GNOME Documentation Project
gnome-doc-list@gnome.org
Shaun McCance
shaunm@gnome.org
Michael Hill
mdhillca@gmail.com
David King
amigadave@amigadave.com
Follow these tips if you can’t find a file you created or downloaded.
Daniel Șerbănescu
daniel [at] serbanescu [dot] dk 2016, 2019

# Find a lost file

If you created or downloaded a file, but now you cannot find it, follow these tips.

If you do not remember where you saved the file, but you have some idea of how you named it, you can search for the file by name.

If you just downloaded the file, your web browser might have automatically saved it to a common folder. Check the Desktop and Downloads folders in your home folder.

You might have accidentally deleted the file. When you delete a file, it gets moved to the trash, where it stays until you manually empty the trash. See to learn how to recover a deleted file.

You might have renamed the file in a way that made the file hidden. Files that start with a . or end with a ~ are hidden in the file manager. Click the view options button in the Files toolbar and enable Show Hidden Files to display them. See to learn more.