Tidy and find

How to organise the Downloads folder on a Mac

Updated 25 October 2026 · 4 min read

Four ways to get a Mac Downloads folder under control, from Finder's grouping and Smart Folders to Folder Actions, and how Orrel sorts it by type with a preview and undo.

The Downloads folder fills up because nothing ever leaves it. Installers stay after the app is installed, PDFs stay after they are read, and zips sit next to the folders they were unpacked into. Sorting it once is easy. Keeping it sorted is the part that needs a system.

Start with what Finder already does

Before moving anything, make the folder readable. Open Downloads in Finder and switch to list view with ⌘2.

• Sort by Date Added. Choose View › Show View Options (⌘J), tick Date Added, then click the column header. Date Added is when the file arrived in the folder, which is usually what you remember.
• Group by Kind. Choose View › Use Groups (⌃⌘0), then View › Group By › Kind. Disk images, PDFs, images and archives fall into their own sections without anything moving on disk.
• Find the large ones. Add the Size column in View Options and sort by it. A few old installers are often most of the folder's size.

Grouping changes what you see, not where files live. That is its strength, because nothing can go wrong, and its limit, because the folder is still one long list everywhere else, including in save dialogs.

Smart Folders for views that stay current

A Smart Folder is a saved search that looks like a folder. In Finder choose File › New Smart Folder, click the + button, set the search to Downloads, and add conditions such as Kind is PDF and Date Added is within the last 30 days. Click Save and add it to the sidebar.

Smart Folders update on their own, which makes them good for questions you ask often, such as "recent PDFs". They do not move files, so the Downloads folder itself stays as it was.

Folder Actions, if you want files moved

macOS can run an Automator workflow whenever a file lands in a folder. Open Automator, choose New Document › Folder Action, set the folder to Downloads at the top, then add actions such as Filter Finder Items (for example, Kind is Disk Image) followed by Move Finder Items. Save it and macOS attaches it to the folder.

This works, but each rule is a separate workflow, there is no preview of what will move, and nothing records where files went, so there is no undo. It also runs the moment a file arrives, which can catch a download before it has finished or move a file you were about to open.

A five-minute manual system

If you would rather not automate, a routine works well enough. Once a week, sort by Date Added, delete installers for apps you have already installed, move anything you need to keep into Documents, and leave the rest. Most of the folder is disposable, and the habit of moving keepers out is what matters.

How Orrel does it

Orrel's Tidy screen looks at the loose files at the top of Downloads and Desktop and proposes where each should go. The Downloads template sorts by type into Installers, Archives, Documents, Images and Media. If the Invoices template is on, bills and receipts are recognised from the text inside them and renamed by date, vendor and total, such as 2026-10-02 Fernhill Hosting $40.68.pdf.

• Preview first. Every proposed move is listed before anything happens. Untick any file you want left alone.
• Undo any run. Each run is kept in History with the original location of every file, so you can put a whole run back.
• New files wait. You choose how long a file must sit before it is considered: an hour, a day, three days or a week. Partial downloads are skipped.
• Never deletes or overwrites. Files are moved, and a name clash gets a number rather than replacing anything.
• Automatic if you want it. Tidying can run on its own while Orrel is open, from the menu bar, or as a Shortcuts action.

Where Orrel stops

Orrel's templates can be switched on or off, but you cannot write your own rules, so it cannot send files from one website to one particular folder. It only tidies while it is open; it can sit in the menu bar and open at login if you want it running. It never looks inside subfolders. And invoice detection reads the text for words such as "invoice" or "total" near an amount, so it will miss some bills and can get a vendor wrong, which is why every move is shown first.