Unknown file in Downloads folder crashes entire system!

I have scoured through google and cannot find a simliar case of this.
When I open my Downloads folder, I can scroll down to about half way before it just freezes and doesn't come back. I've tried Selecting All and just deleting it all, but that again just crashes it! Its obvious to me that theres a seriously corrupt file in there, but I haven't downloaded anything out of the ordinary!
I've made myself a new folder called Downloads and set them all to download to there, but its just frustrating knowing that I can't ever use the proper Downloads folder!
Someone please help! Its really annoying!

Okay.
Open the Terminal app. It looks like an old computer with black backround and some kind of prompt. I'm feeling stupid, i can't remember if it's in the main Applications folder or the Utilities one.
Either way, once you have it open, it should default to your Home folder represented by '~' at the command line.
Navigate to the Downloads folder - unless you moved it, i think it lives under your Home folder. Use the following command to "Change Directory" to that one:
cd ~/Downloads/
That should put you right in the folder where your downloads are.
You can list the contents to the screen by using the 'ls' command:
Then, if you so choose, you can delete any or all of them using the 'rm' command:
example...
rm myfile.txt
- This would delete the file 'myfile.txt'
rm my*.txt
- This would delete all files that start with 'my' and end with '.txt'
and to delete all of them....
rm .
I hope this helps...
take a look here for more info on basic Terminal usage, etc.
Terminal Basics
Message was edited by: Beavis2084

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Spotlight inconsistent - files in Downloads folder and/or SeeAllResults

Hi
I'm currently assessing Punakea http://www.nudgenudge.eu/home, an app that allows one to tag files and stuff. It uses the comments field so in theory everything is still findable via Spotlight.
When tagging a file with Punakea one to choose to leave the file where it is, or to move it to Punakea's folder.
After much to-ing and fro-ing where I thought I was going mad, I have narrowed it to 6 test cases.
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- file B I used Punakea to add tag AKK and left file in place
- file C I used Punakea to add tag AKK and asked Punakea to move file
3 files in Mail Download folder
- file D I manually added comment @AKK
- file E I used Punakea to add tag AKK and left file in place
- file F I used Punakea to add tag AKK and asked Punakea to move file
A Punakea tag looks like this:###begintags###@AKK;###endtags###
(though there are some spaces up the front)
Then I searched in Spotlight for @AKK and it only found files A, D, E, F. Clearly Spotlight was treating the Downloads folder differently. I used the Spotlight preferences to first exclude that folder -- and file A stopped appearing. Then I removed the exclusion and, after some audible disk whirring, file B appeared.
So I thought I had fixed the problem, so tried another to match the file C case, and then noticed that file B had disappeared again.
I realised that I was on OS 10.5.2 so I upgraded to 10.5.4 and repeated the Spotlight preference changes, but got the same results.
For good measure, I removed Punakea's folder from Spotlight, and correclty file F dissappeared.
I then reinstated it, and I finally saw all 6 of the files listed. I clicked on Show all results and saw all 6. Came back to this post to keep typing - and then went back to check again - and now there's only 4 again - B and C have gone.
I must confess that throughout this whole test sometimes I have juts looked at the files in the Spotlight drop down, and other times I have used the 'See all results' - am now starting to consider that this is part of the issue, and so I need to repeat the whole exercise.
Throughout all of this Punakea found its files, B, C, E and F.
I suppose one workaround is to create a new Downloads folder for Firefox and use that instead.
There was a post to the Punakea forum http://www.nudgenudge.eu/support/spotlight-indexing-behavior which makes me realise I'm not the first person to fall down this particular rabbit hole.
Any comments ?
Cheers.

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how to move downloaded files from download folder to other relevant folder or how to download files in relevant folders other than download folder

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However, I don't want to create a whole new profile unless it's absolutely last resort - the user profile has extensive customisation for screen calibration, printer profiles etc, all done by a very expensive external company ... I'd rather not pay them to do it all again unless it's totally unavoidable.
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~/Library/Mail
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Unknown file in Downloads folder crashes entire system!

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