Move downloads folder content to trash

and empty trash.
Could someone please tell me how to do this in Automator so I can put an icon in the dock to do this when I want without so many key strokes.
Thanks

Open the Script Editor in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder and paste in the following:
tell application "Finder"
delete every item of folder "Downloads" of home
empty trash
end tell
Save the script as an application and put it into the Dock.
(40421)

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Downloads folder lost in trash. I managed to drag it from Home but now...

Downloads folder lost in trash. I managed to drag it from Home but now every download shows up twice, one in the download stack and another in the trash can. What can I do to stop downloads from showing up in the trash can?

I did it already. The thing is that, since I put the "downloads stack folder" into the trash, and the emptied it, the downloads (from safari) keep showing up in both: the downloads folder (the one I dragged from "Home" to fix my accident) and the trash. The trash looks empty but it is like the computer detects a "download folder" in the trash, that I can't see.

Is it possible to move download folder and contents to an external disk

my download folder is very large.
can i delete all downloads?
can i move folder to an external drive for safe keeping?
have tried to copy but this still leaves original files in download folder
any help apprecietated.

The Downloads folder is a "System Folder" and you shouldn't move it. Anything that you don't need in the Downloads folder you can delete.

Downloads folder moved to trash.

My downloads folder was moved to trash and now my Macbook is frozen.

1. Move the file to a folder not in the trash bin
2. Open the file with preview
3. Once open click edit, then delete. This will ask you to convert the file into a .png file. click convert.
4. Move the new converted sync.png to the trash then empty the trash bin.
It worked for me.

Is there an easy way to clear the contents of Download Folder?

Is there an easier way to clear out files (send to trash) from the downloads folder, other than dragging one by one? The downloads folder closes immediately upon dragging one file out.

You do not need to invoke Finder to do this. Create a new empty Automator workflow and use the "Run Shell Script" option. Paste in the following....
mv ~/Downloads/* ~/.Trash
You can then save the workflow as an application, attach it as a Finder action or add it to the scripts menu, whichever you like better.
If you would like to bypass the Trash and just completely delete the Downloads folder contents immediately, then paste in this command:
rm -rf ~/Downloads/*

Downloads folder missing

Hi. I accidentally deleted my fanned out downloads folder from my dock. A plain downloads folder shows in trash but when I remove it and insert it in the dock, it dones not function the way the original does. How can I get the other one back and have it fan out from the dock?

You are saying there is no Download folder in your Home folder? Just a folder icon with an arrow in the lower left. That's an alias. Delete it. Press COMMAND-SHIFT-N to create a new folder. Name it Downloads. Drag it to the Dock's right side. Of course nothing will appear until you put some downloaded files in it.

Accidently put my Start UP Folder in the trash!!!

Hi, I was busy clearing up some space on my trusty old Powerbook (G4 Titanium) HD today when I spotted an old system folder, I think they’re called "previous system folder" or something like that. I was just in the middle of trashing it when someone at work distracted me and instead I dragged my current "systems folder" over the trash. I didn’t notice this until the split second I released the mouse button! NNNOOOOO!
As soon as I'd done this the little coloured spinning wheel replaced my mouse arrow and I couldn’t get my Mac to do anything! Obviously when I tried to restart, after the usual grey screen I get a black one with lots written on it and ending with something about "panic"!!!
First I tried my OSX 10.38 upgrade install disc but once I select the HD to install on it says "You can not install MacOSX on this volume. An earlier version of Mac OSX is not installed".
So then I tried my original OSX 10.2 install disc that I got with the lap top, but once I select the HD to install on it says "newer versions of some software already installed, this software doesn’t allow older versions to be installed over newer versions". When I click on OPTIONS the "ARCHIVE & INSTALL" option is greyed out and not available, only the ERASE & INSTALL is.
Although I’ve backed up most work stuff etc there’s nearly 1000 irreplaceable family photos on it in IPHOTO that I would be absolutely gutted to lose! I would really be grateful if someone could tell me how to save them. If I could somehow save my other stuff it would be a big bonus also! Is there anyway I can either get the START UP FOLDER put back where it needs to be or do an ARCHIVE & INSTALL?
Any help will be MOST appreciated!
Thank you for reading.
Gary.

