Desktop file gone!

Loaded Maverick and then I rebooted and nothing is on my desktop, all the files with the exception of Macintosh HD are gone and I can't even drag anything onto the desktop! Yikes! What is going on?????

I resolved this by using Time Machine and getting all the Desktop items back. I am sure it had more to do with me doing something weird with Macfort rather than Maverick. I couldn't drag anything onto the Desktop becausethe Desktop folder was completely gone from my home file, really strange.

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User Reset? Desktop files gone.

I came home to find my desktop blank, and all my files and folders gone and my settings appear to back to intial installation. The power had not gone out.
Is there a way to restore files from the desktop? I've done several searches but found only a few documents and my iTunes library?
Any ideas what could have happened? My dock was reset and everything, but my online settings, email, and hard drive seem intact. After reading some of the posts, it seems my user had been reset on June 1. Any way to get this through disk utility or the archive settings on my home folder?
Sign me baffled....

1. How do I dump the logs? Do I just go to Console and delete them?
Just go to the Logs folders and delete them. Now I would not do that with cache files.
2. Do I need to be using the startup disk when I do that
Not if your Mac can run Target Disk Mode:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583
3. Will I ever be able to get my old User back, do you think
If you use Prosoft Data Rescue you may be able to, but you have to be sure not to use your computer until you have a chance to use Prosoft Data Rescue with an External Firewire hard drive at least as large as the drive the user was on. Or if you use one of the disk cataloging tools on my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
To locate that user. If they aren't found, only Data Rescue or a data recovery specialist would be able to retrieve the user. This is why it is so important to backup your data as my FAQ* explains:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
4. After I dump the logs, how do I reset the network
To reset a dialup network with AOL, all you need to do is quit from AOL's software menu. In some cases modems can get hung, in which case, restarting the machine from the Apple menu is necessary.
AOL is up to version 10.3.7:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/10481
* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

10.5.8 Finder resets to default, desktop files gone!

The Finder on my 2008 Mac pro is really acting up at the moment an I have no idea what's going on.
My desktop has been wiped clean. Nothing there, except the drive icons. I don't keep much on the desktop but there should be a few folders and files that I always keep there for convenience. Also, Finder has reset to default settings - lost my custom Places from the sidebar and opens in icon view, which I never use.
I looked at the actual folder in Finder as well and the files are definitely not there.
What I have been doing:
I ran iDefrag on my files disk (INT HD 1TB) a few days ago (first time). I forgot to turn off Time Machine so they have probably been running at the same time.
Today Time Machine decided to backup everything from scratch, which I attribute to iDefrag switching everything around on my Files disk. Also filled the backup disk so I only have two backups at the moment, both from today.
Other than that, I have mostly been using Adobe Bridge, Photoshop and InDesign CS4 for editing quite big files. Also Firefox for normal web browsing.
Hard drives are reported to be ok. Profile is still the same name. The files are not in the Trash. Everything else is where it should be. System disk is 1/3 full. Files HD (which hasn't been affected AFAICS) 1 TB 1/2 full.
Does anyone know what could be happening to my machine?

I had the same problem and finally discovered that somehow my Desktop folder had become a Package. I could not do anything on the desktop but the apps and the dock etc. were working fine. I went to Go/Home Folder/Desktop/Show Package Contents and everything was there. But nothing appeared on the desktop. I could not open a new folder and anything I tried to drag to the desktop resulted in a permissions error. I tried all of the above fixes and more. The solution? Trash the desktop folder from your Home folder, empty the trash, reboot and start all over again. If you're lucky like I was you will have a Time Machine backup and you can restore a previous Desktop easily. Worked for me!

