Can't set a folder on another drive as default Downloads folder

Question

What I want:
1. Set a folder which is located on another drive (/media/vorpall/27DCD6C93788CE6E/Media/Downloads) as "Downloads" folder at Home.
2. New "Downloads" folder should have an arrow icon on it (just as default one)
3. The folder should show up in Places

What I did:
1. Deleted existing "Downloads" folder from Home
2. Made a link to "/media/vorpall/27DCD6C93788CE6E/Media/Downloads"
3. Pasted it to Home
4. Opened user-dirs.dirs, changed string XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/" to XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads" and saved the file. Now "Downloads" folder has an arrow icon.
5. Rebooted my laptop. Now "Download" link at Home is broken. There's a lock icon on it.
6. Then I went to "/media/vorpall/27DCD6C93788CE6E/" and the link got healed! It is not broken any more, although it is now an ordinary folder without arrow and it is not on Places. That is because user-dirs.dirs got updated for some reason and now XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads string is again XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/"

I think that happens because Ubuntu probably checks Home folder for broken links and only THEN loads other drives.

Is there a way to make Ubuntu load drive with "/media/vorpall/27DCD6C93788CE6E/Media/Downloads" before checking for broken links? Or there's a simpler way to solve the issue? There must be!

Please help me guys. I am a second day Ubunty user.

Answer 1

The problem is that your '/media' drives do not get mounted until you actually visit them in a file manager of your choice. What you should do is to add that particular drive in your /etc/fstab, then it will get mounted when your computer boots up. I would suggest mounting it outside of /media directory to avoid confusion.

If the drive is formatted with FAT you can add the line like this:

/dev/sda7       /shared     vfat         umask=000                                           0 0

Here i assume that the drive is at /dev/sda7 and that you have created /shared.

Answer 2

Hey I guess your drive is not mounted at startup, therefore the link dous not work till you mount the drive (by opening it). I don't have experience how to do it, but I think this question gives a answer.