If you choose to set your email accounts to not automatically download attachments, then it solves a lot of the problem. I get tons of email, and my Mail Downloads folder contains items that date back to Feb 2015, but it is still only about 150MB in size, just a tiny fraction of my 1TB drive. This will be more of a problem for some than others. But it remains there afterward, which can be a problem as it takes up space. When you try to open or view an attachment to an email message, this is where the attachment is saved so you can then open/view it. ~/Library/Containers//Data/Library/Mail Downloads But I’m not clear what else could be lost following this drastic method, which would also be time consuming in case multiple email accounts are used on the same computer.įor those that don't know, the folder in question is: I suppose that as long as one uses an IMAP acct, the email accounts could be removed from the system and their respective mBoxes deleted in their entirety, before adding the accounts again on the computer. Given the complex folder structure used by the Mail app, there’s no easy way to navigate through all these folders and delete the attachments that are left behind.Īny ideas of how they can be deleted? Do any apps exist that can do this automatically for the user?

Although these files are supposed to be temporary, they stay behind on the drive and can occupy gigabytes of space. When an attachment is opened, the file is stored in a temporary folder under the email account’s inbox, in a convoluted naming scheme that references the attachment to the email.

How to Remove Downloaded Email Attachments From Mail App In MacOS?

Clean message attachments mac