Desktop files are gone

My brother is working on a powerbook g4 and the problem is all of the desktop files are gone. They are not in the trash. They have just disappeared. It reminds me of when a profile gets corrupt in Windows. Does anyone have any tips on recovering the files? He has tried techtools pro be it locks up on recovering the Documents folder.
Thanks in Advance
Thom

Check this out:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

Desktop is Gone, Mail and Safari were reset and a host of other problems

So, I opened my iMac G5 today and the first thing I noticed was that some of my widgets were gone, particularly all the ones that didn't come with the OS X installation (meaning the other ones I downloaded from different sites). And then I noticed that I couldn't access any of my mail when I looked at them in Mail. I was given an error message that read something like this: "you cannot view this message. it has not be downloaded from the server. you must go online". So anyway, I decided to shut down and turn my computer on again. And I was shocked to see that my desktop was gone, and my wallpaper had reverted back to the default wallpaper (but I was atleast able to find all the files that used to be on my desktop). And now, Mail has been reset (meaning, when I launch it, it asks me to set up a new account). iChat has been reset the same way as well. And for some very odd reason, my Safari browser has lost it's tabbed browsing ability, and I've lost all my bookmarks. I checked the version, and it says 2.0.4. Did I somehow revert back to on older version of Safari. So far, those are the only problems I've discovered. I'm terribly hesitant to turn my computer off again in fear that I might lose some more files for good.
Anyway, I have an idea of what the culprit might be. I downloaded this program from VEOH.com and decided to uninstall it last night. It came with an "uninstall how to" that asked me to type some stuff in Terminal (I knew I should have just kept that **** program!). This is what it asked me to type:
prompt> sudo /Applications/Veoh.app/Contents/Resources/uninstallveoh.sh
And then Terminal asked for my admin password, and I hit the Return key. Would anyone know, if this is what could be causing me all these problems? I also recently installed Yahoo 3.0 Beta 1. It conflicts with Mail. I can't open Yahoo 3.0 when Mail is running.
Also, I found the bookmarks.plist file for Safari. I'm wondering if I can somehow do something with this file so that I can get my old bookmarks back. Would really appreciate any help!
Ugh! I feel like a such a Windows user right now.

Hi, Barry.
Thanks for the reply! I've found all of my files (the ones that used to be on my old desktop), and I've been able to restore my bookmarks and all my old mail. Also, I just had to recheck "enable tabbed browsing" in Safari Preferences. I think I just figured out what I did wrong: I renamed my "home" folder. I was gonna change it back to it's original name, but I forgot to. Stupid me. So after restarting, I think it just moved all of my files into a new folder which I can still access by going to Macintosh HD >>> Users. All the files are there, including the widgets that I thought were missing. So now, I essentially have 4 folders under users, but I only have 3 user accounts. You think I can restore everything back to normal by just copying all of the old files back into my home folder again? But at any rate, I think I can live with having all my files just living in another folder. I lost my old "music", "pictures" and "movies" icons though (the ones at the left sidebar of the Finder window). Those are the only things I can't seem to find. So I just downloaded new icons.
What's a good brand of external firewire drives? I'm thinking of getting a Maxtor OneTouch III. Would you recommend that?

Help! All my desktop files disappeared.

I need help as quickly as possible.
This morning I turned on my MacBook Pro and all my files on desktop have disappeared.
I have tried relaunching Finder, going to Desktop folder through Finder and even searched it.
And found nothing.
My files have completely disappeared from both desktop and my hard disc (or at least I am unable to find it).
Please help!
Nesi

I have the same issue! I had Remote Login checked on and worried that when i went to a hotel, someone swiped our files.
otherwise - no idea....all files on desktop are gone!!! all others are fine

How to recover missing desktop files?

While in Adobe Bridge, my friend accidently dragged his User folder to the Shared User folder (the graphics pen sorta grabbed it withouthim noticing). He tried to drag it back out of Shared, but it said it couldn't be modified. So he rebooted, and it started up with his own user being as if new, with none of his files or prefs. So then he tried dragging his desktop, docs folders, etc back from Shared to where they belonged in his user. That worked for everything except the Desktop. When he tried to copy that,it asked if he wanted to replace the existing (blank) desktop with the one from the shared folder, which showed all his desktop files. But when he okayed it, the resulting desktop was blank. He doesn't know if he accidently overwrote in the wrong direction (he doesn't think so), or if something else happened. He's a photographer and had hundreds of edited image files in folders on the desktop- so all his recent work since a back up a few weeks ago is gone. Spotlight cannot find any of them by name, nor any other desktop files but the new blank one. so the files are at least not visible, if not gone. Here's the thing: if you run Terminal and look at the desktop file, it shows 2,064 items... which might be his files (?). But i have no idea how to get at them. Nothing shows in the Desktop trash hidden file. Is there anything short of expensive recovery software that might find these files, which are probably not overwritten yet? (he's being careful not to use the drive so that they don't get overwritten)

