Here’s how to fix this[+]

Create $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs with

XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR=“$HOME/downloads”

You may need to logout/in for things to reread this file.

The full list of keys is:

• XDG_DESKTOP_DIR
• XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR
• XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR
• XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR
• XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR
• XDG_MUSIC_DIR
• XDG_PICTURES_DIR
• XDG_VIDEOS_DIR

+: Since this is Linux, this is a fix for many but not all cases.