You forgot I got a Mac Mini now LOL

now I've figured out when you delete the pics from 'all files' they disappear from Documents ! and you can't put animated stuff in the Photo section because they won't animate !

If you emailed all that stuff to yourself, you should be able to recover it just by downloading your attachments. Might take a while, but you should be able to get it all back. Yes, anything deleted in "All Files" (the Mac equivalent of Library) will vanish from any subfolder it is in since "All Files" links directly to  everything you have in your Docs, Pics, etc. folders.

If you didn't have an email back up of the files and the deleted items were automatically emptied from the Trash, you'd have to use a third party program to try and recover them and it will only recover things that the system hasn't yet had a chance to over-write, since deleting something on a computer doesn't mean it's erased, but is marked as "free space" that can be used for other purposes.

Time Machine can also be used to recover deleted files, but it has to be properly set up beforehand, to select what to back up, where to put it, and how often to back up and whether backups are differential (changes only) or complete (all contents of specified folders).

See if you can't download your attachments from the email you backed up to before you try anything else other than checking the Trash to see if any of them are still there. Files in the Trash are marked "deletable" but are not deleted until the Trash is emptied.

DR

Yep, 'all files' is tricky business. if you think you got it all figured out and now it's OK to delete the stuff you've stock piled you'll soon figure out no matter where U put it it's gone. Anything in Photos won't animate just dead pictures. LOL

Got the Asus DVD/CD external drive thingy up and running now.

The ease of expandability of USB is a wonderful feature... I have a ten port Rosewill powered hub and it's one of the handiest things on my computer desk. Everyone needs a good hub since most of us collect peripherals like some folks collect spoons or clocks, etc.

DR

Went to Target and got a Hp copy, scan and print. Mainly just for the scan feature will make that printer the default one.

Got the printer, but, it made itself the default one, the other died guess the new one deactivated it.

I finally got me a good used imac 21.5in i5 something anyway having it all put together by a friend who's a mac tech so hopefully should have it within the week.It's a 2015 one but he says it's a good one. Hope I don't have too many problems with it otherwise it will stay in shop more than on my desk.lol. This ought to be fun but will keep one of my hp pc's for backup lol. At least I can come here for something small and that's a big help.Thank you Carol