Items not staying in "Downloads" folder

[Princess Cake]

Recently I've grown tired of having my desktop becoming a mess after massive download benders and was wanting to use the "Downloads" folder instead-- I even put its folder in the dock.

But whenever I download something it goes into the folder but a few seconds later it moves to the Desktop... can anybody help me with whats going on here?

 

[fisherking]

in the general settings in safari's preferences, do you have it set to 'downloads' (under 'file download location'')?

 

[Princess Cake]

Yep, I have the preferences set to use it. But like I said, if I download something it WILL go into the Downloads folder but a few seconds later it moves to the Desktop... I've never seen this sort of problem.

 

[fisherking]

you see this happen? ie it vanishes from the downloads folder, then appears on the desktop? try pointing safari to a different folder (for example, create a 'test' folder in your home folder), see how that goes...

btw, you've rebooted?

 

[Princess Cake]

This has been happening for the past 2 months, I kept trying it on and off hoping it would fix itself but no dice... I've rebooted many times since then.

I don't even have to download a file for it to happen. If I go in Finder and open the Downloads folder I can drag a file into it and about 2 or 3 seconds later *POP* the file moves to the Desktop.

 

[BrianBaughn]

It may not be the case but that behavior sounds like there's a "Folder Action" doing that. Check this folder:

~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions

to see if there's anything in there.

 

[Bart Kela]

It sounds like a corrupted preference file or configuration. I would run OnyX and reboot to see if that clears up the issue.

 

[fisherking]

This has been happening for the past 2 months, I kept trying it on and off hoping it would fix itself but no dice... I've rebooted many times since then.

I don't even have to download a file for it to happen. If I go in Finder and open the Downloads folder I can drag a file into it and about 2 or 3 seconds later *POP* the file moves to the Desktop.

and did you try my suggestion? (to select a different folder to download to?)...

 

[Princess Cake]

It may not be the case but that behavior sounds like there's a "Folder Action" doing that. Check this folder:

~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions

to see if there's anything in there.

Thats what was causing it! I could swear I never put it in there but there was a folder action from several years ago telling it to move files automatically to the Desktop! O.O