locating folder buried in system

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locating folder buried in system

I am using Catalina 10.15.7. I noticed that some mail attachments are automatically downloaded to a folder that I cannot access. This folder is HARDDRIVE / USERS / USERNAME / LIBRARY / CONTAINERS / COM.APPLE.MAIL / DATA / LIBRARY / MAIL DOWNLOADS. The downloaded files are assigned a 26-digit name. When I open my hard drive I cannot get past USERNAME. I imagine that there are hundreds of documents housed there, none of which I probably do not need any more. How can I gain access to that folder to delete these files? Or can I?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Mar 13, 2025 2:58 PM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

61,333 points

Mar 13, 2025 3:14 PM in response to Edward Weintraut

Why do you need to access this directly?

This folder hierarchy is used for Mail attachments. The easiest way to access these files is via email. If you delete a message in Mail then its associated attachments are also deleted.

Going 'under the hood' and deleting the files directly could lead to problems in that Mail expects the attachments to be there when you view the message.

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locating folder buried in system

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