How to get rid of templates folder

Question

I have a simple problem: Whenever I delete the templates folder in my home directory (/home/[username]/ in case that info is of use) it seems to come back. It contains nothing and I have no use for it. Is there a way to make it go away permanently?

What version of Ubuntu are you using? I've just deleted my Templates directory and restarted - it's not come back. — Carl H, May 06 '15 at 18:27
They can come back, depending on your configuration/desktop environment. They're called "XDG user directories". I have no time to delve into it now, but you can search starting from `man xdg-user-dirs-update` — Rmano, May 06 '15 at 18:32
Run ` sed -i.bak 's/^XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR/#&/' ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs` and then remove it.....now restart and check.. — heemayl, May 06 '15 at 18:35
Yes, it just added. https://askubuntu.com/posts/620223/revisions — A.B., May 07 '15 at 17:42

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered May 07 '15 at 06:15

5

In your home folder is a configuration file ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs:

nano ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

with a content like this:

[..]
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
[..]

You can comment out the line by which the folder will automatically create:

before:

XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"

after

#XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"

Or you can use a single command in a terminal:

sed -i.bak 's/^\(XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR=\)/#\1/' ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

This can be undone:

sed -i.bak 's/^#\(XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR=\)/\1/' ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs

In both cases, a backup of your file will be created:

~/.config/user-dirs.dirs.bak

answered May 07 '15 at 06:15

A.B.

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I went into the .config directory and there was no user-dirs.dirs – It's Willem May 07 '15 at 17:39
@It'sWillem open terminal: `file .config/user-dirs.dirs ` what output you get for this? – Alex Jones May 07 '15 at 17:45
An empty text file named user-dirs.dirs – It's Willem May 07 '15 at 18:16
It returned a "No such file" message – It's Willem May 08 '15 at 00:36

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 03 '20 at 04:01

As said by A.B., you must edit the configuration file:
nano ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs (use nano, vim or another text editor)

After that, remove the desired directories and edit the file:
sudo nano /etc/xdg/user-dirs.conf.

In this file, you must set enabled=False to avoid the system create these directories when logging in again.

(I found this information on https://superuser.com/questions/223918/ubuntu-permanently-remove-videos-and-public)

How to get rid of templates folder

2 Answers2