[ecs]

Have you seen lately a folder called "Recovered Files" in your trash, when you login? If you clean the trash, it will usually reappear when you login the next time. Moreover, I always have the same file inside "Recovered Files": A single file, of zero bytes, called "AOLTemp.html".

(Btw, I'm on 10.4.2)

I've googled for this, and people say these reappearing "Recovered Files" is a known issue with Tiger, which will be likely fixed in future releases, and nothing to worry about.

However, searching AppleNova forums, I found that, in May, somebody told this is a symptom of the disk having problems.

Any thoughts?

[DMBand0026]

Happens with me too. I fix the problem by never logging out or restarting.

I really considered it a non-issue for the most part, although it's quite un-Apple like, if you know what I mean.

[csb]

I had the same problem and finally contacted Apple by e-mail they sent mea an article on it i forget the page on their support site but they said it was just part of the system and not to worry although it is annoying



http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301913

Mac OS X: "Recovered Items" in the Trash can be safely deleted
After starting up in Mac OS X, sometimes you might find a "Recovered Items" folder in the Trash. Don't worry, you can safely delete this folder.

This folder contains items that are periodically flushed from your computer's temporary directory (/tmp).

[BarracksSi]

It's more Apple-like than you'd think...

That was what happened in OS 9 and earlier when some odd cache file would be left behind after a shutdown. Back then, they showed up in the Trash in a folder called Rescued Items. Almost all of the time, they were inconsequential files that could be deleted without worry. It was extremely rare to find something important in there (rare enough that I can't remember when it ever happened).

[BenP]

It's happened to me occasionally. If the files are unimportant why are they recovered?

[BarracksSi]

They're recovered just in case they might be important. Things like uncleared cache files, documents that were being worked on, etc. If an application crashes, it might leave some of these things laying out there, so the OS goes in and clears them out.

Ask.com came up with this page as a first hit to the question, "Why is there a Rescued Items folder in the Trash?"
http://www.cuyamaca.net/fgeoola/macrecov.asp

[BarracksSi]

*addendum to my post above (yes, I know I can edit the post itself, but the edit doesn't come across in email notifications)...

Those files are more like abandoned files than anything else. Whether an app just wasn't written to empty its cache, or a Force Quit shut down an app without letting it clear out its temporary files, or an app simply crashed, those files need to be taken care of instead of being allowed to waste space.

And, if they were automatically deleted completely by the OS, it would be frustrating in those rare instances where you'd need that file.