When directly unzipping a file attachment in Apple Mail, where does it go

attachmentsimapmail.appzip

Whenever I get a zip file as an attachment, I can't figure out where the file is actually stored. If I click the file, it is quickly unzipped but I can't for the life of me find where the unzipped file was placed. It's not in Documents, or Mail Downloads, or my Home directory, or anywhere else that I can find.

Does anyone know where attachments are stored, BEFORE they have been saved anywhere else explicitly? I'm using IMAP.

Best Answer

I believe this is in:

~/Library/Mail/V2/
  IMAP-[address]@[server]/[Mailbox].mbox/
  (various folders)/Attachments/(various folders)

If you look in your Library folder for the Mail folder, then explore that a bit, you can hopefully see what I mean. To see your Library folder, in the Finder, open the Go menu, hold opt or alt (depending upon how your keys are labelled) and then choose the Library option that appears.

Be careful not to change files in the Library folder unless you understand the consequences and have a good backup...

Related Question