By default, Microsoft Teams is configured to be as frictionless as possible. When a colleague sends you a PDF or an Excel spreadsheet in a chat and you click the “Download” button, Teams instantly dumps the file into your primary Windows or macOS “Downloads” folder without asking you where you want to put it.
While this is fast, it is terrible for organization. If you are downloading client assets, sensitive financial reports, or project-specific documents, you likely want them saved directly into their respective project folders on your hard drive, rather than digging them out of a messy, cluttered Downloads folder later.
You can force Microsoft Teams to prompt you for a save location every single time you click a download button.
How to Enable “Ask Where to Save” in Teams
You can change the global download behavior directly in the Teams settings menu.
- Open the Microsoft Teams desktop application.
- Click the three horizontal dots (Settings and more) located in the top-right corner, next to your profile picture.
- Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
- In the left-hand navigation pane, click on Files and links.
- Look for the section labeled “Downloads.”
- You will see a toggle switch labeled Always ask where to save downloaded file.
- Click the toggle to turn it to the On position.
How to Change the Default Folder Entirely
If you don’t want to be prompted every time, but simply want Teams to dump all its files into a specific folder (like a dedicated “Teams Downloads” folder on your desktop) instead of the system Downloads folder, you can do that on the exact same settings page.
Directly above the toggle switch you just flipped, click the Change button next to your current download location and select your new preferred folder.