Cannot find the default video download folder on Ubuntu Linux

[arghanath007]

Your question

I just downloaded the extension on my brave browser and installed the Co-app app. I am able to download the videos which I wanted but I cannot find the default download location. I have tried clicking on open download folder beside the downloaded video option but that is not opening anything. I have also tried to play the videos on a video player button but that doesn't work either as well. I have used the extension before on my Mac-book with the same brave browser and it works fine as expected. IDK why it is not working on Linux.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Addon & CoApp version and details

version: 9.5.0.1
target: google
channel: stable
lang: en-US
coapp: {"found":true,"new_version":false,"path":"/home/arghanath/.local/share/vdhcoapp/vdhcoapp","version":"2.0.19"}
license: {"unneeded":true}
platform: x86-64 linux
UA: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/138.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
{
"last_download_directory": {
"__serializer_tag": "option_some",
"__serializer_value": {
"__serializer_tag": "primitive"
}
},
"never_show_no_incognito_msg_again": true,
"theme": "dark",
"view_options": {
"all_tabs": false,
"hide_downloaded": false,
"low_quality": false,
"show_button_clean": true,
"show_button_clean_all": false,
"show_button_convert_local": false,
"sort_by_status": true,
"sort_reverse": false
},
"use_wide_ui": true,
"use_sidebar": true,
"open_count_store": 12,
"successfull_dl": 35,
"history_limit_in_days": 99
}

[Mattmjs]

I think Ubuntu is just slow to open things compared to other systems. You can find the default directory in the extension settings.

[arghanath007]

Yes I do get that. But I have already downloaded many on the default directory so have to delete them otherwise they taking space. I get I can fix this by changing the directory.

[biocharred]

What has still not been shown or provided is the exact path to/of dwhelper. Could you provide the path to the download folder or whatever its called?

I also downloaded a file to the default and then could not find the file (slow internet here so the downloads are precious).
Thank you.

[Mattmjs]

Did you not read what jcfrog said ? That's where you need to look, assuming it went there.

[biocharred]

The thing is it is not in the home directory and this doesn't change the fact that the app does not show the path of where the files are currently being downloaded to. The mystery dwhelper directory/folder never shows up and it does not come up in a search. Yes i know where the download directory is located when i choose a new one, but the original/default is not findable. So yes i did read jcfrog's response but he didn't really answer the question. Thanks.

[Mattmjs]

Are you saying the dwhelper folder is hidden or not visible in the home directory ? Maybe this folder got deleted but if that's not
the case and you don't see it try Ctrl+H. This should display hidden folders in the home directory.

There is also folder icon in the VDH menu after the file has been downloaded, this will bring up the location of the file.

[PeBoVision]

So can I assume this has still not been answered?? (Seriously, 'where might the be files saved", was not answered????)

Videos were downloading to my download directory (no dwhelper sub-directory like under Windows) before adding the coapp, now they are off in some mystery directory and dwhelper has been rendered non-fuctional.

I have been a licensed user for some time in Windows, but if this is indicative of the software under Linux, I will not be licensing this copy. And for Pete's sake, just make the directory user selectable!!! It is asinine that there is no indication of where dwhelper is saving on my computer! And they are not in the coapp directory either.

Fix the coapp, which broke the program under Linux. (and add a "directory selector" to the app's default settings. PLEASE!)

[GrampaWildWilly]

I do not work for VDH. I am just another user. Also, please read #2214.

VDH on Linux does not have a license. The original developer many years ago decided only Windows & Mac users would have to get a license. Linux users do not. I think it's because he developed VDH on Linux so he had a soft spot in his heart for Linux users.

As for where downloads went, you might want to look at this: #744. These discussions also deal with the topic: #665, #814. While you're reading those discussions -- and any discussion in this forum -- be on the lookout for links that say Show x previous replies & Show next x replies. GitHub has a nasty habit of hiding important posts on the assumption that a shorter web page is more convenient. It's not. Click those links to read complete discussions.

[Mattmjs]

There is a snap folder in the home directory, inside that is a Firefox folder assuming this is the browser used.
Maybe this needs to be checked. VDH has a folder button to click on after the file has been downloaded.
This should open where the file went.

[PeBoVision]

"GitHub has a nasty habit of hiding important posts on the assumption that a shorter web page is more convenient. It's not. Click those links to read complete discussions."

Thank you SO much for your thread-link laden reply. I will follow and read through this afternoon.

I'll use this reply to also apologize for the tone of my original message. Years should have taught me to never search for help when frustrated by software. Best to wait until stress subsides.

Cheers

[PeBoVision]

VDH has a folder button to click on after the file has been downloaded. This should open where the file went.

As the original querie mentioned both the pay and view-folder buttons no longer function after the coapp installation. They turn green, but don't function) I have a feeling that no file is being saved. I am far more comfortable browsing through the Linux directory structure than I was a couple years ago, and I find no downloaded files.

I will go through the thread-links that GrampaWildWilly has provided and go a little deeper down the rabbit hole.

Thank you for your suggestions.

[GrampaWildWilly]

Another thing that I don't think has been mentioned yet in this discussion is the VDH history. You have to turn it on to make VDH collect history. The history also contains a two-part green button, one part for "playing" a video, the other part for locating it.

But there's playing & there's playing. How this works depends a lot on your system configuration. I have VLC configured as my default video player & I typically have it open, not playing anything. When I click on the green play button in VDH, either on the VDH menu or in the VDH history, it does not launch playback. Instead, it queues the content into the VLC playlist. From there, I have to explicitly switch tasks to VLC & hit play. If you start with VLC closed, hitting the green play button in VDH will open a new instantiation of VLC. But I think whether playback actually begins depends on your VLC settings. Also, even if you already have VLC open, hitting VDH's green button might open a new instantiation of VLC, but that also depends on your VLC settings. So this play thing is not at all straightforward.

For the part of the VDH green button for going to the download location, that also depends on how your system is configured. I typically have a Windows file manager window open with a dozen tabs sitting on various directories. When I click the go to location half of VDH's green button, it pulls the file manager into foreground. But it's usually not on the download directory. It's on whatever tab I was looking at the most recent previous time I had the file manager in focus. Maybe one of my tabs is the download folder, maybe not. It appears that the functionality to go to the download folder if it's in some other tab does not exist in Windows. I find that there could be a lot of improvements Microsoft could make to their file manager. I think in order to get the VDH file locator to work properly, you first have to close all file manager windows. In that situation, VDH will cause the system to open a new instantiation of the file manager positioned on the right directory. I think. I've never bothered to test this. Also, I know zilch about Linux. So you'd have to draw analogies from what I say to your situation in Linux, & maybe those analogies will be valid & maybe they won't. You know about Linux so only you can say whether my advice is worthwhile or worthless.