Mail Downloads folder

Hi Moloy,

Sorry to lug this old thread back into action, but I'm not witnessing two of the behaviors you describe here. I found this conversation while researching Apple Mail's non-intuitive attachment editing behavior as it relates to people with a Windows background (namely, my wife, who is constantly frustrated with OS X). I was hoping to find a solution that would disallow Mail from saving any edited files back to the original Downloads Folder location (which is admittedly non-intuive, though I've long since gotten used to it and know where to look when it happens).

Anyway, while the setup you describe above sounds like a perfect solution, it isn't working in my case:

• "If you Save the attachment you will have a second copy downloaded to the location specified in..." Not what I'm seeing. I just tried opening a Word doc that was sent to me, made a slight change, and saved to its current Downloads location. I do have a second location specified in Mail for the purpose of saving attachments, which is where such a message would assumedly have been moved. Nonetheless, it didn't move anywhere.
• "Any file placed in the folder "Mail Downloads", which you haven't modified will be deleted." Here again, no dice. While that is clearly what is meant by the setting's verbiage, I set it as such and then previewed a simple attached image, then verified that it was stowed in the Downloads folder. I then quit Mail and watched. Nothing happened, the file and its folder were (are) still there. I re-opened/re-quit Mail, no change.

I don't really expect a solution to my issues, it's possible that there's just something wrong with my system (corrupted preferences or something), but I do want to alert others who come across this thread that the solution cited may not work for them. But if anyone has ideas for making my Mail follow Moloy's rules, I'm all ears. 🙂

When you receive an attachment from someone and open it, Mail stores it in this location. These attachments are still available on mail on your server, so this is more of a temporary local folder for these items.

Are you using Time Machine, or another routine to back up your system?

The program needs some place to store attachments that you open. If someone sends you a Word document, then it will need to be stored temporarily in some location so the system can have it ready if and when you decide to access it. One option is to store these along with the message itself, the other is to leave it on the server, and the last is to store them all in a central location. Mail does the latter.

This same behavior is true for any files you open in any application, be they in a Web browser, email client, or otherwise. Many programs cache files so if you browse by them it can make them available quickly without requiring you re-download them every time. The system merely downloading content in this manner will not hurt you. If you remove the corresponding email message, then the temporary items should disappear as well (eventually). If not, and they appear orphaned, then you can remove them manually without hurting anything. The system will only repopulate the items as you use it.

These programs will have their own options for caching attachments and other files.

As long as the attachments are on the server, then they will be re-downloaded when you next sync with the server. If your email accounts are IMAP accounts, then this means that if you will be able to access the attachments again as the messages simply sync with what is on the server. On the other hand, POP accounts may download the files to your system and then remove them from the server so they may not be available afterwards. You can check the type of account by going to the Mail preferences, and in the Accounts section check the type of account right under the account name (ie, Gmail IMAP is an IMAP account).

These folders aren't "to be cleaned" on any regular basis, by any means. They are there to support the program's functions, and if you remove them you will to some degree disrupt the program's functions. If there is corruption in these folders then this can slow the program down or cause other problems, in which case a cleaning of sorts may be warranted; however, if not then a cleaning is likely unnecessary.

If you are running low on space, then I would recommend you leave the system and application support files alone, and instead tackle how much user data you have on the system instead. These are things like movies, music, and pictures, with which the system does not interact.

I am not sure why Apple placed these in separate folders; it could have placed them within the same folder. Mail is sandboxed, so technically it accesses all of these folders either directly in the Containers folder, or through aliases (i.e., for the Mail Downloads folder) from within the Containers folder. However, sandboxing is a separate detail here.

To ensure all of the Mail data is preserved as-is on your system, you will need to back up both folders; however, if you use a complete system backup like Apple's Time Machine service, or a cloning tool, then you will not have to bother with doing this manually. This is the route I recommend to establish a backup routine, as it will ensure you get everything.

Right. When Mail downloads messages from the server, it includes the attachment as well. These are in the standard mailbox structure. When you open the attachment then it is placed in the Mail Downloads folder and opened from there. If you have not saved the attachment elsewhere, but have opened it for viewing and during this time you delete the initial message, then the one on the Mail Downloads folder will be the only message you have opened. This allows for you to continue managing your email without interruption, regardless of the status of the attachments you're currently interacting with. In this manner, the Mail Downloads folder is simply a cache.

If you are as fanatical about backup as you seem you should not be using POP, where the downloading email then deleting off the server is the default. Use IMAP and retain a copy on the server for back up as well.

I believe that's what I've been telling you all along. The scenario in which you need to back up the Mail downloads folder to preserve files is if you have an attachment open, but then remove the corresponding message and havent yet saved the attachment elsewhere.

As for Time Machine and getting used to it, there's really not much to get used to. Simply get an external drive and attach it, and when prompted choose it for use with Time Machine. Then be sure to regularly attach it to your system, and it will make full system backups hourly.

The main benefit of Time Machine is that in the event of a full system failure or massive data loss, you can restore to practically any system and be up and running exactly where you were, without the need to reinstall and migrate data, though this approach is also an option.