Where does mac mail store attachments

By default, macOS Mail app stores attachments in the following locations:

  1. ~/Library/Mail/Attachments: This is the primary location where Mail stores attachments. The ~/ symbol represents your user directory, so the actual path would be something like /Users/your_username/Library/Mail/Attachments.
  2. ~/Library/Mail/V2/Attachments: This is an older location where Mail stored attachments in earlier versions of macOS. Although it's still used, it's not the primary location anymore.

When you download an attachment in Mail, it's saved to one of these locations. The attachment is stored in a folder with the same name as the email account you used to download the attachment. For example, if you download an attachment from your Gmail account, it would be stored in a folder named Gmail within the Attachments folder.

You can access these folders by following these steps:

  1. Go to the ~/Library folder (you may need to use the Go menu in the Finder and select Go to Folder... to access it).
  2. Navigate to the Mail folder.
  3. Look for the Attachments folder (or V2/Attachments if you still have attachments stored there).
  4. Open the folder with the name of your email account (e.g., Gmail).

From there, you can browse and manage your attachments as needed.

Keep in mind that these locations are specific to your user account, so if you have multiple user accounts on your Mac, each account will have its own set of attachment folders.