Can I delete the Mail Downloads folder on my Mac?
Check first. Mail Downloads holds copies of attachments you opened or previewed in Mail. The originals stay in the emails, so Mail saves a new copy the next time you open one. The exception is a copy whose email you have deleted.
At a glance
| Owner app | |
|---|---|
| Typical size | Tens of MB to a few GB |
| Safe to delete? | Check first |
| Comes back? | Yes, when you open an attachment again |
| What you lose | The originals stay inside the emails, so you usually lose nothing: Mail saves a copy again when you open the attachment. The exception is an attachment whose email you have since deleted; this copy would then be the last one. |
| Where it is | ~/ |
What it is
When you double-click an attachment in Mail to open it, Mail saves a copy in its private folder, Mail Downloads, and opens that copy. Each attachment gets its own folder with a long code for a name, and the file keeps its original name inside. On the Mac used to check this page there were 79 of them, 38 MB in all.
How fast it grows depends on a setting. In Mail › Settings › General, Remove unedited downloads decides when Mail clears these copies: after the message is deleted, when Mail quits, or never. With Never, every PDF, photo and document you ever opened stays.
Most of what’s here can go: the originals are still in your mail. Gigabroom marks the folder Check first because of two exceptions, an attachment you edited after opening it and one whose email is gone. It is not ticked by default, and if you do remove it, it goes to the Trash.
Delete it by hand
- Quit Mail.
- In Finder, choose Go › Go to Folder… and paste
~/.Library/ Containers/ com.apple.mail/ Data/ Library/ Mail Downloads - Look through the folders for files you edited or want to keep, and save those elsewhere. Move the rest to the Trash.
- To have Mail clean up by itself, open Mail › Settings › General and set Remove unedited downloads to When Mail Quits or After Message is Deleted.
With Gigabroom
- Open Gigabroom and wait for the scan.
- In Clean Up, open Temporary Files. Opened email attachments are listed as Check first and are not ticked.
- Select the row and click Show in Finder to look inside. If nothing there is yours alone, tick it and click Clean Up. It goes to the Trash, and Put Back is available until you empty it.
Before you delete
If you opened an attachment and edited it without saving it somewhere else, the edited version may exist only here. The same goes for attachments whose emails you have already deleted. Check the files first and move anything you want to keep to Documents.
Related folders
| Folder | Safe to delete? | Typical size |
|---|---|---|
~/ | Keep | — |
~/ | Check first | — |
~/ | Keep | 1–50 GB |
~/ | Check first | 1–20 GB |
Questions
Is this the same as my Downloads folder?
No. Attachments you save on purpose go to the folder chosen in Mail › Settings › General, usually Downloads. Mail Downloads is where Mail puts a copy when you just open an attachment.
Will deleting it remove attachments from my emails?
No. The attachments stay in the messages themselves. Mail saves a new copy here when you open one again.
Why is every file in its own folder with a long name?
Mail gives each opened attachment a folder with a unique code, so two files with the same name never clash. The file inside keeps its original name.
Mail itself takes many gigabytes. Is that this folder?
Usually not. Most of Mail’s space is the mailboxes in ~/Library/Mail, with every downloaded email and attachment. Gigabroom marks that folder as Keep. To shrink it, delete large emails in Mail or download fewer attachments in the account settings.
Last checked on macOS 27.0.1 · 2026-11-10