Deartheopolis

I ran CCCleaner for the first time. I did not notice that Downloads was selected because I assumed it would make me choose to delete something like Downloads. Have I lost my Downloads forever?

I believe that the default should be to not delete Download files as they are something that most people would keep. Now that they are gone I have lost them forever. My bad I guess but had to ask the question.

I don't know any cleaning option that would delete the contents of your personal "Downloads" folder. CCleaner only deletes traces of downloads, not the downloaded files themselves.

The only tool I know and that really does this is the Windows own "Disk Cleanup" respectively "Storage Sense".

https://www.howtogeek.com/403009/how-to-prevent-storage-sense-from-deleting-your-downloaded-files-on-windows-10/

Edit: Is it possible that you're using the Android version?