Boot the computer from an external drive. You can then move the folder from the Trash back to where it belongs. Not really sure how you did this since the OS will not let you delete the System folder without authorization unless you are logged in as root.
If you don't have a backup on an external drive (and why not?) but can access another Mac, then you can connect the two via Firewire cable, boot your computer into Target Disk Mode. Then boot the other computer normally. After startup your hard drive will appear on the Desktop of the other computer. You can then move the System folder out of the Trash back to where it belongs.
Remember backups are your friend.
Basic Backup
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete FireWire drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

Can I safely move to Trash all downloaded files from Downloads folder, for the purpose of freeing up storage space?

My Downloads folder has reached 30GB. I am not sure why I keep adding files without ever cleaning up what's there. As a matter of fact, what's there can easily be re-downloaded from the web in case of need.
Can I safely trash 100% of the content of my Downloads Folder?

They're your files, so it's up to you whether to delete them or not. I personally don't tend to keep downloads if they are easily re-downloaded. (An exception might be a large download that for some reason may need to be reinstalled.)

What do i do with my downloads in my downloads folder after software has been updated? do i move it to trash? or??

what do i do with my downloads in my downloads folder after software has been updated? do i move it to trash? or??

So it would be safe to just delete them? the reason why i ask is because for example when i first stared using youtube on my macbook pro(OSX Lion) it required the flash update. I updated flash but the download still remained in the download file on the dock. So it would be safe to delete once it was updated correct?

I am having a difficult time downloading HD movies from iTunes. I tried on both my imac and new macbook pro but 95% of the time I get error 8008 (corruption). I can stream HD content from Netflix and hulu w/o problems. I also empty my download folder.

After it started happening on my imac I tried to download on my ne macbook pro but the same thing is happening. I can stream without any ral noticiable problems from my icloud library, Netflix, and Hulu but when I try to download so I can back them up I get the 8008 error code. I have contacted spple support and am still waitin on an answer. Sometimes the error will happen towards the beginning and other times when it is almost downloaded. I can tell it is atarting when the time remaining starts to fluctuate, then the download bar may stop ans start over. It seems to be an icloud problem but I thought I would check to see if anyone else has had the problem and was able to get it taken care of. It should be noted that everyonce in a while I do get a complete download.

These alerts occur due to timeouts or conflicts trying to write a file during download.
If you encounter this issue while while downloading something from the iTunes Store:
Delete your iTunes Downloads folder, located in:
Mac OS X:  ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Downloads Note: "iTunes Media" may appear as "iTunes Music. Also, the tilde (~) refers to your Home directory.
After locating your iTunes Downloads folder:
Quit iTunes.
Delete the Downloads folder on your computer.
Open iTunes.
Choose Store > Check for Available Downloads.
Enter your account name and password.
Also review this support aticle as it might be causing due to internet connection: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1368
Hope this helps.

C: drive is full - move only iTunes Media folder contents to another drive without consolidating?

My iTunes library contains a combination of music/movies/etc that I've purchased or downloaded from the iTunes Store as well as music I've purchased from Amazon and my own ripped CDs (not ripped via iTunes...other software). The Amazon and ripped files have always lived on my D drive (for easier sharing betwen family members, without opening up permissions on our User folders), while the Store files all live under my User profile on C.
I'd like to move the iTunes Media folder contents off of C and onto D. All the instructions that use "consolidating" and "keeping the media folder organized" will not work for me, since I do not want all my files under the iTunes Media folder...I like them where they are now in D:\Music\Amazon and D:\Music\CDCollection.
Do I have to resort to moving the files myself, adding them into the library again, then cleaning up the orphaned library entries that are pointing to the old location?
Thanks!

Copy the entire iTunes folder from your music folder to D:\iTunes.
Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library.
Click Choose and navigate to the file D:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
Check the library is working properly.
Use the option File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to import any stay files to the new library folder.
Delete the old iTunes folder on the C: drive.
Ideally you will also backup this library to another drive.
tt2

I am organizing my external HD and want to move files NOT COPY them. How do I drag and drop folder contents without Mac automatically copying them to the "drop" location?

