Existem alguns diretórios "especiais" em seu diretório pessoal, os downloads são um deles.
=== Linha de comando / método manual ===
edite ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs ,
gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
deve ficar assim:
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
#
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"
Excluir ou comentar (adicione # no início) a linha XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
Em seguida, exclua ~ / Downloads
Se isso falhar, instale e execute o Ubuntu Tweak
link
