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

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HT1338 Application "FINDER"not responding,Desktop files disappeared & " also "Trash" not working svn after relaunching several times.

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Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left.
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When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
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Mac osx freezes right after start up and all desktop files disappeared and the mouse can't click on anything..help?, Mac osx freezes right after start up and all desktop files disappeared and the mouse can't click on anything..help?

Mac osx freezes right after start up and all desktop files disappeared and the mouse can't click on anything..help?, Mac osx freezes right after start up and all desktop files disappeared and the mouse can't click on anything..help?

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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

Desktop files disappeared (advanced user)

Hello,
Main Problem:
While working (though not specifically while I was watching, ie: I was cycling through firefox, acrobat reader, outlook 2010, and microsoft word 2010 without viewing the desktop very often) all of the documents on my desktop disappeared.
Meaning, they were all there (some have been there for months) this morning when I came to work and turned my computer on, and while working (without rebooting or doing anything abnormal) the files disappeared. None of the folders have disappeared nor have
their positions on the desktop changed. The only thing out of the normal routine that I did today was update Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. I don't use X because it conflicts with my printer, though lately it's been acting up anyway so I thought it might be 9 and
did the check for updates(I've had check for updates turned off until now). It updated from something like 9.2.5 to 9.5.1. Other than that it's been a usual day of typing in Word, opening PDFs and printing them out, with a little Outlook 2010, Mozilla Firefox,
and some wordpad.
Some specs:
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (no pending windows updates)
ESET Smart Security, active, up to date, and running the entire time. (Full scan returned no problems)
8gigs ram, C drive 500GB, D drive 80GB, E drive 1TB
and other various goodies I'll be glad to divulge if anyone wants to know.
Things that are -not- wrong:
I've been using computers for over 20 years, I built this one from parts as I do with all my computers, yada yada, I'm the "computer guy" at my company I run the network, I setup all the boxes, and take care of all the repairs and problems. Then again I am
not certified or licensed in anything, there is plenty about Windows, and especially Windows 7 that I do not understand. Also, and this is quite unfortunate, I live and work in Japan so my OS is in Japanese. I am fluent to an extent but I cannot navigate some
of the control panel areas without a little trial and error because the chinese characters get a little tricky when you get into too specific of a subject; BUT, I love and have been using ACDSee Classic forever, with it's "show hidden" and "show system" files
options, I have free reign over hidden files and programs from the rest of the people that use this computer who do not know what ACDSee is (safer for them).
Nothing shows up in ACDSee or explorer with show hidden files active in my desktop folder or any other user's desktop (there's only one user but windows makes those "all users" folders anyway) or on the desktop itself. All the folders remain untouched.
Files that were positioned between two folders are missing, meaning I didn't accidentally click and drag the whole desktop into my recycle bin and some how clean the bin without noticing.
Only one file shows up in quick recovery scans of the recycle bin or the desktop, and I'm currently in the process of a deep scan of the entire C drive. (though I didn't delete the files, so why should they?)
Solution?
The only thing I can imagine is that somehow some sector of the desktop got "archived" or sectioned off in some manner. If I can assume the folders within the desktop folder have their own paths (their own separate sectors on the disk, albeit within the desktop
sector) and that the files within the desktop folder all share a common sector (the desktop folder) perhaps that sector got somehow funked with? For example the shortcut to "My Computer" even went missing. All I had left was a recycle bin and 9-10 folders
scattered across the desktop. So is there some way I can look into recovering that specific sector? Some sort of indexing/archiving that might cause this?
I don't have recovery points, nor that recent of backups to recover files such as last nights work or last weeks work, but more important than getting my data back is, [u]What Happened[/u]!? So it doesn't happen again.
It seems there are actually a fair share of people (on this site and MANY others) that have or have had this problem and now fear their desktop as an evil devourer of mid-term papers. In my case as well, weeks of work, in a business environment, definitely
NOT acceptable.
Help!
If anyone has any insight or ideas of what could be causing this that would be great. We need an open discussion on this. Again it does not have to do with Human error (me), nor does it seem to be a virus (the hidden files deal); I have plenty experience with
computers and after scouring the task manager and the hard disk with various tools I cannot find tens of files all from one single location, that were all there just hours ago!.............??? Trying a search or turning desktop icons on something simple like
that has already been done XD no offense, but this is not that simple.
Thanks for any input!

Thanks again Milos.
A. The desktop theme and start menu etc. remain unchanged. Would that stand as proof the profile was not reset?
B. I was directed towards recuva on a different forum as well and gave it a shot. The deep scan (of the desktop and all sub folders) did recover about 4 of my files, but they are older over written versions of the files; some of the more recently created
files don't even show up on the list... I can see stuff that was deleted last year, but not some of my missing files? That what leads me to think it's something to do with file restructuring, or maybe as you're suggesting a profile management problem. The
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C. That makes sense. The desktop folder is handled differently than say a root folder on the D:\ drive... I don't save stuff on the desktop at home either... it's just something everyone seems to do for convenience at my office, though I've never seen this
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D. I sometimes have that too and usually am dealing with PDFs received via outlook 2010, thus am opening them directly with adobe's reader.
E. ?
F. Yes.
G. I will look into that; thank you.
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why only one specific folder, exclusive of it's subfolders! XD

Finder flashes, can't access trash, desktop files disappeared...

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DESKTOP FILES DISAPPEARED

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The title sums it up.
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https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1992
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Micah D. wrote:
Thanks V.K. I did just as you suggested, even restarted, but problem persists.
I keep very little on my desktop FYI, I drop pics there and use the automator to rename them, then I email them off to clients and file them, leaving nothing on the desktop.
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Alright, so I'm guessing it's just something that randomly happens? I'm guessing I should probably do more frequent back ups then.
I tried what you suggested above and I couldn't find the folder so I guess it's gone.
Luckily the files weren't too important but better back up just in case next time it is.
Has anybody encountered the same problem though? It seems a bit unsettling that files can just randomly disappear and it'd be comforting to know the explanation behind.
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[SOLVED]Can't edit .desktop files with Gnome 3. Application disappears

I've been trying to edit the desktop file for gimp so that I can run a custom command when it loads.
Basically I want to run GTK_MODULES= gimp instead of just straight gimp, because the global menu doesn't work well with gimp and running it in this way forces gimp to use the normal menus.
As soon as I edit the file, gimp disappears from my applications menu. If I click on the .desktop file through nautilus, it says there is a problem and it cannot run the application. I'm not sure how to open a .desktop file from the terminal, so I can't look for more specific error messages.
I tried creating a script and pointing the desktop file to that instead, and I tried using GTK_MODULES= && gimp, but both give the same problem. As soon as I click save, it becomes unusable, only fixable by reinstalling gimp.
Do you think it's possible to do what I'm wanting to do?
Last edited by themusicalduck (2011-12-23 22:33:06)

GERGE wrote:Try to use alacarte. It works well for this.
That worked perfectly! Thanks very much.

Desktop files disappearing ?

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