system is Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I messed up a file operation, and landed up
with a copy of the Downloads folder inside the displayed Home folder in
my files display. But the original downloads foilder was now empty, so
the folder had in fact moved, with its contents, to a new folder called
also Downloads. I merely wanted to restore the files to their original location, but the original Downloads folder is now a ghost, all attempts
to access it result in a 'this folder does not exist' message, but the
Files display still shows it, presumably it's a default tht won't go
away. I have renamed the new folder to Downloads-dup, hoping to delete
the original, now empty, folder and then rename the new one as
Downloads, but the ghost of the original prevents that happening.
Any ideas? It must be possible, I just don't know how!
On Sun, 8 May 2022 20:13:44 +0100, Davey wrote:
system is Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I messed up a file operation, and landed
up with a copy of the Downloads folder inside the displayed Home
folder in my files display. But the original downloads foilder was
now empty, so the folder had in fact moved, with its contents, to a
new folder called also Downloads. I merely wanted to restore the
files to their original location, but the original Downloads folder
is now a ghost, all attempts to access it result in a 'this folder
does not exist' message, but the Files display still shows it,
presumably it's a default tht won't go away. I have renamed the new
folder to Downloads-dup, hoping to delete the original, now empty,
folder and then rename the new one as Downloads, but the ghost of
the original prevents that happening. Any ideas? It must be
possible, I just don't know how!
Show us the commands you used to make the mistake? If that was
command- line stuff you should be able to see what you did by looking
back through bash history. If you were using a GUI tool like Thunar
then good luck!
If that tells you what you did, make a safety copy of the copied
directory, if its content is valuable, and then 'mv' the directory
back where it came from and see if that now matches your expectations
and, if it does, delete the copy.
On Sun, 8 May 2022 22:27:52 -0000 (UTC)
Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 8 May 2022 20:13:44 +0100, Davey wrote:
system is Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I messed up a file operation, and landed
up with a copy of the Downloads folder inside the displayed Home
folder in my files display. But the original downloads foilder was
now empty, so the folder had in fact moved, with its contents, to a
new folder called also Downloads. I merely wanted to restore the
files to their original location, but the original Downloads folder
is now a ghost, all attempts to access it result in a 'this folder
does not exist' message, but the Files display still shows it,
presumably it's a default tht won't go away. I have renamed the new
folder to Downloads-dup, hoping to delete the original, now empty,
folder and then rename the new one as Downloads, but the ghost of
the original prevents that happening. Any ideas? It must be
possible, I just don't know how!
Show us the commands you used to make the mistake? If that was
command- line stuff you should be able to see what you did by looking
back through bash history. If you were using a GUI tool like Thunar
then good luck!
If that tells you what you did, make a safety copy of the copied
directory, if its content is valuable, and then 'mv' the directory
back where it came from and see if that now matches your expectations
and, if it does, delete the copy.
It was a finger movement over the files display, not a CLI. i'll try
the 'mv' tomorrow, but indications earlier were that it would not allow
this!
Bed-time now, however, but thanks.
On Mon, 9 May 2022 02:38:10 +0100
Davey <davey@example.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 8 May 2022 22:27:52 -0000 (UTC)
Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 8 May 2022 20:13:44 +0100, Davey wrote:
system is Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I messed up a file operation, and
landed up with a copy of the Downloads folder inside the
displayed Home folder in my files display. But the original
downloads foilder was now empty, so the folder had in fact
moved, with its contents, to a new folder called also Downloads.
I merely wanted to restore the files to their original location,
but the original Downloads folder is now a ghost, all attempts
to access it result in a 'this folder does not exist' message,
but the Files display still shows it, presumably it's a default
tht won't go away. I have renamed the new folder to
Downloads-dup, hoping to delete the original, now empty, folder
and then rename the new one as Downloads, but the ghost of the
original prevents that happening. Any ideas? It must be
possible, I just don't know how!
Show us the commands you used to make the mistake? If that was
command- line stuff you should be able to see what you did by
looking back through bash history. If you were using a GUI tool
like Thunar then good luck!
If that tells you what you did, make a safety copy of the copied
directory, if its content is valuable, and then 'mv' the directory
back where it came from and see if that now matches your
expectations and, if it does, delete the copy.
It was a finger movement over the files display, not a CLI. i'll try
the 'mv' tomorrow, but indications earlier were that it would not
allow this!
Bed-time now, however, but thanks.
Have you got a USB drive you can copy the directory too?
That would be a safe thing to do.
On Mon, 9 May 2022 02:38:10 +0100
Davey <davey@example.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 8 May 2022 22:27:52 -0000 (UTC)
Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> wrote:
On Sun, 8 May 2022 20:13:44 +0100, Davey wrote:
system is Ubuntu 18.04LTS. I messed up a file operation, and
landed up with a copy of the Downloads folder inside the
displayed Home folder in my files display. But the original
downloads foilder was now empty, so the folder had in fact
moved, with its contents, to a new folder called also Downloads.
I merely wanted to restore the files to their original location,
but the original Downloads folder is now a ghost, all attempts
to access it result in a 'this folder does not exist' message,
but the Files display still shows it, presumably it's a default
tht won't go away. I have renamed the new folder to
Downloads-dup, hoping to delete the original, now empty, folder
and then rename the new one as Downloads, but the ghost of the
original prevents that happening. Any ideas? It must be
possible, I just don't know how!
Show us the commands you used to make the mistake? If that was
command- line stuff you should be able to see what you did by
looking back through bash history. If you were using a GUI tool
like Thunar then good luck!
If that tells you what you did, make a safety copy of the copied
directory, if its content is valuable, and then 'mv' the directory
back where it came from and see if that now matches your
expectations and, if it does, delete the copy.
It was a finger movement over the files display, not a CLI. i'll try
the 'mv' tomorrow, but indications earlier were that it would not
allow this!
Bed-time now, however, but thanks.
Have you got a USB drive you can copy the directory too?
That would be a safe thing to do.
Last night, I went to bed with the laptop showing a Downloads folder,
that could not be accessed, and a Downloads-dup folder, with everything
from the Downloads folder.
After booting up this morning, the second thing I did was to copy the Downloads-dup folder to my 2nd SSD, as suggested.
Then, looking at the available folders, I saw that the bad Downloads
folder was now gone. I did a Screenshot, and saved it to the
Downloads-dup folder. Then, really tempting fate, I renamed this folder
to 'Downloads', and it all seems to work. It's a bit like Stephen King's 'Christine', go to sleep damaged, and wake up repaired and ready to go.
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