#WHERE ARE MY FILES WINDOWS 10#
#WHERE ARE MY FILES DOWNLOAD#

#WHERE ARE MY FILES DOWNLOAD#

However, for those of us (the great вЂњunwashedвЂќ) who DO have a tendency to leave downloads IN the Download folder (seems a pretty natural thing to doвЂ¦based on the name of the folder AND the fact that MILLIONS of us DO IT), I donвЂ™t think we should be вЂњpunishedвЂќ by being вЂњencouragedвЂќ to intentionally DELETE our downloadsвЂ¦.which is what your advice вЂњMy approach, however, is to select everythingвЂ¦.Click OKвЂќ in the вЂњUsing Windows Disk CleanupвЂќ effectively does. In the meantime, we get it advice well taken about вЂњthe Downloads folder should never be used for long-term storage.вЂќ

#WHERE ARE MY FILES WINDOWS 10#

You keep saying that, Leo, but as of today, January 8, 2020, on an updated Windows 10 OSвЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦itвЂ™s still there! Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, you need to protect yourself, and the easiest way is simply to move the files elsewhere once downloaded. For instance, various disk cleanup utilities - including WindowsвЂ™ own, shown above 1 - offer to empty it, or just empty it without asking (they should ask, but itвЂ™s easy to overlook if youвЂ™re in a hurry). The problem with Downloads is pretty simple: IвЂ™m not alone in considering it inappropriate for long term storage. Why is Downloads so risky? Disk cleanup utility вЂ“ downloads folder setting. Since we donвЂ™t know why they disappeared, thereвЂ™s little I can offer to prevent this from happening again - except, of course, not using Downloads for long term storage, and making sure you start backing up your machine right away. You may be out of luckДifficult as it is to accept, itвЂ™s possible the files are gone forever. As a last-gasp effort, IвЂ™d try a file recovery tool like Recuva to see if the files can be recovered from the unused space on your hard disk. Depending on your OneDrive account, it may have a File History or Recycle Bin you can check. If youвЂ™re using OneDrive, itвЂ™s possible that your Downloads folder will, ironically, be uploaded to your OneDrive storage. Assuming you have it enabled, see if you can locate the missing file(s) in Windows 10вЂ™s File History.Д¬heck OneDrive. This may also lead you to understand what happened and locate other files as well.Д¬heck File History. If the file was moved to a different folder, you might find it there. Try to recall the name of one of the files, and search for it using Windows Search or the Command Prompt. If they are, you can quickly and easily restore them. If the files were accidentally deleted by something you did in Windows File Explorer, or by a Recycle Bin-aware utility, itвЂ™s possible the file(s) youвЂ™re looking for could still be there. So, with the admonitions out of the way, I do have a few things for you to try.Д¬heck the Recycle Bin. If your Downloads folder had been getting backed up (as an image backup would have ensured), you wouldnвЂ™t have lost anything except the time to locate the backup copy and restore the file(s). My recommendation is a periodic image backup, with daily incremental backups, but the details matter less than doing it. If you lost something because it was deleted, then itвЂ™s pretty obvious you hadnвЂ™t backed it up.Д¬hange that. ThatвЂ™s true whether it was in the Downloads folder or anywhere else. Seriously, if you lost a file because the one copy you had of it disappeared, clearly you arenвЂ™t backing up. If you lost anything, you arenвЂ™t backing up Perhaps create folders by topic, or whatever makes sense to you.Д«ut move them somewhere else. Maybe create a вЂњUtilitiesвЂќ folder in your Documents folder, maybe create a вЂњDownloaded PDFsвЂќ folder somewhere. Instead, once youвЂ™ve downloaded something you intend to keep - anything - move it to a different folder of your own. It was never intended as a place to keep things, and leaving things in the Downloads folder is a recipe for disaster, which youвЂ™re discovering. In my opinion, the Downloads folder should never be used for long-term storage. More importantly, in my opinion youвЂ™re doing two things wrong, and one of those could impact much more than just downloads.Дownloads is for downloads, not for storage An empty Downloads folder. There are many possibilities, and IвЂ™ll run through a few options to see if we can get lucky. It really depends on how or why the files disappeared.

Where are my files