As a last-gasp effort, I’d try a file recovery tool like Recuva to see if the files can be recovered from the unused space on your hard disk. Visit and look at your OneDrive files there. Depending on your OneDrive account, it may have a File History or Recycle Bin you can check. If you’re using OneDrive, it’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 File History.Ĭheck OneDrive. This may also lead you to understand what happened and locate other files as well.Ĭheck File History. If the file was moved to a different folder, you might find it there. Try to recall the name of one file, 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, it’s possible the file(s) you’re looking for could still be there. So, with admonitions out of the way, I have a few things for you to try.Ĭheck the Recycle Bin. If your Downloads folder had been getting backed up (as an image backup would have ensured), you wouldn’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 just doing it. That’s true whether it was in the Downloads folder or anywhere else.Ĭhange that. If you lost a file because it disappeared, you aren’t backing up. If you lost anything, you aren’t backing up Perhaps create folders by topic, or whatever makes sense to you.īut move them somewhere else. Maybe create a “Utilities” folder in your Documents folder, maybe create a “Downloaded PDFs” folder somewhere. Instead, once you’ve downloaded something you intend to keep - anything - move it to a different folder of your own. You should never use the Downloads folder for long-term storage.ĭownloads was never intended as a place to keep things long term, and leaving things in the Downloads folder is a recipe for disaster, which you’re discovering. Downloads is for downloads, not for storage Regular backups will protect you from losing files, downloaded or otherwise.
Move your files elsewhere after downloading. Don’t rely on the Downloads folder for long-term storage.
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