Trying to diagnose something like this third hand probably isn't very effective. But when you open Terminal you are "in" your home directory. If you then issue this command:
cd Desktop
and hit return you will then be "in" your Desktop folder. If you then issue the list command:
ls -al
you will get a list of all the files and folders that are in the Desktop folder. If he sees everything, then the stuff is there. He could try creating a new folder in his home folder, call it something like fromDesktop, and then issue this command (this assumes he is still "in" the Desktop folder):
mv * ~/fromDesktop
This will move everything from the Desktop folder into the fromDesktop folder. A list command will verify things:
ls -al ~/fromDesktop
If all his stuff is listed, but he still can't see it in its new location using the Finder, then it could be that somehow the invisible bit got set.
And for Finder's sake, tell him to stop saving all that stuff to the Desktop! Put stuff in folders in his home folder. I've seen cases where excessive numbers of files dropped on the Desktop brought the Finder to its knees for many hours. Every single thing on the Desktop is treated as a window by the Finder, and having a ton of stuff there is needlessly slowing things down. And he should be backing up every night, not every couple of weeks. There are many programs available that will do this automatically. If he is in business he should be using one. Not to mention burning separate CDs of things for every client.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

What did Tiger do with all our desktop files?

When we closed out an imaging program, we noted that all the files and folders on the desktop were gone. just the Hard drive icon was there. There was maybe 15 folder with several GB total on the desktop. But the desktop was clean. The trash still had a lot of old files/folders, but nothing from the desktop was in the trash. This is very serious, and I'm wondering if anyone knows how a iMac could selectively delete so many files, w/o emptying the trash.
Thanks.
-wayne

One possibility is that you have a sever case of directory corruption. The files may still be there, just that the system lost track of them. This type of thing can happen for any number of reasons. Are you certain that these were not temporary files? What imaging program were you using? Did you remember to save your work? If you saved your work can you find it?
If it is a directory problem you will want to start by booting from you system install CD and running Disk Utility to see if it can repair it. Directions for doing that can be found here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html
Try doing all the steps from the FAQ and let us know if it helps.

Desktop files disappearing ?

I have a 2010 white Macbook with OS 10.6, and halfway through this morning 85% of my desktop files and icons disappeared while I was elsewhere. I've looked in Spotlight for them, checked the trash, and they are nowhere to be seen - has anyone any idea what has happened and where they might have gone to ? It is bizarre, and even slightly amusing for a moment, but I've looked high and low for them on the machine and can't find them anywhere. Most of my work is contained in those files, so that is worrying, and 40GB's of iPhoto has also gone missing. I have backups, so not a problem, but I'd like to find out what has happened - or is happening - before I reload my desktop, especially if the same thing is going to happen again.

clonquehopper wrote:
SNIP
[1] MacDropAny has been busy working for me for months. The way I have it set up it simply syncs my desktop to a copy on the Dropbox server. It's never deleted anything, until yesterday, when it synced a nearly empty desktop back to itself, which as I said, and you then agreed, explains the disappearance on Dropbox.
[2] I'm unsure as to what you mean about Dropbox and copies. If I sync something on my computer to my Desktop, I can still access the file on the laptop with no internet connection, and indeed, often do so. I'm pretty sure you simply have the file on both ends. You can, after syncing, delete the file on either your computer or on your Dropbox without it affecting the other - unless you are using MacDropAny which simply syncs your chosen files instantaneously.
[3} "Business account" simply refers to the size of my Dropbox. I'm a one man band, no one else accesses it.
CountDOWN
[3] gottit Interesting - leads us to suspect #[1] is perpetrator.
[2] Can you turn MacDropAny off temporarily? If so, run a test. Make a Test.txt file - save to desktop.. Drag/Drop from Mac Desktop to Dropbox icon. What happens to the original test.txt file on your Desktop?
In my experience with such an act, the original 'DIS'appears from the Desktop and 'A'ppears on Dropbox - i.e., as if you moved it on your Mac from one folder to another folder - NOT copied from one HD to another HD. The latter is actually what is happening is it not?
Be interesting to know if MacDropAny prevents the normal Dropbox behavior I just described.
Dropbox was intended to behave just like another folder on your Mac. No need to SYNC cuz you are working on the file from the Dropbox folder
[1] I am now trying to figger out why you need this syncing App to be involved? Why not just use Dropbox normally? Doesn't solve the mystery....
[0] BLAST OFF !! It is clear that the files/folders on Dropbox disappeared first. MacDropAny then synced that fact. We are back to
Why did they disappear from Dropbox? Not quite square one, but I'll bet that Dropbox support could have some input. Bet they have it all backed up to where they could restore Dropbox to ±the time before the poltergeist struck.
Advise to contact Dropbox
CCC

