Can not open Downloads in Home folder

Asked by Rich.b

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

When I tried to open "Downloads folder" in Home folder a window opens "Oops! Something went wrong."

This used to work with no problem.

I can open a .pdf file from the bowers download, but if try to open downloads folder in the home folder I get "Oops! Something went wrong.".

Firefox 92.0 (64-bit) Mozilla Firefox Snap for Ubuntu cananiacl-002 - 1.0

Please could anyone advise?

Rich.b

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Rich.b
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Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#1

Have you fiddled around with the protection settings on the Downloads directory?

What is the output of the command

ls -l ~

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#2

Are you trying to open the file in the Downloads folder in Firefox?

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said (last edit ):
#3

Thank you Manfred for responding, I have not as far as know changed anything in Properties or any thing else there.
Here is the o/p of richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$ ls -l ~
total 6481244
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 3752 Jun 21 10:47 1Xtras_RB_Chill_Mix_-_1Xtra_RB_Chill_-_The_New_Classics_m000srds_original.audio.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 726412 Sep 23 17:32 2021_09_23_16_20_19.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 988054 Sep 23 17:32 2021_09_23_16_21_11.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 786598 Sep 23 17:32 2021_09_23_16_24_20.mp3
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 541 Sep 29 13:04 20357368_20210929_0104.csv
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 20275 Jun 23 2017 '3.01 install.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 626468 Oct 3 09:21 850010370264-20211001-423002784483.pdf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 13035 Aug 22 2016 Android220816.odt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 53122240 Sep 29 09:57 audacity-linux-3.0.4-x86_64.AppImage
drwxrwxr-x 3 richard richard 4096 Mar 26 2021 'Bedlam Pictures'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 20460 Oct 22 2018 'Biomnic Beaver 18.04 LTS.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 44774 Jan 1 1980 content.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 richard richard 1122 Mar 11 2021 control
drwxrwxr-x 2 richard richard 4096 Sep 12 2016 deja-dup
drwxr-xr-x 4 richard richard 4096 Sep 24 08:14 Desktop
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 10329 Sep 29 2016 'Disks on PC 280916.ods'
drwxrwxr-x 2 richard richard 4096 Jun 2 2016 docProps
drwxr-xr-x 83 richard richard 4096 Sep 30 10:25 Documents
-rw-r--r-- 1 richard richard 8980 Jun 16 2017 examples.desktop
drwxr-xr-x 3 richard richard 4096 Jun 7 2017 ffmpeg-3.3.2-64bit-static
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 17726768 Jun 7 2017 ffmpeg-release-64bit-static.tar.xz
drwxr-xr-x 8 richard richard 4096 Nov 12 2017 firefox
drwx------ 3 richard richard 4096 Oct 3 16:33 firefox.tmp
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 24663 Dec 6 2017 'Get_iplayer 3.07 Release Notes.odt'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 20880 Dec 19 2015 'Installation Get_iplayer 191215.odt'
drwxr-xr-x 18 richard richard 4096 Jun 25 09:16 Music
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2317 Sep 29 16:39 'My Settings_29-09-2021.htm'
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2094312548 Sep 24 09:39 Neutrino_Hunting_the_Ghost_Particle_-__m000zwqr_original.mp4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2219 Sep 29 16:41 NumberList__210929.list
drwxr-xr-x 8 richard richard 4096 Jan 4 2017 perl
drwxr-xr-x 6 richard richard 24576 Oct 3 09:34 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 richard richard 4096 Jun 16 2017 Public
-rw------- 1 richard richard 297630 Apr 17 2020 screenshot.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 29756082 Jun 25 09:08 __Sings_Dylan_II_-__b06nszhz_original.video.ts
drwxr-xr-x 22 richard richard 4096 May 16 18:59 snap
drwxr-xr-x 2 richard richard 4096 Mar 25 2019 Templates
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2219300135 Sep 24 11:25 The_Beginning_and_End_of_the_Universe_-_01._The_Beginning_b0754t74_original.mp4
-rw-rw-r-- 1 richard richard 2218821742 Sep 24 12:57 The_Beginning_and_End_of_the_Universe_-_02._The_End_b075dxsq_original.mp4
drwxr-xr-x 3 richard richard 4096 Sep 24 13:07 Videos
drwxrwxr-x 3 richard richard 4096 Aug 6 2020 'VirtualBox VMs'
drwxrwxr-x 2 richard richard 4096 May 1 2017 Vodafone
richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#4

There is no Downloads folder, it seems that you have deleted it.
Try re-creating it.

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said :
#5

Thank you Andrew for responding.

I can open downloads from Firefox ok.

I my Home folder I can't open "Downloads" A window said "Oops! Something went wrong.".

I am sure could a week or so ago.

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said :
#6

If I click on Download in home folder Properties

Names Blank
Type Unknown
Size Unknown

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#7

You have killed the Downloads folder, it does not exist any more, and consequently all links that try using it fail with weird error messages.

You have to re-create that directory.

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said :
#8

Ok thanks of that, I don't know how or when I did that?

How do I do that please?

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#9

What about a web search for "Ubuntu create directory"?
For the exact name of the directory see the output of

cat $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said :
#10

Ok, I think I have done it.

I will test it later.

Thanks

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said (last edit ):
#11

Hello again Manfred,

Downloaded items are ending in Home folder instead on Downloads.

So how do I correct this, so that the Downloads end up in the "Downloads Folder"

Here is the info you requested yesterday:-

richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$ cat $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run.
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
richard@richard-H81M-S2H:~$

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#12

"Downloaded items are ending in Home folder instead on Downloads."

Yes, that is the system's emergency action because the Downloads directory does not exist.

I suggest the following commands:

mkdir $HOME/Downloads
xdg-user-dirs-update --set DOWNLOAD "$HOME/Downloads"

then check whether this has worked with the command
cat $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs
(this should have updated the line "XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR=..."

and then reboot and after logging in again check the output of

ls -al $XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#13

Beat me to it

Revision history for this message
Rich.b (aybi30) said :
#14

Thank you Manfred.

I can now see a download that I have just done in my "$HOME/Downloads"

drwxrwxr-x 4 richard richard 4096 Oct 4 12:01 Downloads

Rich.b