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I switched on my PC this morning and all my downloads have disappeared. The downloads folder is empty. Where have they gone?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I had hundreds, if not thousands, of documents, pictures, video clips etc., in my downloads folder. This morning, when I switched on my PC and opened the downloads folder, it was completely empty. I cannot understand what has happened. I am not very IT savvy but please help me to find them. Thank you.

I had hundreds, if not thousands, of documents, pictures, video clips etc., in my downloads folder. This morning, when I switched on my PC and opened the downloads folder, it was completely empty. I cannot understand what has happened. I am not very IT savvy but please help me to find them. Thank you.

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It sounds that the history got cleared. You can check that in the History Manager (Library; Show All History).

Firefox manages downloads in the Downloads folder in the Library (History > Show All History) Downloads are treated as history items: clearing history removes included download items and vice versa.

Note that only the entries in the Downloads Manager are cleared, the files on the hard drive should still be there.


You would need a backup copy of the places.sqlite file to recover the history.

Try to restore a previous version of the places.sqlite file.

  • Right-click: Properties > Previous Versions