Desktop folder is invisible

My Desktop folder is invisible. (Yes, it exists, but I have to show invisible flies to see it.)
(Another iMac here, also running OS X 10.6.4, DOES have a visible Desktop folder.)
How can I make the Desktop folder a normal, visible folder?

baltwo wrote:
Run this command in the Terminal and post it and its results:
*GetFileInfo ~/Desktop*
It might require having Xcode Tools installed, but maybe not.
Thanks.
I got this result:
-bash: GetFileInfo: command not found
Does this mean I should install the Xcode Developer Tools, using the Xcode.mpkg on my installer DVD and try the GetFileInfo again?
Incidentally, Desktop folder has gone about 4 hours without reverting to invisible, so maybe it will stick this time.

Similar Messages

Invisible desktop folder

After upgrading to 10.5.2 I have experienced a problem when cloning my internal hard drive to an external drive.
On the 'cloned' backup image, the "Desktop" folder in my home directory is invisible. In order to access its content I have to use a utility such as Wizzard to make the folder visible again.
The Desktop folder on my internal hard drive has always been visible.
I am using SuperDuper to perform the backup. The developer insists that the problem is not being caused by SuperDuper. He points out that the files are being copied successfully according to the software logs.
I did not experience this problem under 10.5.1
I have not messed with any permissions or other settings related to the Desktop folder.

None of the above helped so far.
"Desktop" and "Applications" appear in the sidebar. Applications is also in dock. But my home folder does not have a "desktop" category and the Desktop file in the sidebar does not have "Applications".
In other words, I can't move the "Desktop" file in the sidebar onto my home file and I can't move the "applications" to the hard disk. They are there on the sidebar so it is no big problem but is annoys the **** out of me that they apparently are invisible and I can't make them appear as they used to.
Thanks to those who tried to help.
Berengaria

My Desktop folder is not localized ...

Hi,
In use the French canadian version of Maverick. All system folder names (Library = Bibliothèque, etc ...) are translated except my Desktop folder. In French it should be named «Bureau» but it still is named «Desktop».
I tried to change the language of the system and to come back to French, but that does not do it. What could be the reason for that ?
Best regards.
Robert Lespérance
Québec, Canada

Robert Lesperance wrote:
Can you explain what was going wrong ?
Partially. To switch languages, folders need to have a file called .localized in them. Names that start with a dot are invisible, so you don't see this. Sometimes they get lost. The Terminal command creates a new one.

'Desktop' folder on TM drive

suddenly, there is a "Desktop" folder at the root level of my TM drive. It is empty, except for invisibles. An ls -al shows:
drwx------ 4 josh 506 136 Feb 13 16:41 .
drwxrwxr-x 13 josh 506 510 Feb 13 16:28 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root 506 0 Feb 13 16:28 .localized
drwxrwxrwx@ 2 josh 506 68 Feb 13 16:28 VISE Temp Items
It was created Wednesday at 4:41. I have 2 users on my Mac (an admin user, and my main account). Both of them have something on their desktops.
Its permissions are (from an ls -ale):
drwx------ 4 josh 506 136 Feb 13 16:41 Desktop
Is it possible it was created by an Office '04 update (the VISE Temp Items makes me suspect that)? Is it safe to delete?
SIDE NOTE: the exact same folder, with the exact same hidden contents, appeared on my Bootable Backup drive, at the exact same time. Is that safe to delete too?
ALSO: Terminal sees the VISE Temp Items file as NOT hidden, but Finder thinks it is hidden.
Ideas?
Thanks!

Hmm... I have the same Desktop folders on 3 external partitions. They were created on January 18 at the exact same time. I looked at Software Update, and I didn't install any updates around that time. I didn't do the research to see what hidden files are in them, but they're most likely the same. I don't have Office '04, so that couldn't be the reason they are there...

Desktop folder on extra harddrives???

Hi,
For some reason (I hope) Tiger writes an empty desktop folder on my second and third harddrive. When I delete these folders, they reappear later. I use these disks for documents only, no applications or OSX stuff on them. How can I permanently delete these, for me useless, folders. And is it wise?
Cheers!
I use Mac Pro and OSX 10.4.10

By the way, yes you can delete them without a problem. A better solution would be to make the folder invisible with a tool like Super Get Info…
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11311
… so it won't borther you again.

