How To Uninstall Downloads On Mac

How to remove downloads from my Macbook Pro? I have installed the apps, but do not want the installation package to take up my Mac storage.

Apple Mac gains lots of users for its clean interface and smooth running. However, like Windows computer or desktop, one thing Mac also suffers from is that everyday's downloads of music, videos, apps, etc. have taken up the space and can also slow down your Mac.

In this post, we will share you 3 ways to delete downloads from your Mac directly, empty download folders from your Safari, Chrome and Firefox, and clean up your Mac downloads with the Mac cleaners.

  1. How to uninstall programs downloaded from App Store. In order to manually remove applications downloaded from the App Store, you should complete the following steps: Open the Application folder in Finder. Select the unneeded program and drag and drop it to the Bin. Select Go in the menu bar. Hold down the Option key and choose the /Library option.
  2. How to Delete Downloads on Mac. Nearly all files we download to our Macs end up either on your Desktop or in the Downloads folder. While the former is always visible and thus much easier to take care of, the latter quickly turns into the never-ending stream of files.
  3. To uninstall applications: By default Mac OS X software is stored in the Applications folder on your hard drive. Drag the program’s icon or folder to the Trash to begin the uninstall process. Detailed Information can be found at How To Completely Uninstall Software under Mac OS X MacRx How to uninstall software on a mac.
  4. Uninstall mac programs with launchpad. How to uninstall on mac by using the launchpad? It's easy and this manual method works like this: click launchpad icon in your mac's dock. Find the app you want to delete. Click and hold the app until it starts shaking. Click x in the top left corner of the app icon.

The quickest and most popular way to uninstall a utility on your Mac is to send it to Trash. 1) Use drag-and-drop action to send the program in question from the Applications folder to Trash. You can also right-click on the program’s icon from the Applications directory and select the “Move To Trash” option.

Delete Downloads on Mac

Part 1. How to clean up Mac downloads permanently and securely

The above ways will help you delete downloads from your Mac manually. However, if you think it a little complicated, you can use the Mac Cleaner to help you delete downloads on Mac automatically. It can helps you delete everything in the folder, including videos, music, files, apps, etc. Moreover, it deletes downloads permanently with recovery.

Step 1. Run Mac Cleaner

Download Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner and launch it. Check the system status of your Mac.

Step 2. Scan download folder

Click the section you want to scan in the left sidebar, Here we can choose 'Privacy'. Click the 'Scan' button to scan your Mac download history.

'Uninstaller' enables you to delete download apps from your Mac.

Step 3. Delete downloads on Mac

When the scanning done, you can click 'Review' button to review the scan results. Checkmark the items that you want to delete, and click 'Clean' button to start to delete downloads from your Mac.

Note: You can hit 'Re-scan' to scan your Mac computer again to get a deep downloads deletion.

Part 2. How to delete downloads from Mac directly

Once you download the files or apps to your Mac, then you can find the downloads and delete them manually by yourself. You should note that this way is available for Mac OS X 10.2 or above.

Step 1Find and click 'Finder'.

Step 2Press the hotkeys 'command + Shift +G' to go to the pop-up of 'Go to Folder' and then type in '~/' and click 'Go'.

Step 3Click 'Downloads' from the left sidebar, and view the detailed downloads in the right window. Find a download or downloads that you want to download, right click it with your mouse, and click 'Move to Trash'. Then go to your Trash, to empty the trash.

Part 3. How to delete downloaded programs on Mac from Safari/Chrome/Firefox

Commonly, most downloads are from your browser on Mac, so in this method, we will share the way to delete downloads from Safari, Chrome and Firefox on your Mac. This method will be available for your iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, etc.

Clean up the downloads from Safari

Safari, as the default browser, brings many downloads to your Mac without doubt. Follow the steps as below to delete download history from Safari.

Step 1Run Safari browser, and click 'History' in the menu bar on the top side of your screen.

Step 2Select on 'Clear History' > 'All history' from the drop-down as the time range you wish > 'Clear History' to clear up all download history from your Safari.

