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How can I open my Downloads folder in one click?

Downloads are my most important folder because that's where the new files go. Yet, it is the only folder I can't make an alias for, meaning I can open it in a single click from my dock or home screen.

What success looks like: Opening the Downloads folder in one click (A keyboard shortcut would be fine too).

Here's what hasn't been working:

  • Using spotlight to search for my Downloads (slow) -right clicking Downloads in my dock and then opening the folder from there (2 clicks)

Since I open my Downloads folder so many times per day, I really want a way to open it in one click.

Note: Somebody already came up with a neat solution here, but it unfortunately brings ALL finder windows that might be open to the front, which is not really wanted behavior.

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  • I dropped a keyboard shortcut answer into the linked duplicate. Note: Bringing Finder to the front should bring all Finder windows with it. That's traditional behaviour, which has actually been slightly broken since about High Sierra.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Dec 20, 2020 at 12:09

1 Answer 1

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If you have the Downloads stack in the Dock, you can ⌘-click it to open a new Finder window to the Downloads folder.

If you want to create an AppleScript application to put in the Dock that when single clicked opens a new Finder window to the Downloads folder bringing it to the top without bringing other Finder windows to the top also, then the follow line of AppleScript code is all that's needed to be saved as an AppleScript application and placed in the Dock:

do shell script "open $HOME/Downloads"

If you want it to always be in the same location on the screen and set to a particular view and size, you can use information in my answer in question you linked in your OP.

Example:

do shell script "open $HOME/Downloads"
tell application "Finder" to ¬
    tell window "Downloads" to ¬
        set {current view, toolbar visible, bounds} to ¬
            {list view, true, {1475, 871, 2499, 1360}}

Notes:

  • If the Downloads folder is already open it will just bring it to the front without bring other Finder windows to the front also.
  • If you close the Downloads folder it will bring other Finder windows to the front and this is the default behavior and has nothing to do with having opened the Downloads folder with this script.
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