Clean up your Mac's Downloads folder automatically
Everything ends up in Downloads: installers, invoices, photos, ZIP files, PDFs from the browser. After a few months it holds hundreds of files. Here is how to keep it under control.
Sort first, then tidy
Open Downloads in Finder, switch to list view and sort by “Date Added” (View › Sort By). You see what is new and what has been sitting there for months.
A simple order
- Installers (
.dmg,.pkg): rarely needed after installing. Trash after 7 days. - Invoices and receipts: into a receipts folder by year and month.
- Contracts and letters: into an archive by kind and sender.
- Images: into Pictures or the Photos app.
- Everything else stays in Downloads until you need it or delete it.
What macOS does on its own
- System Settings › General › Storage can empty the Trash after 30 days. That only affects the Trash, not Downloads.
- Safari › Settings › General › “Remove download list items” only clears the list. The files stay.
- Desktop stacks and Finder tags help with sorting but don't move anything by themselves.
- Shortcuts can filter, rename and move files; folder rules you have to build yourself.
Automatically with Letterslot
Letterslot watches Downloads and applies your rules to every new file once it has finished downloading. On first launch it offers templates such as “Installers to the Trash after 7 days” and “Invoices to the receipts folder”. You can also describe a rule in one sentence; the app turns it into a rule you check first, and it only runs after you accept it.
Letterslot never deletes files permanently, it only moves them to the Trash. Every action is in the journal, with Undo. The free tier gives you 2 rules for 1 folder for good, which is often enough for Downloads.
Letterslot is a file autopilot for the Mac: it reads new files, understands them with Apple's on-device language model and files them by your rules, with a journal and Undo. 14 days of everything free, then free with 2 rules or Pro for €24 once.
See Letterslot