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All downloaded files to desktop are duplicated - temp folder issue?

D

DavidS78

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2019
6
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New to this forum and would appreciate advice. Any download that I save or view on my desktop shows up twice. My default location for downloads is my desktop. I thought initially this was due to an Outlook for Mac (v16.29) compatibility issue with Mojave (v10.14.6) because it started a few weeks ago when I purchased a new MacBook Pro, and all Outlook email attachments were downloading twice whether via "open", "save" or "download all" in all formats (ie Word, Excel, PDF). However, I realize now that this problem is occurring with other 3rd party compatible apps (ie Vuecan) also duplicating downloads when "saved" to desktop. Previously, on older MacBook Pro, I had same apps running and never experienced this issue.

In searching other forum archives, I saw one post that described a possible related error where the "temp file" or "temp folder" may have been inadvertently relocated to the desktop or corrupted. I am not technically confident in my understanding of how to relocate or clear any temp files without possibly damaging system. Of course, I have rebooted multiple times but no success.

Can anyone advise whether 1) this temp folder problem is likely cause for this issue, and/or 2) how to confirm and fix a temp file issue if this is the likely cause, or 3) identify any other likely cause for this issue?
Thank you
Reply
 
Hi DavidS78,

I don't quite understand what you mean by "shows up twice". The Desktop is just a subdirectory (sub-Folder) in your login directory, typically something like "/Users/<username>" where <username> is your User's account name. So, does "shows up twice" mean that in this /Users/<username>/Desktop folder there are two copies of the same file?

It is possible, I suppose, to do a symbolic link between a ~/temp directory and your ~/Desktop directory so that all the files in ~/temp also show up as links on the Desktop.

Can you run the following commands in a Terminal window:

cd; ls -al
cd Desktop; ls -al

and post the results. (You can obscure your <username> if you wish.)

Thanks,
Solouki
 
Hi Soluki - Thank you for your reply.

What I mean by "shows up twice" is that when I open any attached file from my Outlook for Mac email, the document that I view will open up on the desktop in its expected format, but simultaneously, a second copy will also open up ie, "document name" + "document name[1]". Similarly, when I save an attachment to the desktop, it will save two copies in the same duplicated way, ie. "document name" + "document name[1]". This saved file duplication occurs in email but also other 3rd party app such as Vuescan.

Here is the terminal command result:

Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ david$ cd; ls -al


total 64


drwxr-xr-x+ 19 david staff 608 Sep 28 01:11 .


drwxr-xr-x 5 root admin 160 Aug 20 11:45 ..


-r-------- 1 david staff 7 Aug 20 19:36 .CFUserTextEncoding


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 18436 Oct 5 13:16 .DS_Store


drwx------ 2 david staff 64 Sep 28 01:11 .Trash


-rw------- 1 david staff 41 Oct 5 17:48 .bash_history


drwx------ 9 david staff 288 Oct 5 17:53 .bash_sessions


drwx------ 3 david staff 96 Aug 20 13:15 .cups


-rw-r--r-- 1 david staff 102 Aug 20 16:06 .vuescanrc


drwx------@ 3 david staff 96 Aug 20 19:41 Applications


drwxrwxr-x@ 3 david staff 96 Oct 4 01:21 Creative Cloud Files


drwx------@ 38 david staff 1216 Oct 5 13:21 Desktop


drwx------@ 8 david staff 256 Sep 2 14:51 Documents


drwx------+ 5 david staff 160 Sep 27 14:56 Downloads


drwx------@ 69 david staff 2208 Sep 27 16:57 Library


drwx------+ 5 david staff 160 Aug 20 20:38 Movies


drwx------+ 5 david staff 160 Aug 21 16:43 Music


drwx------+ 5 david staff 160 Aug 20 15:59 Pictures


drwxr-xr-x+ 4 david staff 128 Aug 20 11:45 Public



Thank you for your assistance.
 
Sorry, I think I missed copying the last line of the command result now pasted here w/nothing after that:

Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ david$ cd Desktop; ls -al

Thank you again.
 
Hi DavidS78,

Alright, now I understand a little bit more. (The command output that you posted above shows that you don't actually have a /Users/<username>/temp directory.) But now I would like to also see the output from the second command line in my above posting, that is, please execute the following command in a Terminal window:

cd; cd Desktop; ls -al

and post the results please. The reason I'd like to see this output is to make certain that your filesystem is not corrupted -- I don't believe it is, based on your second posting describing what you mean by "shows up twice", but let's just make certain, shall we?