How To Uninstall Downloads On Mac

Remove download history from Chrome

Chrome is also the browser used widely by many of you. So downloads from Chrome will be not less. Take the steps as the following to delete the downloads on Mac from Chrome.

Step 1Launch the Chrome browser on your Mac.

Step 2Click 'History' in the menu bar > 'Show Full History' > 'Clear browsing data…' > Select 'the beginning of time…' for the time period you wish to erase > Check the deleting content to select 'Cache images and files' > 'Clear browsing data' to delete the downloaded pictures and other files on your Mac.

Empty the download folder from Firefox

Firefox, similar to Chrome, is also popular among users. Check the solution below to empty the downloaded apps or files from Firefox on Mac.

Step 1Run Firefox on your Mac.

Step 2Click 'History' in the menu bar > 'Clear Recent History…' > Select 'Everything' as the time range to clean > Click on the 'Details' arrow to checkmark the 'Browsing & Download History' box > Click on 'Clear Now'.

Here you also delete the download history from your Mac. For more details to delete history from Mac, visit here.

Way 3. How to clean up Mac downloads permanently and securely

The above ways will help you delete downloads from your Mac manually. However, if you think it a little complicated, you can use the Mac Cleaner to help you delete downloads on Mac automatically. It can helps you delete everything in the folder, including videos, music, files, apps, games like Fortnite, etc. Moreover, it deletes downloads permanently with recovery.

How To Uninstall Downloads On Macbook

Step 1. Run Mac Cleaner

Download Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner and launch it. Check the system status of your Mac.

Step 2. Scan download folder

Click the section you want to scan in the left sidebar, Here we can choose 'Privacy'. Click the 'Scan' button to scan your Mac download history.

How to uninstall downloads on mac

'Uninstaller' enables you to delete download apps from your Mac.

Step 3. Delete downloads on Mac

When the scanning done, you can click 'Review' button to review the scan results. Checkmark the items that you want to delete, and click 'Clean' button to start to delete downloads from your Mac.

Note: You can hit 'Re-scan' to scan your Mac computer again to get a deep downloads deletion.

Conclusion

Here are 3 ways to delete downloads on Mac. You can use the first and second method to remove downloads from Mac manually. Moreover, you can use the last recommended way to clean up downloads on Mac permanently and securely. Last reminder is that you had better backup Mac before deleting everything to avoid any regret.

What do you think of this post?

Excellent

Rating: 4.8 / 5 (based on 165 ratings)

June 04, 2019 15:55 / Updated by Louisa White to Mac Cleanup

  • Best Phone Cleaner Apps for Android

    Phone are full of junk files, and want to delete the unwanted downloads? Use the phone cleaners here.

  • How to Delete Google History

    If you want to protect your Google history from being disclosed to others, then you had better delete Google history now.

  • How to Clear Search Cookies from Safari Chrome Firefox on Mac

    Do not want others know your search cookies on Mac? Just clear all the cookies on Mac right now.

How To Uninstall Downloads On Mac

Deleting downloads on Mac can be a pain because It involves two separate things: cleaning up your Downloads folder and then removing the downloads history from your browser. So, in short, you'll need to: find your Downloads folder, remove your downloads, clear your downloads history in your browser, and (finally) empty your Trash.

How to delete downloads on Mac via Finder

Finder is the first place you should look for downloads in on your Mac. If you have a mountain of download files stored, it’d be smart to sort your items and see which of them are the heaviest.

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Press Cmd+Shift+G.
  3. Type in: ~/
  4. Open Downloads folder.
  5. Righ-click anywhere in the window and select Use Groups.
  6. Finder will then gather your downloads in groups such as Applications, PDF documents, Images, and others, so you can quickly look through them and delete files you don’t need.

Then you can sort downloads by size: right-click in Finder, click Group By pop-up menu and choose Size.

If you want to remove multiple downloads from your Mac at once, you can do that with CleanMyMac X. This app has a Large and Old Files feature that detects all massive files and lets you delete them all. I will explain how to quickly get to downloads on your Mac using CleanMyMac X later in the article. You'd be surprised at how many GB of space you can reclaim!


