Safari Preferences General Mac
When you download files from the internet like pictures or text documents, do they open automatically? If they do and you would rather open files yourself after downloading them, there’s a simple setting to fix this.
Here’s how to stop Safari on Mac from automatically opening your web downloads.

Stop automatically opening downloads in Safari

Open Safari on your Mac and then follow these steps to stop automatically opening downloads from the web.
1) Click Safari > Preferences from the menu bar.
2) Choose the General tab.
3) At the bottom of the window, uncheck the box for Open “safe” files after downloading.
Stop Opening Downloads Safari Preferences
You’ll notice below that setting the types of files considered “safe” which includes movies, pictures, sounds, PDF and text documents, and archives. This does not include software, so if that’s the only type of download you’re concerned about, you might reconsider changing the setting.