[solved] "Public" folder appeared in /home/[username]

[scary-rob]

Hi guys, newbie to Mint (but not Linux as a whole) here. I'm using 17.2, 64 bit, with KDE.

I was just about to back up my files when I noticed a folder in my user's home that wasn't there before. I'll admit my file system is a bit messy at the moment, so I should probably have noticed this sooner. It's called "Public", it's empty and it was last modified 19/12/2015 at 12:48. I really can't recall what I was doing at the time.

I've checked the sharing settings, and there doesn't appear to be anything being shared by samba (that said, I've never had cause to even look before, so I may have missed something). I install updates up to level 3.

Did an update do this? Is this something sinister (i.e. time to change my password)? It's only happened on my main user account; there isn't a "Public" folder in the other two accounts on my machine.

[xenopeek]

That is a default folder. You may either not have noticed it before, or you deleted it earlier and something you did triggered recreating it. There is nothing to worry about if you haven't any files in there and if you haven't switched on sharing files.

[Cosmo.]

it's empty and it was last modified 19/12/2015 at 12:48. I really can't recall what I was doing at the time.

Very likely you had logged into your user account at that time.

[scary-rob]

That is a default folder. You may either not have noticed it before, or you deleted it earlier and something you did triggered recreating it. There is nothing to worry about if you haven't any files in there and if you haven't switched on sharing files.

Thanks. That's reassuring. Given that I always set up my folders the same way on a fresh install, it was probably the latter (although I'm damned if I know what the trigger was...).