preview download location for sftp server

[brikk42]

What system are you running Yazi on?

macOS

What terminal are you running Yazi in?

iterm2

ya env output

Yazi
    Version: 26.9.1 (Homebrew 2026-09-01)
    Debug  : false
    Triple : aarch64-apple-darwin (macos-aarch64)
    Rustc  : 1.98.0 (88d9e12a 2026-08-18)
    Backtrace: None

Ya
    Version: 26.9.1 (Homebrew 2026-09-01)
    Debug  : false
    Triple : aarch64-apple-darwin (macos-aarch64)
    Rustc  : 1.98.0 (88d9e12a 2026-08-18)

Describe the question

When opening an sftp server in yazi there is the option to download and preview files. Where is the location where these (temporary) files get saved to?

Anything else?

No response

Checklist

• I have read all the documentation
• I have searched the existing discussions/issues

[SumiyaE]

They go under Yazi's temp dir, not ~/.cache. On macOS that's $TMPDIR/yazi-<your uid>/, with one folder per remote that starts with sftp_. The files inside are stored under hashed names, so you won't see the original filenames.

ls "$TMPDIR/yazi-$(id -u)"

In the source (v26.9.1) the folder name is built here:

yazi/yazi-fs/src/auth.rs

Lines 20 to 32 in 8dd895c

	fn cache_root(&self) -> Option<PathBuf> {
	match self.kind {
	AuthKind::Regular | AuthKind::Search => None,
	AuthKind::Mount | AuthKind::Hub | AuthKind::Scope | AuthKind::Sftp => {
	Some(Xdg::temp_dir().join(format!(
	"{}_{}_{}",
	self.kind.into_str(),
	self.scheme,
	self.domain.hash_u128_str(&mut [0; 26])
	)))
	}
	}
	}

, and the yazi-<uid> part here:

yazi/yazi-fs/src/xdg.rs

Lines 113 to 127 in 8dd895c

	fn load_temp_dir() -> PathBuf {
	let mut p = env::temp_dir();
	assert!(p.is_absolute(), "Temporary directory path is not absolute");
	let uid = unix_either!(
	{
	use uzers::Users;
	yazi_shared::USERS_CACHE.get_current_uid()
	},
	0
	);
	p.push(format!("yazi-{uid}"));
	p
	}

[brikk42]

Thanks, this was helpful! And it made me figure out to run
ya cache clear
to delete that data.
Although I was hoping to be able to keep on easily using those already downloaded files, instead of having to copy them again onto the local storage - which seems to be the most straightforward way given how this is implemented.