DESKTOP FILES DISAPPEARED

The Power Mac G5 that I use at work crashed Friday. It's running system 10.5.8. When it booted back up all the files on the desktop were gone, except the HD icon & the exterior HD icon. I had a working file full of designed ads and projects for the month... the end of the month I copy the month's work on to the exterior hard drive. I keep looking but can't find the files, any suggestions?... any kind of recovery software?

Have you run a Spotlight search for those files?
You should NOT keep important files on the Desktop, that is not what it is for.
Mac OS X's Desktop is the de facto location for downloaded files, and for many users, in-progress works that will either be organized later or deleted altogether. The desktop can also be gluttonous, however, becoming a catch-all for files that linger indefinitely.
Unfortunately - aside from the effect of disarray it creates - keeping dozens or hundreds of files on the Desktop can significantly degrade performance. Not necessarily because the system is sluggish with regard to rendering the icons on the desktop and storing them in memory persistently (which may be true in some cases), but more likely because keeping an excessive number of items on the Desktop can cause the windowserver process to generate reams of logfiles, which obviously draws resources away from other system tasks. Each of your icons on your desktop is stored as a window in the window server, not as an alias. The more you have stored, the more strain it puts on the window server. Check your desktop for unnecessary icons and clear them out.
Keeping as few items as possible on the Desktop can prove a surprisingly effective performance boon. Even creating a single folder on your Desktop and placing all current and future clutter inside, then logging out and back in can provide an immediately noticeable speed boost, particularly for the Finder.
And it is why Apple invented 'Stacks' for Leopard.
Here is Apple's take on the subject:
http://www.apple.com/pro/tips/immaculate_desktop.html

Lost desktop files

When we closed out an imaging program, we noted that all the files and folders on the desktop were gone. just the Hard drive icon was there. There was maybe 15 folder with several GB total on the desktop. But the desktop was clean. The trash still had a lot of old files/folders, but nothing from the desktop was in the trash. This is very serious, and I'm wondering if anyone knows how a iMac could selectively delete so many files, w/o emptying the trash.
Thanks.
-wayne

When we closed out an imaging program...
What does that mean? Does it mean that you quit the program? What program was it?

Sos-desktop files deleted/system affected after restart

hello
A very strange "system failure" happend today.
I explain the way things happened:
1.firefox not responding
2.firefox restart
3.looked like firefox upgraded itself(not sure)
4.lost all bookmarks from the browser
5.decided to restart the powerbook
6.all system prefernces settings lost
7.MOST IMPORTANT-the system affected and all desktop files were deleted (or gone somewhere I still don't know).
note> I have tried the "bookmark recovery" for firefox. didn't work.
the thing that puzzles me more is the system's weird failure caused afterwards. why to delete the desktop files?
Last thought was to run a file recovery soft. but I don't have any installed, any suggestions?
Please, any insights are appreciated
thanx in advance
lambros

HI,
*"the thing that puzzles me more is the system's weird failure caused afterwards. why to delete the desktop files?"*
You need to boot from your install disk and check the hard disk using Disk Utility.
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart
If you cannot boot from your install disk, try booting in Safe Mode
Did you repair the disk with DiskWarrior as mentioned here?
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1821781#1821781
*"Volume check failed.*
*Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit (-9972)"*
Did you repair disk then?
Carolyn

After update to ios 7 , my numbers app cannot sync with iCloud .all my previous files gone.why?

