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I want the "Downloads" folder not on the system drive but on my second internal drive.

In Lion I just deleted the "Downloads" folder and replace it with an alias with the same name (pointing to the folder on the second drive ofc).

In ML I get ""Downloads" can't be modified or deleted because it's required by Mac OS X".

How to delete the folder? Can I change the permissions first to be able to delete it? Any help much appreciated.

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2 Answers

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I'd encourage you not to mess with permissions and just create a new folder on the other drive, choosing it as the folder where the downloaded files must me placed.

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The standard folders are proctected with ACLs so a simple chmod won't help here. – patrix♦ Aug 29 '12 at 8:33
Forgot about that. I'll edit my answer, just keeping the advice and the different approach. – Thecafremo Aug 29 '12 at 8:41
up vote 1 down vote

It is possible to do this from within the Terminal. Launch it from Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal.

  1. Ensure that you are working within your home folder, type

    cd

  2. Move the Downloads folder to your second drive, replacing Data (the name of my second drive) with whatever yours is called. You may be prompted for your OS X password.

    sudo mv ~/Downloads /Volumes/Data/Downloads

  3. (Optional) Create a symlink to allow you to access your new Downloads folder in the old location. Again, replace Data with the name of your second drive.

    ln -s /Volumes/Data/Downloads ~/Downloads

Hope that helps. This has just worked for me on OS X 10.8.1.

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