I can't download things even though I still have 250GB of disk space left

[galaksy]

What can I do?

 

[Fishrrman]

What is happening when you try to download something?

What error msgs do you get?

 

[SVTmaniac]

This is pretty vague to be able to help out. Can you give more details as to what's happening?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Turn on the computer first.

 

[galaksy]

It says

/Users/[username]/Downloads could not be saved, because an unknown error occurred.

Try saving to a different location.

 

[bennynova]

Well there's your answer
Unknown error

So none of us know!

----------

Did you try saving in a different location?

 

[galaksy]

When I try to capture the screen, it gives me the same thing (captures are supposed to saved to desktop). So I guess saving to desktop or downloads won't work.

 

[meson]

Have you run verify or repair disk in Disk Utility?

To repair the internal startup disk, you will need to do so with an external drive, thumb drive, cd, or another mac.

It may point to corruption on your drive, or a failing drive.

 

[Bruno09]

It could be a permissions issue.

What OS are you running ?

 

[galaksy]

Maverick

 

[Bruno09]

You can boot up from the Recovery partition (Cmd + r), run Disk Utility, verify/repair the disk (Macintosh HD), and repair the permissions.

 

[galaksy]

Do I press cmd r as it's booting up?

 

[Weaselboy]

Do I press cmd r as it's booting up?

Yes... press command-r keys both at the same time and you will get this screen.

From there launch Disk Utility and do a repair permissions and also a repair disk. Tell us if the repair disk shows any errors.

 

[Fishrrman]

The OP wrote:
[[
/Users/[username]/Downloads could not be saved, because an unknown error occurred.
Try saving to a different location. ]]

In that case, have you tried saving to a different location?

One thing to try if you haven't tried it already:
Open Disk Utility and choose to Repair Permissions...

 

[jlsm511]

See if you have permission to save files in the Desktop and Download folders. Choose the folder in Finder and hit CMD+I and see under Sharing & Permissions if you have Read/Write privileges.

 

[galaksy]

I did the disk utility and it spotted invalid directory item count, and it was "repaired successfully." And downloading works now. Thank you.

 

[Weaselboy]

I did the disk utility and it spotted invalid directory item count, and it was "repaired successfully." And downloading works now. Thank you.

Glad that helped.

That error may be a sign your drive is failing (or not). You might want to run that disk repair again in a week or so just to keep an eye on things. If you get that same error again, it may be time to start thinking about a new drive. Hopefully you have some sort of backup.

 

[galaksy]

Thank you for the heads up. Could the cause be the laptop overheating?

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you for the heads up. Could the cause be the laptop overheating?

I would not think so. You mean just getting warm from normal usage?

 

[galaksy]

Getting hot with loud fan noise l.

 

[Weaselboy]

Getting hot with loud fan noise l.

Nah... that would not hurt the drive.

 

[galaksy]

I see. Then what would hurt the drive?

 

[Weaselboy]

I see. Then what would hurt the drive?

The only thing that really kills them is dropping the computer. Beyond that, they just die early sometimes for no real reason.

 

[galaksy]

I’m getting the same signs. I haven’t re-run the disk repair since the last time.
Should I run it again?

I have a Cloud WD external drive but I never really figured out how to use it. Every time I try to transfer large amounts of data it disconnects in the middle and I have to do it all over again. I’ve been thinking of getting the USB external, at least then I would know that it would transfer without breaking in them middle.

 

[brentsg]

What specific device is this, and what type of hard drive?

If it's doing it again then I'd talk with Apple about it, assuming warranty.