How to see where a file was downloaded from on a Mac

Updated 2026-10-18

When you download a file, macOS often records where it came from. That record is handy when you need the original page again, or when you have a folder of attachments and only remember who sent them.

Check Get Info

Select the file in Finder and press Command-I.
Open the More Info section if it is collapsed.
Look for Where from. It usually shows the web address of the file and often the page that linked to it.

Files saved by common browsers usually have this information. Many files do not: anything you created yourself, copied from a drive, or unpacked from a zip file may show no Where from line at all.

Use your browser's download list

Safari: click the Downloads button in the toolbar, or press Option-Command-L. Right-click an item to copy its address, or click the magnifying glass to show it in Finder.
Chrome and other Chromium browsers: open the Downloads page from the menu. Each entry shows the address it came from.
Firefox: open the Library window's Downloads section to see the source of each file.

Browser lists are cleared when you clear history, so they are less reliable than Get Info for older files.

Read it in Terminal

To check one file, or many at once, Spotlight's metadata tool prints the same record Get Info shows:

mdls -name kMDItemWhereFroms ~/Downloads/report.pdf prints the source addresses for one file.
mdfind -onlyin ~/Downloads "kMDItemWhereFroms == '*example.com*'" lists files in Downloads that came from a site containing example.com.

Both commands only read information. Replace the path or site with your own.

Find files by where they came from in Finder

Finder search can also filter by source. Press Command-F, open the first rule menu, choose Other and search the attribute list for Where from. Tick In Menu, then set the rule to contains a site name. Save the search as a Smart Folder if it is useful, such as every file you downloaded from your bank's website.

Remove the record before sharing

The Where from record can travel with a file when you copy or send it to another Mac, and it can include addresses you would rather not share, such as a private link. To remove it from a file, run xattr -d com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms ~/Downloads/report.pdf in Terminal. The file itself is not changed.

You can also avoid the issue by exporting a fresh copy from the app that opened the file, which creates a new file without the download record.

Browse downloads by source in FileSift

FileSift groups every download by where it came from, in a view called Downloaded From. Instead of opening Get Info file by file, you can open the group for a site or service and see its files as thumbnails, which helps when you remember the sender or website but not the file name. Everything is read on your Mac; FileSift does not send file names or download records anywhere.

Common questions

Why is Where from missing for some files?

Only some apps record it, and it is not added to files you create, copy from a drive or extract from most archives.

Does removing Where from affect the file?

No. It removes only that piece of metadata. The contents and other dates stay the same.

FileSift shows your folders as large thumbnails, searches in plain English and clears duplicates. US$19 once, for macOS 14 or later. See what it does.

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