How to change default download location on iPhone

default-download-location-iphone

You can easily change the default download location on iPhone. One of the features coming to Apple’s mobile operating system iOS was about changing the default download location. Starting with iOS 13, Safari has gained many interesting new features and probably one of the most curious is the integrated download manager. This way you can manage the location of your downloads.

This post shows how to set or change the default download location on iPhone. Read on if you need help changing the default location to store downloaded content on iPhone.

Default download location on iPhone

Where all the files we download are saved by default is the Downloads folder in the Files app on iOS. By default, files downloaded from the Safari browser on iPhone are saved in the Downloads folder in iCloud Drive. You can access the downloaded files via the Files app on your iOS devices.

Although the default option will be preferred in most cases, we may need to change it. Fortunately, Apple gives us options to choose from, this is how we’re going to do it. Here’s how to change the default download locations on your new iPhone’s pre-installed Safari browser.

  1. Open the Settings app on iPhone.
  2. Find Safari in Settings.
  3. Tap Downloads.
  4. Select the folder where you want the downloads to be saved.
default-download-location-iphone

It’s that simple, the files we will download from now on will be in the folder we selected. Note that the feature is not available in Chrome.

If you want to create another folder under Downloads, tap to highlight Downloads and then tap the Create new folder icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Finally, name the folder accordingly.

If you want to change the location back to iCloud Drive, go back to Safari app settings, go to Downloads and then select iCloud Drive from the given options.

We have several options for the download location:

iCloud Drive: This is the default option. After the download is complete, the file will be uploaded to iCloud servers to sync with all our devices.

On my iPhone: Downloaded files will be stored locally on the device from which we downloaded them. We can then move these files to iCloud Drive or any other service of our choice, if needed.

Others: We can place downloads on any storage service compatible with the Files app.