How to delete downloads from software (e.g. Skype) which are hard to find

It can be a challenge to find the files you downloaded from different apps, such as Skype, on your Mac. By default, all the items you want to save go into the Downloads folder. But, if you have changed these settings, your files would be stored elsewhere. So, how to find those downloads on your Mac.

If you search for Skype downloads, here’s how to locate them:

  1. Open Skype.
  2. Go to the Skype menu and choose Preferences.
  3. Select Messaging from the list on the left.

In the end, there’s “When I receive a file” setting. It’s set to Downloads, which means all files you download from Skype automatically go into this folder. Open it to locate the files Skype saved and delete them. You can change directory to save your Skype files elsewhere.

The pretty similar route applies to all other apps you save files from. For example, to find out the Slack downloads location, I opened the app and then navigated to its Preferences.

To make it easier to find files you saved, choose one download location for all your apps. You will eliminate clutter in lots of folders and will be able to delete many files at once.

Once you’re done deleting your downloads, it’s time to clear the downloads history from the browser you use. Select the section below based on the browser you use.

The easy way to delete large and old files on Mac

However, if you’re looking for a solution that makes clearing out your large downloads (including your Skype downloads history) simple, check out a cleaning utility like CleanMyMac X.

Large and Old Files feature scans your storage for heavy files piling up on your Mac for a long time. It shows how much space each file takes and helps to quickly get rid of all old documents, .dmg files, and archives that clutter your storage.

Large and Old Files helps you clean up your Downloads folder with just a few clicks. Here's how to clear old downloads on your Mac:

  1. Download the free version of CleanMyMac X.
  2. Install and launch the app.
  3. Click Large & Old Files.
  4. Scan your Mac and then select whatever you wish to remove.
  5. Click Remove.

And you’re done. As you can see, it’s incredibly easy to remove your downloads on Mac with CleanMyMac X.

But, if you’d still like to clean up your downloads and download history manually, just follow the steps below.

How to delete old .DMG files on Mac

On macOS, the majority of apps you download come in .dmg format. '.dmg' is a disk image that contains a compressed download file. These files work like hard drives: they can be mounted and ejected.

When you open the .dmg file, you’ll see the application you’re about to install. After installing the application (dragging it to the Applications folder), the .dmg file will stay on your Mac until you delete it. Imagine how many .dmg files you may have unintentionally stored on your Mac. Now, let’s see how to delete them.

First, you need to eject those .dmg files that are still open.

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Under the Locations you will see the list of all .dmg files.
  3. Press the Eject icon to eject a disk image.

To delete .dmg files:

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Type “.dmg” in the search field and press Return.
  3. Move the unneeded files to the Trash.

Voila! Now, your Mac is much cleaner.

How to clear downloads history in Chrome

To clear downloads history in Google Chrome browser manually:

  1. Launch the Chrome browser.
  2. Type chrome://history/ in the search field and press Enter.
  3. Select Clear browsing data.
  4. Select the time range and check the 'Download history' box.
  5. Click Clear data.

How to clean downloads history in Safari

To clean downloads history in Safari browser:

How To Uninstall A Downloaded App On Mac

  1. Launch the Safari browser.
  2. Click View in the menu bar and select Show Downloads.
  3. Safari will show you all the files you downloaded. Press Clear to remove downloads history.

You can alternatively press the arrow down button (↓) to see and clear downloads.

Clearing your Mac of downloads once in a while helps to save some space. If you are up to a full spring cleaning of your MacBook, CleanMyMac X has another useful feature — Space Lens. It analyses your storage and shows precisely how much space each folder takes. If your Mac is short on space, Space Lens can help you to locate the heaviest folder and remove it. Download the app for free, to try it yourself!

How to remove downloads history in Firefox

To remove downloads history in Firefox directly:

How To Delete Mac Downloads

  1. Launch the Firefox browser.
  2. Click History, in the menu bar.
  3. Select Clear Recent History.
  4. Select the time range.
  5. Check the “Browsing & Download History” box.
  6. Click Clear Now.

How To Remove Unwanted Downloads From Mac

Now, your Mac is probably clean of old downloads that used to take space. Keeping your digital space tidy and organized will help you locate files faster and avoid clutter in your folders.