What happens when you delete all the files in the Downloads folder?

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Level 1

10 points

What happens when you delete all the files in the Downloads folder?

I have had my mac for a year and I never deleted anything from the Downloads folder...which I am sure has taken up a lot of space on my computer.

Throughout the year, I have downloaded hundreds of powerpoints and Word documents from my school website for class lectures....and I have saved them to my computer.

BUT, I am worried that if I delete the original file from the Download folder...that my saved file will be deleted too.

So, I am wondering if it is safe for me to delete the original download or not?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 21, 2012 7:32 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 21, 2012 7:36 PM in response to Sarey789

If you have a copy of the files in an other folder than your download folder, it is indeed very safe to delete them!

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Answer 2

Shootist007

Level 6

16,709 points

Sep 21, 2012 7:59 PM in response to Sarey789

Where did you save the files to, What folder on the drive other then the Download folder?

If you opened those files in the download folder and changed/edited them and didn't do a SAVE AS, you just saved them, then they got resaved ubnder the original file names and to the download folder.

So check all those files for your edits/changes and if those are the files you changed then don't delete them. You can move those out of the download folder and the ones that you haven't edited you can delete.

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Answer 3

Sarey789 Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 21, 2012 9:42 PM in response to Shootist007

I renamed and SAVE AS'ed all of the files and saved them to my Documents folder. So...since I did that, I'm assuming that it's ok to delete the original copies that are floating around in my Downloads folder?

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Answer 4

Shootist007

Level 6

16,709 points

Sep 22, 2012 3:25 AM in response to Sarey789

Then you can delete all the files in the Downloads folder.

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