Safari file save location

Question

Whenever I try to manually save a file through Safari (for example by pressing CMD + s on a pdf file opened in a new tab or selecting "save blah blah as" from the context menu) it opens the last directory I uploaded something from as the default location. I find this annoying and unintuitive specially when I have already set a default downloads location.

Say the last time I uploaded something it was a pdf for a university assignment and as a result the next time I save something it'll go to that same folder unless I'm careful enough to chose otherwise. Depending on what I save, the results could be catastrophic if I'm to upload that entire folder again (which I was actually on a couple occasions and thanks god I checked the contents before doing so).

I have Safari 11.0.3 on macOS 10.13.3.

Any way to change this behavior?

Answer 1

I can think of three possibilities:

• One option that will definitely do this is to use Default Folder X¹. It's not free, but you can use it for free for 30 days. Depending on the version you download, it's compatible with versions of macOS from Snow Leopard to High Sierra. Default Folder X does a lot more than just setting the default "Save" location of individual applications.
• As for a native macOS solution, I seem to recall a bit of a trick users could do that involves creating a smart folder and then adding it to the Sidebar. The idea was that you then navigated to that folder (via the Sidebar) when you next uploaded a file via Safari. Safari would then remember that location when saving files in future, regardless of where you subsequently uploaded files from. However, this is an old trick from about ten years ago and I couldn't vouch for it's validity now.
• One possible workaround for you, assuming you're wanting to use the Downloads folder as the default Save location, is to just remember to use the optioncommandL shortcut when the Save As dialog window pops up. This shortcut takes you straight to the Downloads folder within the dialog box.

^{1. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Default Folder X.}