When “Clean up drivers’ existing paint files before fetching new paints” is checked, Trading Paints Downloader will remove any drivers’ existing paint files on your computer before grabbing their latest and most accurate paints (including decal layers) from Trading Paints.

Keeping this option checked ensures the paints you see in iRacing are the paints each driver has defined on Trading Paints.

For instance, if a driver had previously used a decal layer on their car, you raced against that driver at one point and chose not to keep “clean up downloaded files” checked, but then that driver removed their decal layer on Trading Paints, rather than ignoring the file, Trading Paints Downloader will clear out any existing paint files associated with that driver and replace them with what they currently have loaded onto Trading Paints.

We recommend keeping this option checked.

Trading Paints Downloader options and their meanings