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tstirling22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
20
0
i Have over 40 gigs of files in my downloads folder (a lot of which is music) Is it safe to delete this folder? should i do something first? get an app to do it for me? thanks in advance!
 

Kahnyl

macrumors 68000
Feb 2, 2009
1,584
2
If you don't want them anymore then delete them. It doesn't do anything but store downloaded files.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Why store your music in your Downloads folder..? Import it into iTunes and have iTunes copy it to the iTunes folder.

Don't delete the Downloads folder, just delete what's inside if you don't need it..
 

tstirling22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
20
0
Why store your music in your Downloads folder..? Import it into iTunes and have iTunes copy it to the iTunes folder.

Don't delete the Downloads folder, just delete what's inside if you don't need it..

I dont store my music in the downloads folder. The whole point of me starting this thread is so i dont have to go through the trouble of browsing my downloads folder
 

miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
36
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
I dont store my music in the downloads folder.

I mean... you just said that you had 40 GB of music + stuff in your downloads folder. Is there also a copy of the file in your Music folder? Is there anything else from the Downloads folder that you use? It's worth browsing through to make sure that there isn't anything in there that you might need, once it's deleted it can be fairly arduous and expensive to recover.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
I dont store my music in the downloads folder. The whole point of me starting this thread is so i dont have to go through the trouble of browsing my downloads folder

Well, you are making no sense.. read your first post and now read your response to me.

Re-think what it is you are trying to do.. you aren't being clear at all.
 

edesignuk

Moderator emeritus
Mar 25, 2002
19,232
2
London, England
I dont store my music in the downloads folder. The whole point of me starting this thread is so i dont have to go through the trouble of browsing my downloads folder
If you can't be bothered, just bin it. If you don't care why should anyone else? :rolleyes:

I'll be looking out for the follow up thread - "Crap. Deleted Downloads folder, everything important to me gone. What do I do?"

Laughter commences...
 

rheuter

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2005
13
1
Well, you are making no sense.. read your first post and now read your response to me.

Re-think what it is you are trying to do.. you aren't being clear at all.

I am sorry but if you understand what does the "Downloads" folder does in iTunes then you will see he makes perfect sense...

What the "Downloads" folder does is when you are downloading (read: downloading, not downloaded) items from iTunes (store purchases - music, movies, MVs, and podcasts - both audio and video), it is being temporary stored in this folder until the download is completed, then it will be moved to the appropriate place in the "iTunes Music" folder. Now from time to time when the download is incomplete the files will then get stuck in this folder permanently. That's why in tstirling22's case he has over 40GBs of files. In my case I also have over 800MBs of files in this folder as well...

Now you said "just delete what's inside if you don't need it..", are you sure by doing so will not confused the "iTunes Library" (the iTunes database file) file hence corrupted it and screwed up the entire iTunes library? Kindly please confirm.

Have a nice day.

/Rheuter
 

tstirling22

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2009
20
0
If you can't be bothered, just bin it. If you don't care why should anyone else? :rolleyes:

I'll be looking out for the follow up thread - "Crap. Deleted Downloads folder, everything important to me gone. What do I do?"

Laughter commences...
well yea thats exactly what i dont want haha. Does anybody know that downloaded music that is in the downloads folder that is also in iTunes will stay in iTunes if i delete it from the downloads folder? I hope that was clear..
 

TheNightPhoenix

macrumors 6502
Dec 16, 2005
498
5
I am sorry but if you understand what does the "Downloads" folder does in iTunes then you will see he makes perfect sense...

We all understand that, I am sorry but if you understand that this was posted under Mac OS X forum and not iTunes then you will see this makes no sense.
 

TheNightPhoenix

macrumors 6502
Dec 16, 2005
498
5
well yea thats exactly what i dont want haha. Does anybody know that downloaded music that is in the downloads folder that is also in iTunes will stay in iTunes if i delete it from the downloads folder? I hope that was clear..

MOve the contents of the folder to another one. Then see if you have any problems, if you do move it back.
 

rheuter

macrumors newbie
Oct 28, 2005
13
1
We all understand that, I am sorry but if you understand that this was posted under Mac OS X forum and not iTunes then you will see this makes no sense.

I agreed the poster is posted in the wrong forum but if you read Kilamite's responses it is obvious that he knows this is an iTunes related issue and his statement of "makes no sense" is simply referring to why music file is store under "Downloads" folder, NOT because tstirling22 is posting this question under OSX forum... so by trying to mock my post and give me a fire back is not contribute to this thread at all. And if you like the job of being a moderator so much maybe you should file the application of the forum admin instead of trying to be one while you are not.

Your next response to tstirling22 is a very dangerous move as I have stated in my first post the iTunes database file is one of the last file you want to corrupt in the iTunes world, and if you move contents inside the iTunes folder it might confused the database file thus corrupt it and make the iTunes shows no content when loaded. So my question to you is? Is your answer a wild guess or a legit method?
 

(L)SD

macrumors newbie
Dec 17, 2010
23
0
Texas
Items in Download folder - do they RESIDE there?

Is the download folder just a temporary holding zone? If I clean it out, is all that stuff really gone, or am I deleting files that are duplicated elsewhere?
 

angelwatt

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
7,852
9
USA
Is the download folder just a temporary holding zone? If I clean it out, is all that stuff really gone, or am I deleting files that are duplicated elsewhere?

It's not temporary and those files in there and not duplicates of others unless you made them. It's just a normal folder like your Documents folder.
 

strangegeek

macrumors newbie
Mar 25, 2010
11
0
good question

This question is something I've been wondering for a while and since I made the switch to Lion I've tried to get a better grasp of the way Macs handle files. I've always wondered:

-When I download an app, say Growl or Notational Velocity, it shows up in both my "applications" folder and the "downloads" folder in my dock. If I delete the app from the "downloads" folder does that mean it will be gone from the "applications" folder, will the icon remain but give me an error?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is I have about 10 GB worth of files in the "downloads" folder on my dock - mostly from apps I have downloaded or from audio books purchased from places outside of Itunes (I have my Itunes folder set to download to an external hard drive) - are these duplicates of files in the applications folder and does deleting them affect the application itself if it's already in the applications folder?

Thanks for your help!
 

pumcal

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2013
1
0
It's not temporary and those files in there and not duplicates of others unless you made them. It's just a normal folder like your Documents folder.

Thank You for this comment. I do believe that this is the answer I have been searching for on the web, and the answer that the original poster (I believe) was looking for. :)
 

uglyunicorn

macrumors newbie
Jan 18, 2018
1
0
i Have over 40 gigs of files in my downloads folder (a lot of which is music) Is it safe to delete this folder? should i do something first? get an app to do it for me? thanks in advance!

For the record your question was perfectly reasonable, the internet is just full of *******s. Select all your itunes songs, then go to file>library>consolidate files. After that you can delete the music in your downloads folder.
 
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