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I didn't lose the Downloads folder, just the files. When I clicked inside the folder, poof! Everything just disappeared, leaving nothing but an empty Downloads folder. They're not in Trash. When I do Command-R and load an older backup. Same thing! It shows me the files are there, but when I click to enter the folder, everything inside Downloads disappears, again.

I've lost the Downloads folder itself a few times before and was always able to drag it back into the window. Now the problem has a new wrinkle. Dang it! Anybody have a solution?

$ ls ~
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
DownloadsTHAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI
Dropbox
Library
Movies
Music
Pictures
Public
hewletts 2018.dvdcrtproj
iCloud Drive (Archive)

$ ls ~/Downloads
~$2018_ KATHYFORSTE.docx

Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls ~/Downloads
Downloads/
DownloadsTHAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI/
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls ~/Downloads
Downloads/
DownloadsTHAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI/
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls ~/Downloads

Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls -lF ~
total 0
drwx------@  4 harryhewlett  staff   128 Dec 20 06:39 Desktop/
drwx------@ 14 harryhewlett  staff   448 Feb  2  2018 Documents/
drwx------+  5 harryhewlett  staff   160 Dec 20 06:44 Downloads/
drwxr-xr-x   3 harryhewlett  staff    96 Dec  5 18:45 DownloadsTHAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI/
drwx------@ 43 harryhewlett  staff  1376 Dec 20 06:43 Dropbox/
drwx------@ 71 harryhewlett  staff  2272 Dec 24 04:09 Library/
drwx------+ 12 harryhewlett  staff   384 Sep 15 16:12 Movies/
drwx------+ 10 harryhewlett  staff   320 Oct 19 12:39 Music/
drwx------+ 14 harryhewlett  staff   448 Nov  2 22:22 Pictures/
drwxr-xr-x+  5 harryhewlett  staff   160 Jun 29  2015 Public/
drwxr-xr-x@ 10 harryhewlett  staff   320 Jun 14  2018 hewletts 2018.dvdcrtproj/
drwxr-xr-x  21 harryhewlett  staff   672 Feb  2  2018 iCloud Drive (Archive)/
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ 
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls -lF ~/Downloads
total 8
-rw-r--r--@ 1 harryhewlett  staff  162 Oct 17 15:33 ~$2018_ KATHYFORSTE.docx
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ 

Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$ ls -l ~/Downloads*
/Users/harryhewlett/Downloads:
total 8
-rw-r--r--@ 1 harryhewlett  staff  162 Oct 17 15:33 ~$2018_ KATHYFORSTE.docx

/Users/harryhewlett/DownloadsTHAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI:
Harrys-iMac:~ harryhewlett$
nohillside
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Harry H
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  • @grg - This is very different from the linked dupe. – Allan Dec 24 '18 at 13:26
  • Can you now post the output of the "wrong" Downloads folder? You can do this by typing out ls ~/Downloads and then hitting the Tab key so it autocompletes the rest for you. But I think we found the issue....your legit downloads folder is basically empty and there's another that's hosed up. – Allan Dec 24 '18 at 14:08
  • "THAT'S THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS BY JOHN LATINI, YPSILANTI, MI" when searched for showed up under Locations in Harry's iMac as an empty folder - nothing shows up in Downloads. The folder name is a song by John Latini that was entered in a song contest that I was help to administer several weeks ago - never had a folder by that name. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 14:18
  • Try this....ls -l ~/Downloads* I want to see what's going on in both folders.... – Allan Dec 24 '18 at 15:11
  • @Allan The DownloadsTHATS... folder hasn't seen any activity since Dec 5th, it's probably just a folder which got named wrong. – nohillside Dec 24 '18 at 15:21
  • Harry, can you copy a file into your Downloads folder? Would like to see whether it disappears again. – nohillside Dec 24 '18 at 15:22
  • Ok.. That folder is empty. Let's just remove it. Type the following: rm -rf ~/DownloadsT, then press Tab, then Enter – Allan Dec 24 '18 at 15:30
  • YES - can copy files to Downloads folder. No - they don't disappear. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 15:41
  • DownloadsT removed. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 15:41
  • While in downloads, I clicked on < in Finders and it took me to Recents and there were a whole bunch of files. Looked like Downloads & more. I'm wondering if my Mac is overwhelmed by the restored backup - Documents is still updating iCloud. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 15:46
  • The Recents do not show up in Downloads when I click > back. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 15:47
  • Don't remember seeing Recents before. Some sort of catch all. I guess it has nothing to do with the problem. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 15:59
  • Can you add a screenshot please? And what is the references to iCloud, is there an iCloud migration running in the background? – nohillside Dec 24 '18 at 16:04
  • Alan, I've got to put this on hold for a while - going to a family thing. Probably get back on this tomorrow. I really, sincerely, appreciate your assistance. Merry Xmas. – Harry H Dec 24 '18 at 16:05

1 Answers1

1

Open Terminal by pressing Command + Spacebar and typing terminal.

Press Enter.

Type cd ~/Downloads then press Enter.

Type open . then press Enter.

fsb
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AO_
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