How to Stop Windows 10 From Automatically Deleting Files

In Windows 10 Microsoft introduces the old technology that was disk cleanup utility as a storage sense. It identifies temporary internet files, temporary application files, deleted content in recycle bin and downloaded files in the downloads folder.

It deletes these contents periodically to free up disk space on your computer. We sometimes need the contents in downloads folder as they are important and we do not want to delete them, for this we have to configure our Windows 10 storage sense,  so that it would not automatically delete your content.

To configure the storage sense not to delete contents, follow the following steps.

Prevent Storage Sense From Deleting Your Files

Click on start menu and type settings it will show you settings app on the top, click on it to open it.

In Windows settings app, click on System option.

On the left side categories menu click on Storage option.

On the right side, it will show settings related to storage and shows you some of the information related to your disk space, Under Storage Sense toggle the switch to the off position to turn off the feature.

When the feature is turned off, it will not automatically delete any files to free up disk space.

Disable Downloads folder Auto deletion

If you just need the disable the option not to delete anything from the downloads folder then follow these steps:

Click on the option “Change how we free up space automatically”.

It will show a different settings related to auto-deletion. Look for option “Delete files in my downloads folder if they have been there for over”, and select Never from the drop-down menu.

By setting up this option the storage sense will not delete your downloaded contents from the downloads folder anymore but continue working normally for rest of the options.

Muhammad Imran Habib

Imran is a technology evangelist with 8 years of experience working with some of the Industry leading companies. Imran's expertise includes On-Prem/Virtual Infrastructure deployments, IT Solutions for SMEs, End User Computing Support.

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