Tip: Keep your Mac's Downloads folder clean

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Tip: Keep your Mac’s Downloads folder clean

25 March 2011 4,181 views 4 Comments

Movies and software. Software and movies. The Downloads folder on my Mac is usually chock full of them. Whereas I can’t tolerate a messy Desktop and clear it off several times a day, trashing unneeded files and putting away the rest, the Downloads folder is another issue altogether — out of sight, out of mind.

Of my Mac’s 250GB hard drive, only about about half has been used — plenty of space for a scratch disk and swap files. Music, movies, documents, etc. are all stored on external disks and backed up — drives are cheap and back up software easy, automagical.

Nevertheless, like the Desktop, the Downloads folder (~/Downloads) requires regular manual sorting of the digital wheat and chaff. If I let it get out of hand, that necessary 100-plus gigabytes of free hard drive space can disappear rather quickly and it’s happened before — invariably near the end of a big iMovie or Photoshop project as the deadline bears down on me.

Here are a couple tips for keeping on top of the problem:

• Finish what you started — Big presentation, product review, etc. completed? Clean up now before the remains become part of the scenery

• When BitTorrent’s finished seeding, take care of the file right now — configure your client to play a sound and/or display a notification
— After adding Music, audiobook and movie files to iTunes, clean up the mess right now

• Don’t use Downloads for long-term storage — everything belongs somewhere and none of it belongs in the Downloads folder

• Set aside a specific time at the beginning or end of day to sort, sift and clean the Downloads folder

Have a better way? Created a super nifty AppleScript to do the job for you? Share your story and a link in the comments below…

via OS X Daily

4 Comments »

kman said:

I don’t know about that. I fully understand needing to keep a rein on disk space with computers that are running low, but I tend to think that things that I “Download” should be kept in the “Downloads” folder. Makes perfect sense to me. I often hang onto installation programs, etc.

Documents, photos, videos, etc. that are downloaded get sorted into the appropriate folders, of course, but apps and various other classes of things that are downloaded? They belong in the downloads folder, for reinstallation, distribution to other computers without needing to download again, etc. I just have to keep an eye on how many versions are stacking up so I don’t end up with 8-10 copies of various versions of iTunes, Firefox, etc. One version back (especially to a “known good” version that I know works well, in case there are issues or bugs with a new version of something) generally suffices.

# 25 March 2011 at 3:10 pm

PhillyG said:

I agree with kman, for the most part. I like the reverse chronological presentation very much. It is especially helpful when correlated with the reverse chronological presentation of the browser history. Yes, I don’t clear my browser history, either.

I say “for the most part” because I prefer the finder style presentation over the “dock style” grid or list. I wish I knew how to make the download icon in the dock produce the finder view.

# 27 March 2011 at 2:18 pm

tmp said:

I have changed my download folder to the /private/tmp directory so that everything in it is automatically deleted on restart. Because I know that the directory will be cleaned on restart, I am sure to move important items immediately, rather when I will ‘get around to it’.

In Finder, select Go to folder in the “Go” menu. Enter /private/tmp. Drag the tmp folder icon in the titlebar to your sidebar.

In change your download folders in Firefox, etc.

# 27 March 2011 at 4:13 pm

How to: Empty Downloads folder with AppleScript | FairerPlatform said:

[...] few weeks back, I authored Tip: Keep your Downloads folder clean and mused out loud that an AppleScript for the task might exist. Well, the lads at OS X Hints just [...]

# 21 April 2011 at 12:03 am