I can't find my Desktop folder on any of my TM backups

Hi everyone,
This is my first forum post, and I'm downright desperate.
I have migrated from my old MBP to a brand new one this weekend, and used Time Machine in an external HD to move my data. I had TM set up since February, with no options/exceptions.
As far as I can tell, everything migrated to the new computer perfectly (applications, preferences, documents, music, cookies, etc) except there is nothing on my Desktop after migration. It just so happens that I have (had?) a folder in my Desktop with all my graduate school work.
I have already looked in TM in all the backups since February, and there is no Desktop folder in my user account folder in any of them. Does this mean that TM has never backed up my Desktop from the beginning???
(BTW, I'm also having trouble to simply search for specific files when I look into the TM backup folder in my external HD. Whenever I use Spotlight, it only finds stuff on other folders in that external HD, but it doesn't return any hits from the TM backup folder, even when I look for files that I can see there just by browsing. How can I solve this?)
If it's true that TM never backed up my Desktop, my problem is then getting to my Desktop in the old computer. Trouble is, I had Leopard reinstalled at the Apple Store when I bought the new computer, since the system was supposedly backed up. As far as I know, the old computer was wiped clean and Leopard reinstalled in about 20 minutes by a Genius.
I have been told by them after the fact to use Data Rescue II to try and scour the old computer's internal drive by booting it up in target mode, but I haven't attempted it yet. I was told that if the Leopard reinstall was done in a specific way, I would be able to get to the old files with Data Rescue II still with their names and folder structures if they haven't been overwritten. However, if it was done 'another way', I would have lost the folders and any recovered files would be restored to a new location under a generic name like 'recover000001'. I'm afraid that in this case I will be overwhelmed by all the files in my old system (even if DRII supposedly recognizes file types), and I won't be able to sort through all of them to get at my important work.
Does anyone know what is the best way to get my data back???? It will be two years of work down the drain if I can't access the contents of that folder on my old Desktop.
Thanks so much for any advice!

V.K. wrote:
Chico Almendra wrote:
Hi everyone,
This is my first forum post, and I'm downright desperate.
I have migrated from my old MBP to a brand new one this weekend, and used Time Machine in an external HD to move my data. I had TM set up since February, with no options/exceptions.
As far as I can tell, everything migrated to the new computer perfectly (applications, preferences, documents, music, cookies, etc) except there is nothing on my Desktop after migration. It just so happens that I have (had?) a folder in my Desktop with all my graduate school work.
I have already looked in TM in all the backups since February, and there is no Desktop folder in my user account folder in any of them. Does this mean that TM has never backed up my Desktop from the beginning???
yes, that's what it means.
I don't understand. Why would it be that TM did not backup my Desktop? The Geniuses were not able to answer this question. I'm completely sure I didn't mark any exceptions when I set it up in February, and I've read other people also had similar problems with some of their folders and/or files (there's another thread where another user lost his Downloads folder; I accidentally replied to it instead of creating this new topic -- my apologies).
(BTW, I'm also having trouble to simply search for specific files when I look into the TM backup folder in my external HD. Whenever I use Spotlight, it only finds stuff on other folders in that external HD, but it doesn't return any hits from the TM backup folder, even when I look for files that I can see there just by browsing. How can I solve this?)
you have to use spotlight from TM interface, not directly from finder. start TM, scroll to a backup and use the search field to start a search.
That worked great; thanks. Is there a way to search across different backup dates in one go, or do I have to keep clicking back through time with the same search string?
If it's true that TM never backed up my Desktop, my problem is then getting to my Desktop in the old computer. Trouble is, I had Leopard reinstalled at the Apple Store when I bought the new computer
I don't understand why
you did that. did you have some problems with your old computer?
I didn't have any problems with the old computer. I was actually giving it to my mother for Mothers Day as her first Mac, and I wanted to make sure she would have as 'brand new' Mac experience as I could provide her.
, since the system was supposedly backed up. As far as I know, the old computer was wiped clean and Leopard reinstalled in about 20 minutes by a Genius.
I have been told by them after the fact to use Data Rescue II to try and scour the old computer's internal drive by booting it up in target mode, but I haven't attempted it yet.
this is your one and only hope of getting anything back if you did an erase and install. if you did an archive and install then old your old data will be in the "previous systems" folder at the top level of the hard drive.
Message was edited by: V.K.
Thanks. You reckon professional data recovery services would come up with more stuff (especially filenames and folder structures) than I would be able to, if I tried using DR myself? I'm terrified of going through my whole HD and sorting out the hundreds of thousands of files that weren't in the desktop in the first place.
I appreciate your help, V.K.; I still cannot get over the fact that TM can be so unreliable. What could have caused this catastrophe on my computer and in other users? They were lucky that they still had their data when they noticed TM wasn't backing it up, and the solutions were bone-chillingly similar to Windows voodoo tricks (e.g. delete the old TM plist, hard reboot, pray, and see if it works now). If this is the case, I can't see any options other than doing full manual backups periodically, but that defeats the TM purpose in the first place. Any thoughts or ideas?
Thanks!

