around. If so, you should check it for leftovers; although its contents should have been automatically migrated to the new folder, I recently found I still had items sitting in mine. You won’t find enclosing folders in that older folder; in previous operating systems, identically named downloads had numbers appended to their names in order to differentiate them.
What goes in Mail Downloads?
An attachment is automatically saved to the Mail Downloads folder whenever you:
Open the file with a double-click or with the Open Attachment command in its contextual menu.
Control-click a file and use any contextual menu command. If you Control-click but then change your mind and just let the menu close—too late! A copy is stored the moment you open the menu.
Use Quick Look to view it.
An additional copy of the attachment goes to Mail Downloads every time you repeat any of the above actions after having “left” and then “returned to” the message window. This includes when you: close and reopen the message window; look at a different message in the Viewer window and come back to the one with the attachment; and quit and re-launch Mail.
An attachment doesn’t go to Mail Downloads when you save it, which you can do with File > Save Attachments or by using the pop-up menu accessible from the gray header/message divider line when you hover anywhere in the message header. In those cases, it’s saved wherever you put it.
What happens when you edit an attachment?
When you open an attachment directly from a Mail message into its parent app, your edits sometimes seem to be saved and sometimes not. Why is that? And why do those edits sometimes seem to alter the original attachment? It all depends on the attachment’s default app.
Let’s say, for example, that you double-click an attachment that by default opens in a Microsoft or Adobe app. That attachment is then saved to the Mail Downloads folder (as explained above) and opened in its associated app. If you edit the document and use the Save command (not Save As), the edited version replaces the original file in the Mail Downloads folder. If you use the Open Recent command in the app later, it opens that altered copy.
But say you want to go back and check something in the original attached file. In Mail, you double-click the attachment again or take a Quick Look peek, reasonably assuming that you’ll get the unedited original. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won’t. Sometimes?
If you haven’t closed the message with the attached file and try to view the “original” attachment, Mail will show you the copy that’s stored in Mail Downloads—the one you edited. But if you do close the message, then reopen it and double-click the attachment, you will see the original version. That’s because Mail saves a fresh copy of the attachment to Mail downloads when you reopen the message, and that’s the file that opens.
My Downloads Folder Icon
To avoid this mess, the best way to open an attachment in one of these non-Apple programs is to first explicitly save it from Mail into an appropriate folder with File > Save Attachments or by using the Attachments pop-up menu on the header divider. Then you can open and edit that copy of the file in the app.
Apple apps such as Pages, Numbers, TextEdit, and Preview—as well as Nisus Writer Pro (kudos!)—treat attachments differently. When you double-click a file attachment belonging to one of those apps, its title bar changes to Untitled (OriginalName copy). In other words, it’s treated as a new document, so you can’t inadvertently save over the original version in Mail Downloads. As a result, if you view or reopen the original from within Mail, you always see the original version.
How to find the Applications folder on a Mac? It is relatively straightforward.
Either to go the top-level Finder menu, then along to the Go dropdown.
Scroll down and click on Applications. This should open a folder containing the files and shortcuts of every app you’ve ever downloaded or own/use by default.
Other ways to access the folder include running a Spotlight or Siri search or accessing it using any keyboard or mousepad shortcuts you've got in place.
Now, within this folder, you should be able to find every app you’ve ever downloaded. Only native macOS apps can’t be removed. But everything else is easy to delete. If your Mac isn’t performing as good as it once did, take the time to go through and drag into Trash anything that is taking up space you’d prefer to reassign to something else.
Where Is My Downloads Folder On Mac
Find your Application folder via Launchpad
There are two kinds of Mac users: one kind prefer Finder, others trust in Launchpad. Launchpad is a classic Mac feature and is worth praise for its looks alone. You can find and delete your apps right from there.
Launchpad trick: Can you make your apps dance?
When you click on the Launchpad icon in the Dock you will see your apps and your widgets.
Hold the Command key and click on any app — the apps will start shaking
Click on the hovering [X] to delete any app you want
How to find hidden Applications
As a matter of fact, some of your apps don't show up in either Finder or Launchpad. Such apps could be small supporting programs or intentionally stealth software. But as the saying goes, there's no lock without a key. There are tools to see your hidden apps and folder and some are even free to download, like CleanMyMac X by MacPaw.
This highly popular tool comes with a tool called 'Space Lens.' This is another way to find your Applications folder if you don't like browsing the Finder. With its help, you can visualize your entire storage and uncover all your files and folders.
- Download CleanMyMac X (get it for free here) and launch the app.
- Choose Space Lens.
- Click Run to build your storage map.
- Choose Applications folder.
Occasionally, a Mac user can lose or misplace a folder from where it was situated in the Finder sidebar - and some will also place this folder in the Dock. Here is how you can put the folder back where it belongs.
Show Me My Download Folder
How to restore a missing Applications folder?
- Go to the Finder menu.
- Select Preferences.
- Choose the Sidebar tab within Preferences.
- Re-check the option to show Applications in the Finder Sidebar.
- Now it should show up again in the Finder Sidebar and Dock.
With access restored, it should be easier to manage the applications you need - and those you don't - in your Mac.
Where Did My Downloads Folder Go Mac
I hope you find this article useful. Thanks for reading!