Based on your second post, I suspect that your trouble lies with Outlook for Mac and Vuescan, two programs that I do not use and am not familiar with -- thus I cannot be much help in tracking down these problems. I would suggest that you look through the Preferences for these apps to see if there is a default setting for where downloads are stored, and if there is some problem with these settings.

Solouki
[automerge]1570355065[/automerge]
Hi DavidS78, once again,

I'd also be interested in seeing the output of the following Terminal command:

cd; cat .vuescanrc

Thanks,
Solouki
 
Hi Solouki, thank you again for your thoughtful reply.

I also initially thought this was an issue with Outlook for Mac, but when I saw this problem replicated in a separate program recently used, it seemed much more likely (to me) to be an OS file issue or a Mac preference setting issue as it seems unlikely that there are two unrelated 3rd party programs both exhibiting the same erroneous behavior at the same time; or that I somehow changed preferences on two separate programs inadvertently, (ie default setting from single to dual copy downloads). Also, these programs run fine on a much older Mac, and only became a problem with my new MBPro that I just set up.

So just to ask the obvious newbie question, is there a Mac OS "global" preference or copy # file setting that dictates the number of copies of a downloaded, saved or viewed file from all programs in Mojave that would determine copy number that perhaps I accidentally changed? Notably, this is not an issue for pdf copies saved from the Internet as the Safari preference seems to dictate that setting.

To your follow-up questions, here is the first command results (I changed all document names to generic format ie, "document", "image" etc)

Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ david$ cd; cd Desktop; ls -al


total 21024


drwx------@ 38 david staff 1216 Oct 5 13:21 .


drwxr-xr-x+ 19 david staff 608 Oct 6 00:42 ..


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 28676 Oct 5 20:10 .DS_Store


-rw-r--r-- 1 david staff 0 Aug 20 11:45 .localized


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 1008639 May 1 2016 .pdf


-rw-r--r-- 1 david staff 2653 May 1 2016 .pdf.pdf


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 10820 Aug 28 00:07 document %.xlsx


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 1142366 Sep 10 21:54 2019-09-10-0002.pdf


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 788116 Oct 5 12:47 2019-10-05-0001.pdf


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 37760 Sep 28 01:04 excel.xlsx


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 295494 Aug 19 00:09 image.png


drwxr-xr-x 10 david staff 320 Sep 14 13:11 Active document


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 195757 Sep 26 14:11 image.png


drwxr-xr-x 10 david staff 320 Aug 21 01:03 document


drwxr-xr-x 10 david staff 320 Aug 21 01:04 videos:Misc


drwxr-xr-x 17 david staff 544 Sep 28 00:06 document


drwxr-xr-x 12 david staff 384 Aug 22 23:38 Ctivo


-r--r--r--@ 1 david staff 710541 Aug 19 20:11 DPB-Manual.pdf


drwxr-xr-x@ 908 david staff 29056 Sep 28 16:51 document


-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 david staff 2169816 Aug 20 19:38 photo.jpg


drwxr-xr-x@ 39 david staff 1248 Sep 11 17:13 document


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 14786 May 9 15:24 document.docx


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 430220 Sep 17 09:44 internet download.pdf


-rw-------@ 1 david staff 6314 Sep 17 11:49 IT.jpg


drwxr-xr-x 6 david staff 192 Aug 21 17:48 Itunes extra files


drwxr-xr-x 54 david staff 1728 Aug 21 01:06 Macbook Pro Prefs


drwxr-xr-x 8 david staff 256 Sep 27 16:40 Folder


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 808221 Sep 3 13:09 image.png


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 68608 Sep 28 16:51 excel.xlsx


drwxr-xr-x 9 david staff 288 Aug 21 01:06 folder


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 23532 Oct 4 22:03 document.docx


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 9113 Aug 19 09:26 excel.xlsx


drwxr-xr-x 27 david staff 864 Sep 5 17:24 folder


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 2962854 Sep 27 17:04 Image.png


drwxr-xr-x 34 david staff 1088 Aug 28 02:46 folder


drwxr-xr-x 11 david staff 352 Aug 27 18:11 folder


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 162 Oct 4 21:56 ~$document.docx


-rw-r--r--@ 1 david staff 162 Aug 30 12:14 ~$document.docx


Davids-MacBook-Pro:Desktop david$


Here are results of second command (again made generic):

Davids-MacBook-Pro:Desktop david$ cd; cat .vuescanrc


[VueScan]


SerialNumber=XXXXXXX


CustomerNumber=XXXXXXX


EmailAddress=name@domain.com


Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ david$



Thank you again for your kind efforts to assist me!
 