After I update to ios7 , numbers app not working well,it cannot sync my previous iCloud documents done in ios6.1.3 .all my previous file gone, I try to uninstall numbers app and reinstall back, but no luck. I try to use safari on my desktop to go iCloud.com to back up my file but I found that I cannot login to numbers , it always jump back to ask me key in username and password..
Please help...

samrae88 wrote:
This issue seriously needs resolved or I will be leaving apple and iphone services for a windows phone.
In that case, GOODBYE!
FYI, these are user to user technical support forums. No one cares if you stay or leave, so leave.

Help! Desktop icons gone, no right click ... and Nautilus crashes!

I have a fully upgraded Gnome-based system, and all of a sudden my desktop icons disappeared, clicking on the desktop does nothing, and every time I use Nautilus it crashes with the error (from bug report):
Distribution: Unknown
Gnome Release: 2.24.3 2009-01-20 (Archlinux)
BugBuddy Version: 2.24.2
System: Linux 2.6.28-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jan 18 20:17:17 UTC 2009 i686
X Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Vendor Release: 10503000
Selinux: No
Accessibility: Disabled
GTK+ Theme: Glider
Icon Theme: Foxtrot
Memory status: size: 0 vsize: 0 resident: 0 share: 0 rss: 0 rss_rlim: 0
CPU usage: start_time: 0 rtime: 0 utime: 0 stime: 0 cutime:0 cstime: 0 timeout: 0 it_real_value: 0 frequency: 0
----------- .xsession-errors (6 sec old) ---------------------
seahorse nautilus module initialized
** (nautilus:9421): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Not supported
** (nautilus:9421): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Not supported
--- Hash table keys for warning below:
--> file:///home/user
--> file:///home
(nautilus:9421): Eel-WARNING **: "nautilus-metafile.c: metafiles" hash table still has 2 elements at quit time (keys above)
(nautilus:9421): Eel-WARNING **: "nautilus-directory.c: directories" hash table still has 2 elements at quit time
seahorse nautilus module shutdown
Shutting down nautilus-open-terminal extension
It doesn't seem to be an options or configuration thing, maybe more like some sort of corruption? The Panels are fine. I have checked desktop and Nautilus options using Gconf and tried recreating ~/.gconf etc. The only suspicious occurrence was when, in the middle of a pacman -Syu, I was thrown back to the GDM login prompt. I just logged in again and did another pacman -Syu and everything seemed okay.
By the way, running Nautilus as root does show root's desktop okay, but Nautilus still crashes.
Any help would be most welcome for a very frustrating problem!
PS: Forgot to say that I'd tried reinstalling quite a few Gnome things and Nautilus, with no effect.
Also, the problem persists after restarting X, logon, reboot, power-off ...
Last edited by ninian (2009-01-21 09:35:05)

Uh-oh, seems like this problem could go wider than I thought. There's a fairly lengthy thread on the Ubuntu forums which smells the same, for example:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= … stcount=42 =>
Re: Desktop icons disappear
Got it! I can get a crash with this:
Code:
mkdir ~/test
cp /usr/share/applications/compiz.desktop ~/test/
nautilus ~/test
I'm going to leave a comment in the bug.
And in fact, I was mucking around with .desktop files when I think my icons went AWOL.
Anyone else brave enough to risk losing their desktop to try this out?!

On Finder Freeze/Relaunch All my desktop files & icons disappear

The title sums it up.
When ever my mac decides to go into spinning wheel mode and I have to force quit/relaunch finder, when I relaunch finder every desktop file & icon disappear.
At that point I'm forced to push the shutdown button on the tower and reboot, then all is well until the next time.
And the next time could be a day or a few days or a week. No rhyme or reason why.
Please help me solve this frustrating problem.
Thanks
497secrets

Cloud backup plans can slow your Mac down, and if used simultaneously with your Mac's networking, or you have an unreliable internet connection, could be the cause of your freezes. You may be better off seeing if turning off iCloud temporarily helps. This can especially be a problem with non-Apple routers whose firmware may not be up to date. Multitasking with backups can lead to corruption of your backups. Time Machine should only backup to hard drives twice the capacity of the original, otherwise it spends a lot of time trying to discover which archives to eraes to maintain room. Here are some other options:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1992
Energy Saver can also create problems for backups, as it takes a moment for the Mac to recognize the connection. Use screen saver instead of Energy Saver when backing up. System Preferences lets you control both. Putting hard drives to sleep when backing up is ill advised.

Desktop file gone!

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