Setting Downloads and Documents on external drives

[rjalex]

Dear friends,
I am ashamed as I am sure I'm missing something very obvious but I'm not wrapping my head around something that sounds easy

Can I permanently set the Downloads folder on an external disk? This would be a slowish but large external USB attached HDD.

Can I do the same for my Documents folder but having that on the USB-C attached Samsung T5 SSD?

If I was on a Linux system I would mount those two drives at boot onto the proper mount points and be done but on MacOS I am unsure if this is possible and how to do it (unless there's a good reason not to that I'm overlooking).

I'd like to do this since my Mini has the small internal SSD which I'd like to keep only with System and Apps and the day I'll change the machine I'd have my Documents and Downloads I could remount on the new machine.

Thank you very much for clearing up the confusion.

 

[chrfr]

Dear friends,
I am ashamed as I am sure I'm missing something very obvious but I'm not wrapping my head around something that sounds easy

Can I permanently set the Downloads folder on an external disk? This would be a slowish but large external USB attached HDD.

Can I do the same for my Documents folder but having that on the USB-C attached Samsung T5 SSD?

If I was on a Linux system I would mount those two drives at boot onto the proper mount points and be done but on MacOS I am unsure if this is possible and how to do it (unless there's a good reason not to that I'm overlooking).

I'd like to do this since my Mini has the small internal SSD which I'd like to keep only with System and Apps and the day I'll change the machine I'd have my Documents and Downloads I could remount on the new machine.

Thank you very much for clearing up the confusion.

You can set the Downloads folder to be any folder, on any disk. Moving your Documents folder will be problematic and unreliable, so I wouldn't recommend doing that.

 

[rjalex]

Thanks a lot for your advice.
And how would I proceed to designate the HDD as the new Downloads folder from now on?

 

[chrfr]

Thanks a lot for your advice.
And how would I proceed to designate the HDD as the new Downloads folder from now on?

That's set in any app that downloads files. There's no global setting for that.

 

[rjalex]

Aw I see. So there's no way to mount the external HDD onto the internal HDD /Users/bob/Download mountpoint?

In other words of the following:

bob@Roberts-Mac-mini ~ % diskutil list (edit)

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk6
1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 209.7 MB disk6s1
2: Apple_HFS ⁨WD1TB USB⁩ 999.3 GB disk6s2
3: Apple_Boot ⁨Recovery HD⁩ 650.0 MB disk6s3

I'd like to mount disk6s1 onto /Users/bob/Download at boot time (unless the external disk is not there and fail gracefully)

In which file could I try to setup a mount command?

Thanks a lot

 

[mikzn]

It might also be good to review if you want the "Desktops and Documents" enabled with iCloud (preferences) - I have mine turned off and create my own folders. If this is turned on it can impact the documents folder.

Most external drives HDD or SSD mount automatically at start up - or as soon as they are connected / reconnected

 

[grahamwright1]

There's a pretty easy way to do this using Unix Symbolic Links. Download this: https://github.com/nickzman/symboliclinker

and you can then create a symbolic link in your user directory called Downloads that points to your external HDD. You can also create a symbolic link for Documents and have that pointing to a different folder / drive as you want.

I've been doing this with my Downloads and Pictures folder for years now. The symbolic links point to different folders on my external RAID array, and it simply works for all applications.

Direct download link: https://github.com/nickzman/symboliclinker/releases/tag/v2.2


Edit: I just realized this might be a bit confusing at first glance.

Step 1 - Copy / Move your Downloads folder from your home folder to your external drive.

Step 2 - Once completed, rename the Downloads folder on your home directory to Downloads1 or something else

Step 3 - On the external drive, use the Symbolic Linker service to create a link to the external copy of Downloads.

Step 4 - Copy / Move the newly created symbolic link to your home folder. You will see a little arrow on the Folder icon to indicate it's a symbolic link.

Step 5 Download a file via Safari or other app that would go into your Downloads folder, then go the the external drive and make sure the file just downloaded is in the external Downloads folder.

Step 6 - Once verified, delete the Downloads1 folder (or whatever you named the copy on your home folder) and you are finished.

 

[rjalex]

Thanks guys. Good tips.

 

[rjalex]

Hi @grahamwright1 , happy new year
Found some time to follow your recipe but am stuck at Step2 ... seem MacOS does not allow me to rename the Downloads (in my home directory) folder. Tried both via the Finder and via the command line. Guess I might try to force this but have a sensation it might bring bad luck Ideas? Thanks a lot.

 

[grahamwright1]

Sorry I wasn't clear with the steps - open a Terminal window and type 'ls' to verify you are in your User directory.

Type 'sudo mv Downloads Downloads1' (without the quotes).

You will be prompted for your password (this is your login password, not iCloud) and after you enter it, the Downloads folder will be renamed to Downlaods1

 

[rjalex]

Doh, there we go Thanks a lot