DavidS78,

I think your changing the filenames to generic values means that I cannot determine if you have a problem or not, because now there are indeed multiple copies of the same filename. But all of these copies have different creation dates and thus I suspect that they are not really the same filenames in fact, just your generic conversions.

On the other hand, you do have several directories that I am curious about --- say the "Macbook Pro Prefs" directory for instance. I've never seen a directory having this name on a Mac, and it is not the typical macOS way of setting preferences (normally done with *.plist files in directories having names like ~/Library/Preferences/ or in directories having app names in them, such as in ~/Library/Application Support/<app-name>/). Do you know what created this directory? I'd look into it to see what it contains.

There are also a number of directories with the same names, but once again it looks like these same names are because you converted the actual directory names to generic forms. Once again, these "same name" directories have different creation dates so I don't think they actually have the same names.

Because you imply that this duplication does not occur with Safari downloads, then I suspect that the fault still lies with Outlook and VueScan. There are no links in your above directory listings, so that is good. But, once again, because of your renaming to generic names I can't tell for certain that you have duplicated filenames, but I suspect not because of the different file creation dates. What happens if you create a new document in Pages or Numbers -- do you also get two copies?

Usually each individual app is responsible for its own backup files being created. For instance, many of Apple's own apps use the iCloud to store user files. Is this the source of your troubles? Are you opening both a cloud version of the file as well as a locally stored version? As I mentioned, I'm not familiar with Outlook for Mac nor VueScan, so I don't know if they are sending backup versions to cloud services, say to Microsoft Drive.

Lastly, I'm curious about VueScan and why you are using it. The macOS already has drivers for most printers/scanners, or loads them when needed, so you can usually scan documents/photos without the need for another app to do so. Are you using the special editing features of VueScan? If not, then for what scanner do you need to use VueScan?

Good luck,
Solouki
 
Hi Solouki,

I understand your question and, no, there were no duplicate filenames in the list that I replaced with generic format name (for privacy). Each was unique. With respect to your observation about the directories, I did not do anything to customize directories and simply set up the new MacBook Pro as a new machine, thinking that a new install would be "cleaner" and carry over less older corrupted OS issues.

The "MacBook Pro Prefs" folder is just a desktop file I created which holds screenshots of my prior machine so that I could reset manually my user preferences from my last machine. Could my naming this file using "pref" cause any unintended OS directory confusion? I would not have thought so. If there is a Directory issue, and this is a new machine, does it mean the OS is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled or returned?

With respect to Pages or Numbers, I just tried this and there is no duplicate copy when saving, but there is also no duplicate copy when saving a Word or Pdf document to my desktop - the duplicates only occur when I download and save an attachment or file that is transferred to the desktop (ie from another application to the desktop). Not sure if this distinction that I am making is clear, but that is the best way for me to describe it.

I thought about the possibility of the iCloud being the source of the issue. I am using iCloud Drive and Desktop iCloud for the first time, and I find it a bit confusing. However, to test this, I turned off iCloud, and unfortunately the duplicate issue on the desktop persists.

You have been very generous with your time and efforts to assist me. I understand that you think I may need to go to Microsoft community to troubleshoot. May I ask, do you know of a more technically accurate way to describe the issue that I am facing here so I can be succinct? I may be able to repost this query elsewhere, and your experience may help me do a better job clearly describing this issue first time posted.

Thank you!
David

PS Vuescan has been a great app for Epson office scans. Never knew there was a native OS app. Thanks.
 
solouki said:
The macOS already has drivers for most printers/scanners, or loads them when needed, so you can usually scan documents/photos without the need for another app to do so. Are you using the special editing features of VueScan? If not, then for what scanner do you need to use VueScan?
Click to expand...

Vuescan has some powerful options for photography. I use it with a Nikon Cool Scan to batch scan and process slides.

 
DavidS78,

Since the /Users/<username>/Desktop/ directory has no duplicated filenames, then I guess I don't understand what you mean by "shows up twice". But since the Desktop directory is fine, then your filesystem is most likely not corrupted and your macOS is fine. I still think that the third party apps are the source of your problems, perhaps in conjunction with your use of Desktop Cloud.

Solouki

P.S. I have to run, but will get back later.
 
DavidS78 said:
Solved: For other users experiencing and researching the same bug, Microsoft acknowledged the issue here

Interacting with attachments from the drop-down menu causes unexpected behavior in Outlook for Mac - Microsoft Support

support.office.com

and resolved it in the updated release Office for Mac v16.30

Thanks Solouki for patiently troubleshooting this issue with me previously
Click to expand...

You're welcome ... glad you resolved your issue, and I'm happy it was indeed a third-party software problem and not a problem with your filesystem.

Solouki
 
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