How to stop Mac Mail from automatically downloading (and storing locally) attachments?

Question

brsm1990 Author

Level 2

250 points

How to stop Mac Mail from automatically downloading (and storing locally) attachments?

A while back I had a problem where Mac Mail was wasting many gigabytes of space on my hard drive because it was storing a local copy of every message ever received in all my accounts. At the time I was dealing with this issue there was no way to limit how much is mail stored locally (maybe that's changed?). Actually I don't mind keeping a text copy of all my mail locally, it helps for search, for example. But I don't want a local copy of every attachment ever received. There was a setting to stop Mail from downloading all attachments automatically, I'd have to click on the attachment and then it would download.

I don't remember where I found this setting though, can anyone help?

Thanks.

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.3), Retina 15"

Posted on Mar 17, 2017 12:09 PM

Reply

Answer 1

dot.com

Level 4

2,455 points

Mar 17, 2017 1:29 PM in response to brsm1990

Perhaps you might try the "Preferences" menu from Mail and under Accounts tab with your account highlighted is there a "Download Attachments" option in the "Account Information" tab? This can be set to "All" or "Recent" or "None"

Good luck...

Reply

Answer 2

To_Mi

Level 4

1,202 points

Mar 18, 2017 3:35 AM in response to brsm1990

Some more info here,

"Download Attachments" option is available for IMAP account (including iCloud), but not for POP account.
For POP account, [Mailbox Behavior] tab for the account has "Erase deleted messages" option instead.
As related item, General tab has "Remove unedited downloads" option, which can be "Never", "When Mail Quits", or "After Message is Deleted"

Reply

Answer 3

brsm1990 Author

Level 2

250 points

Mar 18, 2017 3:36 AM in response to To_Mi

To_Mi wrote:

As related item, General tab has "Remove unedited downloads" option, which can be "Never", "When Mail Quits", or "After Message is Deleted"

I assume (and hope) this means just downloads I opened that are stored in a temp folder somewhere, not downloads that I have specifically opened and saved under /user/login/documents/Office/somefile.docx for example?

Reply