[SOLVED] Downloading to wrong location? Or...?

[mkuborn]

I have transmission set to download/upload off an external drive and that has always worked as i have zero free space on my internal. I just recently noticed when transmission is open i can literally watch my internal drive fill up until the osx 'hard drive is full' message pops up. I check preferences and it is still set to my external so i am stumped. My internal is currently full and i can't bloody find where Trans is dumping these files, none of the obvious places like downloads etc. I am using 1.83, any help would be much appreciated. Cheers!

[Transmitter Head]

Funny, same thing just happened to me. Managed to track it to a "phantom" volume that somehow was created on my HD with the same name as the external drive. It was invisible in the Finder but its contents turned up in a search.

So search for the recently downloaded items on your Mac and check the directory structure. And double-check your Transmission preferences are definitely pointing to the external drive and not a "phantom" drive with the same name.

[Transmitter Head]

Did the "phantom" drive's name start with a "." Files whose names begin with a "." are invisible in the Finder. If you use an app like showHiddenFiles you might be amazed at what you find.

No, there was no ".", it was exactly the same name as the drive, except it had a folder icon rather than a drive icon. It was at the top level of my HD directory. At first I thought it was an alias, but stuff was actually getting saved there.

I recently added the drive to my login items. My theory is that when my account went looking for the drive and it was unavailable for some reason, it created this "virtual" directory. And since I often change my Transmission preferences, I've accidentally selected the wrong one.

So my problem came from a confluence of factors. Not sure if they apply in this case.

Also, the visibility of your internal HD icon on the Desktop can be enabled/disabled via Finder/Preferences.

Thanks, but the first thing I did when I upgraded to OS X was turn that off! No longer necessary.

[Transmitter Head]

It may not be a good idea to have an external drive as a login item. As long as it is connected and powered up that should do the job.

It has to be mounted manually as it's an SMB network drive connected directly to the Ethernet port (which in itself probably isn't ideal). But you're right, I've removed it from Login Items to minimize any other glitches.

[mkuborn]

A million thanks my friend, i am back to my normal free 10gb on my internal haha. Thank you again!

[Transmitter Head]

Great to hear!