lost my "downloads" folder

Yesterday I accidentally dragged my downloads folder off the dock and now I can't find it. I'm a new mac user. How do I get it back? I've searched and searched for my downloads folder but couldn't find it.

Could you help me, please?

Thanks.

Your Downloads folder is in your home directory. Unless you removed it, it should still be there. Removing it from the dock does not delete the directory (think of dock icons as analogous to shortcuts in Windows). Simply drag the Downloads folder from Finder back to the dock and you should be fine.

K515 said:

I've searched and searched for my downloads folder but couldn't find it.

Click to expand...

1. How have you searched? I recommend using the Finder (Cmd-F) rather than Spotlight.
2. Which browser are you using for downloads, and what is the Preferences > Downloads setting?
[I searched my eMac HD for a Downloads folder as such, it doesn't exist. My d'loads are sent to the desktop anyway.]

You can always create a new folder in the terminal window if you deleted yours...

cd (should take you to the home directory of the user you are logged in as)
ls (see if you have a Downloads directory; if not then continue)
mkdir Downloads
chmod 700
chown -R username:groupname (where username is your user's name; your group is probably the same as your user name)

my downloads reside under the username.

Go to Finder, then Finder --> New File Window, then under Places you should see Desktop and just below that your username. Click on that icon, and a bunch of folders should appear, including Downloads.

If you downloaded from Safari, choose Window from the Safari menu and in that list you should see Downloads. That is a list of stuff you downloaded*-click it, it opens up the list, click the magnifier icon on one of them, and it should open that item in the Finder...and it will be inside your download folder!
*be sure to set Preferences --> General --> removed downloaded items manually. I know, it's not so "clean", but very handy to have all that junk there.