Learn how to stop Apple’s Safari browser on your Mac from automatically opening files downloaded from the internet to mitigate potential security threats.
By default, Safari automatically opens files you download from the internet that it deems safe, such as pictures, documents, or ZIP archives.
This can pose a security risk because you never know whether someone has crafted a malicious image that exploits an unknown vulnerability to infect your Mac with malware.
Besides, Mac owners with limited storage may not want every ZIP archive they download to automatically expand. The good news is that Safari offers a simple setting to fix this, and we’ll show you how to toggle it.
Stop Safari from automatically opening downloaded files
- Open Safari.
- Click Safari > Settings or Safari > Preferences from the top menu bar.
- Make sure you’re in the General tab.
- Untick the box next to Open “safe” files after downloading.
The description of the setting defines “safe” files as movies, pictures, sounds, PDFs, text documents, and archives. Conversely, any executable files, such as installers and apps, are considered unsafe.
Changing this simple toggle in Safari for Mac will enable you to tame your downloads more effectively and open web downloads manually when you’re ready.
You can also change the default location where Safari saves web downloads. And for those times when Safari won’t download files, peruse our troubleshooting tips.