I am sorting out all the clutter and duplicate files on my external HD. In doing this I am moving the entire contents of folders to new locations. Some of these folders cointain gigs of info. I do not want to have to spend large amounts of time waiting for hundreds of gigs to copy somewhere then moving the originals to the trash and wait even longer deleting all of them. All I want to do is move the files up a subfolder, but the way Finder goes aobut doing it can be a 400 GB swing taking hours. How do I just "move" them?

Check out this discussion. Worked for me.
http://tinyurl.com/7dmh9p5
Quote:
When I do a drag and drop in Finder to move a folder into another folder it makes a copy of the folder in the new location instead of moving it like the help documentation says and like it used to do in Snow Leopard. I have looked all over in preferences for a setting the contols the move/copy outcome of drag and drop and have been unable to find anything. Is this the way Lion is supposed to work?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
This solved my question by jsd2 on Oct 9, 2011 6:33 AM
I did a global change of permissions for the entire documents account in the currrent user account using the get info and apply to enclosed items.
I think what is happening is that the Documents folder normally carries an "everyone deny delete" ACL, meant to protect it from accidental deletion:
$ ls -lde ~/Documents
drwx------+ 6 t1 staff 204 Oct 9 08:51 /Users/t1/Documents
0: group:everyone deny delete
ACLs are special types of permissions that do not show up in GetInfo, but can get propagated if you click "Apply to Enclosed Items" on a folder that carries them. Affected files that acquire that ACL would require password authentication to move or delete them.
I think the following Terminal command (copy and paste it) should remove such ACLs from items within the Documents folder:
chmod -RN ~/Documents/*
Message was edited by: miz_mdk

Can I trash items in the downloads folder or do I have to keep them in safe folders?

Dear All
I have downloaded Skype software which I am still using. Can I trash the items for it in the downloads folder or must I move them to keep them safe?
With best wishes
Michael Yeow

Although you can (and should) certainly trash anything in the Downloads folder, note that there are some considerations before doing so.
First, some apps require uninstallers to remove them, and in many cases the uninstaller is stored on the original disk image that was downloaded. You can always re-download the software to get the uninstaller, but it's always possible that the uninstaller for a future version won't do the job properly. So if the disk image contains an uninstaller and you think you may want to uninstall that software at some point in the future, it may be wise to keep a copy of the disk image file.
Secondly, some apps that you purchase may not be easily re-downloadable. In those cases, you will want to protect yourself against having to pay to re-purchase or re-download the app if something happens and you have to reinstall the app. (Like if you buy a new machine, or if your hard drive dies, or your system becomes corrupt requiring an "erase and install.") Keep a copy of the downloaded disk image file.
In cases where you want to keep the installer, you will probably want to move it somewhere other than the Downloads folder. (Keeping the Downloads folder empty is a good idea.) You will also want to make sure it's backed up, like the rest of your system, so it's available in the future if/when you need it.

If i erase the contents of the download folder....

Hey, i am new and have a silly question. I notice downloads i have already moved to application folder still show up in the download folder. Can I trash all the folders and whatnot out of the downloads if they are somewhere else?

I notice downloads i have already moved to application folder still show up in the download folder.
Are you sure you are actually moving downloaded applications to the applications folder, or are you installing apps from downloaded installer packages? For instance, if you download an application as a dmg (disk image), double-clicking on it will mount the image as a disk. Double-clicking on an installer file in the image or dragging an app from it to your app folder installs the app but doesn't move the download itself anywhere.

Can the contents of the Downloads folder be deleted?

Can the contents of the Downloads folder be deleted in order to regain storage space?

Hi KMess1948
The Downloads folder is just a convenient place to put stuff that you downloaded from various sources. It's contents can be deleted at will. You could of course create an archive on a separate harddisk or memory stick to keep for instance study material, or stuff that you would use more frequently. The rest of the stuff could be trashed at will.
I keep three achives, OS X and Combo Updates including and since SL, Documents, & important downloaded documents besides the normal backup stuff.
Download folder gets emptied regularly.
Have fun
Leo

Move downloads folder content to trash

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