MacBook – How to delete user Downloads folder

foldersmacbook pro

I want to delete the Downloads folder on my Mac as I just save everything on my background so that way I have to sort it right away. I'm wondering if you can help me by telling me if there is a way to put in some terminal code to delete the downloads folder ? I never use it and apparently you can't just delete it.

Best Answer

First of all, you need to change the default location for downloads to your Desktop folder, if that's what you want.

In Safari > Preferences > General, there's a setting for the downloads location. This sets the preference for all applications, not just Safari.

If you don't do this, then any app that wants to save a file there will likely recreate the folder in the process of saving.

As of Catalina, the Downloads folder has a com.apple.macl extended attribute, which is protected by SIP. You may therefore need to disable System Integrity Protection before deleting this folder.

How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on macOs [OS X]

Don't forget to enable it afterwards, otherwise, you'll be 'leaving the front door open'.

Apple has hardwired some folders to ensure that they will always be present. It's possible that the folder might even get recreated. The alternative is just to hide it from view in the Finder.

Sometimes, MacOS can be inflexible about the way things are done, and it's often easiest to reprogram the more flexible computer on the other side of the keyboard. ;-)

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MacOS – How to create a Saved Search that excludes a specific folder from the results

I looked at some of the saved search files in Finder's application bundle, and for example /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/MyLibraries/myDocuments.cannedSearch/search.savedSearch used a format like this for excluding directories:

<key>FXScopeArrayOfPaths</key>
<array>
  <string>~/</string>
  <string>-Library</string>
  <string>-Music/iTunes</string>
  <string>-Documents/Steam Content</string>
  <string>~/Library/Mobile Documents/</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Keynote</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Pages</string>
  <string>-com~apple~Numbers</string>
</array>

So you can exclude subfolders by adding strings that start with a minus character after a full path. Something like -~/Library doesn't seem to work.

You can edit savedSearch files by dropping them on a text editor. RawQueryDict:SearchScopes and FXScope:FXScopeArrayOfPaths seem to list the same paths by default, but just editing the second one appeared to exclude folders at least in Finder.

MacOS – Terminal command to determine the last time a MacBook Pro was unplugged from AC Power

You might be able to use ioreg to determine the cycle count of the battery. A low cycle count indicates that the battery has not been discharged and charged very much.

ioreg -l | grep Capacity

"Cycle Count" shows how many times the battery has been cycled. You can read more about battery cycle counts here.

Another idea is to use pmset to log the state of the system's power. You could, in theory, have that dump to a file to investigate after some time has passed.

Take a look at the man page for pmset.

pmset -g pslog will log the state of system's power. As the device is unplugged or plugged you'll see the log update. This could show how frequently a notebook is unplugged and charged. If it remains plugged in for long spans of time, or is often drawing from 'AC Power' then you'd know if it's mobile or not.

Best Answer

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