Accidentally deleted Downloads folder

Alright,

So still in the terminal, try this.

# Navigate to your home directory 
cd ~ 

# Create a new Downloads folder with proper permissions 
sudo mkdir Downloads 
sudo chown $USER Downloads 
sudo chmod 755 Downloads 

# Reset the folder attributes 
xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo Downloads 2>/dev/null

Basically it does, is create a Download folder with the proper permission for the current user, so you.

chown -> change owner, from root to you.

chmod -> change the permissions of read, write and execute.

and xattr is special metadata attached to the Download folder.

At the end, 2>/dev/null is just sending the error if any to /dev/null which is a "void".

One thing that can be done after that is to restart the Finder, to do so:

1. Hold the Option key
2. Right-click on the Finder icon in the Dock
3. Select "Relaunch"

kaz263 wrote:

Thanks for your reply.

Sadly it didn't work :(

'no such file'

You didn't type the command correctly. There must be a space between cd and ~

You have not deleted your Downloads as it can be seen as hidden in your first screenshot.

You also have other problems which are likely related. The Documents folder has a padlock on it.

Did you recently install something when you saw that your Downloads folder went missing?

From the terminal, can you access the folder?

Open the terminal and type:

cd ~/Downloads

Let me now if it works.

I suspect we will have to restore it manually.