"Download As..." files vanish?

Question

"Download As..." files vanish?

Hi everybody. I have a pretty stable High Sierra setup. But recently discovered that while on some websites, when I "download as..." to some folder or volume, the file does not in fact download. When the window to the folder is open the downloading file briefly appears and then vanishes. I have tried this multiple times with the same result. I am really annoyed that perhaps dozens of prior files I had assumed had downloaded properly never did.

Its not the source material or source website, because if i do a *regular* download to my downloads folder, it works fine. But I hate having to do that and then move stuff manually to the right place. Its a lot of extra steps that I normally dont have to do.

It *appears* that this may only happen if I am in a private window? and its only some files. Like I can do a "Save image as..." and it works fine. But a "Download file as..." or "Download Video as..." won't. They will only save to the downloads folder.

Is this a permissions issue? I can't figure this out. why would downloads be allowed only into the downloads folder for some files in some cases? And why is there no feedback or warning that it didnt happen? Why does it seem to start and then abort and vanish without a trace?

BTW I have searched for some test files to see if they were invisible, or in a cache or something and no results. If anyone has any advice on this, lemme know.

Thanks!

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Sep 14, 2020 1:18 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

TheLittles

Level 10

192,605 points

Sep 14, 2020 7:43 PM in response to Javier Bonafont

Javier Bonafont Said:

"'Download As...' files vanish?: hen the window to the folder is open the downloading file briefly appears and then vanishes.: [...]Is this a permissions issue? [...]BTW I have searched for some test files to see if they were invisible, or in a cache or something and no results. If anyone has any advice on this, lemme know."

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A Few Thoughts:

Where are these downloaded to?

Change the location, and see if everything is of success. If so, then reset the Finder.

To Change the Location:

Open: Safari
Select: Prefereces
Select: General tab
Click: File location
Select: Other
Proceed form there as necessary

Reset Finder:

Visit the Download Location
Click: Apple menu
Click: Force Quit...
Select: Finder
Click: Relaunch button
Click: Relaunch Botton

Reset the SMC and your NVRAM:

What it could be is the power management settings. Sometimes when changes are made to the system(i.e. updates), system configurations (i.e. for Finder) become manipulated, technically. So, reset the SMC and NVRAM. The goad would be ro reset the Finder.

Check the Trash

It if is laying ing the Trash, then it is a setting in the Finder, or a third party app meant to clear up space. So reset the Finder, and remove this software. Once removed, restart the Mac.

Create a New User:

What happens when you create a new Administrator user? If it does not work in the new user, then it is something configured in the current user.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,351 points

Sep 14, 2020 5:53 PM in response to Javier Bonafont

How about if you create or move the folders you need within the Downloads folder?

Finder isn't great at searching.

Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/index.php

Hold Option or alt key when selecting Find to Find All.

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Answer 3

Sep 14, 2020 6:41 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, yeah, as I said I can do workarounds to manually move or copy stuff, but its extra steps that are unnecessary. I've been doing this right click Download As thing forever and its super easy. But now it apparently is unreliable and i would love to fix it if I can.

And yeah, i've used a couple of file finder apps to look for invisible files and whatnot and they aren't anywhere.

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Answer 4

Sep 15, 2020 9:05 AM in response to BDAqua

Nowhere. that's the point. that's my question.

The file briefly appears with the download icon in the correct folder, as if it is starting its download and then vanishes in one second as if it can't write the file or something.

After some experiments, this ONLY happens with video downloads. GIFs and images and other files seem to work fine. and every file downloads correctly if it just goes to the downloads folder. But video files won't go anywhere EXCEPT the downloads folder. This is true even with something like a 5 second mp4 video, its not like a 2 hour 4k video.

Its frankly a bit bizarre.

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