DOWNLOAD folder has "invisible" files??

[shandelsmanmd]

My download folder has been emptied, or at least I thought it was, but when I "get info" the folder has 25.0 gigs in it. Still, I cannot see any files. To test, I copied DOWNLOADS. The copied folder also has 25.0 gigs ...according to Get Info ...but the folder looks empty. What's IN there?

 

[vansmith]

Try this for me. Open up Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/) and enter the following command:

ls -a

Press enter. What do you get? Do you see a list of files?

 

[scathe]

hh if you think your download folder has lots of hidden files, then you're in for a treat with files in your home folder

 

[shandelsmanmd]

Reply to vansmith

Thanks. I see a list of the FOLDERS in my finder under my user name. Included are DOWNLOADS and the DOWNLOADS COPY that I made. No files or size info.

 

[vansmith]

Sorry, my original command was a mistake (haven't had my morning coffee yet). Try the following:

ls -a ~/Downloads/

 

[shandelsmanmd]

OK! Thanks! I see a few files in two columns with odd "." prefixes. How do I trash them?

 

[vansmith]

What are those files? Are they files that you have created? It's likely that one of those files is .DS_Store (see here for more info).

 

[shandelsmanmd]

Yes. They seem to be files, like videos and text that I downloaded then trashed or moved. One in particular. A ski video I downloaded then edited in QT pro and modified. Looks like many versions are in there (not normal name or extension but close enough). I am now at work, away from my Mac, and I do not recall if .DS_Store is in there.

 

[vansmith]

.DS_Store will be there - they're in every folder. Okay, to make this easier, let's temporarily enable viewing of hidden files and folders. Open up Terminal again and enter the following two commands, pushing enter after each:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

killall Finder

This will allow you to view hidden files and folders. Delete only what you know is your content from the folder and nothing else (files and folders are hidden for a reason). When you are done, execute the following two commands to re-hide files and folders:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

killall Finder

 

[shandelsmanmd]

Thanks. Will do this tonight. How might this have happened, eating up 25 gigs of storage? Where ELSE on my iMac might there be gobs of gigs hidden? What I do on my Mac, why I LOVE my iMac, is video editing. It's not uncommon for me to do projects that take up to 100 gigs, what with original video files, renders and project files. Once I finish, I trash most of the files. Now I am worried that my nearly-full main 320 drive and my 500 gig external and my 1T Timemachine drive might be full of hidden junk.

 

[scathe]

I guess it's usually temporary workflow files that should be trashed automatically by the application ... haven't come across any files like yours that are obviously videos you have created but for some reason stay hidden.

Are you sure you didn't rename those files adding the "." prefix? Maybe by accident?

Btw, the dot prefix signifies that the file is hidden. I wouldn't suggest deleting most of hidden files you see - especially in the home folder - when you use that trick Vansmish provided (changing Finder defaults) you will see a whole lot more of these . files - don't get surprised, most of them are normal.

A classic example of hidden file sunder unix would be .bashrc, .profile or even .bash_history in your home folder ... they serve as "configuration" files for your Terminal. Other applications seem to store . files in the home folder as well.

 

[shandelsmanmd]

I did not add "." to any file name. No clue what I did. I will REPLY when I get a chance to trash the rogues. Thanks all.

 

[shandelsmanmd]

Perfect! Thanks!

It worked perfectly! Thanks. I left a few small files. A readme.txt, the .DS_Store and a .DS_Store-1.

Thanks so much!

I kept and stored your instructions to use on any folder clogged with hidden large files in the future.

Washington DC signing off. Good night Canada and the Czech Republic.

best,

Steve

 

[vansmith]

It's a handy trick to have for future reference but I will reiterate only because this is really important - do not delete files if you do not know what they are. As scathe pointed out, the OS hides a lot of files by putting periods in front of their name. Make sure to delete only those which you know are yours.