How to delete the Desktop Folder in the User folder

I don't use my desktop as a folder
and I changed this folder to .Desktop to have it hidden
but there is another folder Desktop non-hidden + my .Desktop folder always ready when I restart...
How should I keep it hidden or out of my system ?
Message was edited by: c8455

Click here and use the instructions to hide it.
(46869)

I am having problems backing up my photos in iPhoto and dragging them to desktop folder to burn out of iPhoto!

I have been having issues with backing up photos in iPhoto for awhile. I used to burn them right out of iPhoto by selecting the folder, going to Share and then Burn. I have been getting an error message that says "Burn failed because there was an error producing data for the burn". So I started to drag the photos from iPhoto to a folder on the desktop, then burn the folder to a disc. This worked for awhile. Recently iPhoto will not allow me to drag photos to a desktop folder. I can select them in iPhoto, click on them and it shows the plus sign and number of photos, but when I drop them it does nothing. I can do it one at a time for about 4 photos, then it stops again. I also tried to export the photos into a folder on the desktop and it says Unable to create /Users/... I do back up photos to a TimeCapsule as well, but like to have a DVD in a fireproof safe too. I also ran disk utility repair disk permissions. I have an account for my wife as well and both iphotos share the same iphoto library but ths has never been a problem until recently. She also uses aperature, but pulls the photos from iphoto to edit them. Any help would be much appreciated.

I have been having issues with backing up photos in iPhoto for awhile. I used to burn them right out of iPhoto by selecting the folder, going to Share and then Burn. I have been getting an error message that says "Burn failed because there was an error producing data for the burn". So I started to drag the photos from iPhoto to a folder on the desktop, then burn the folder to a disc. This worked for awhile. Recently iPhoto will not allow me to drag photos to a desktop folder. I can select them in iPhoto, click on them and it shows the plus sign and number of photos, but when I drop them it does nothing. I can do it one at a time for about 4 photos, then it stops again. I also tried to export the photos into a folder on the desktop and it says Unable to create /Users/... I do back up photos to a TimeCapsule as well, but like to have a DVD in a fireproof safe too. I also ran disk utility repair disk permissions. I have an account for my wife as well and both iphotos share the same iphoto library but ths has never been a problem until recently. She also uses aperature, but pulls the photos from iphoto to edit them. Any help would be much appreciated.

Updated to Maverick, had a desktop folder for pictures I had transferred from my PC. That folder is gone, no icons in Pictures in Finder but the photos are still in images in All My Files! How do I get the organized folder back?

I had transferred all my photo files from my PC when I got my Mac Air. They were in a desktop folder all nicely organized in files (event, dates, etc.) That desktop folder is now gone after the Maverick update. When I click on Pictures in finder it comes up empty (not even a link to Iphoto) I had not put these pictures in iphoto yet. Before Mavericks when I clicked on Pictures the Iphoto icon and my folder showed up. My Iphoto itself is working fine and and those pictures are still intact. I know the pictures are on my Mac because they are all in Images, but they are no longer organized and are no longer in sequence. I would like to know if I my "intact" folder may still be somewhere on my computer. If not what is the best and most efficient way to get those photos from the images only file to Iphoto?

I actually just noticed the "media" option is no longer listed along the left side of Finder. I think that is where I accessed iphoto and my other picture folder.
There is no media option in the Finder. That only turns up in Open... Dialogues like this:

Indesign cs6 freezes/crashes on Windows 7 64 bit selecting desktop folder

Dear All,
I'm experiencing a very strange behaviour of Indesign CS6 who freezes/closes in specific situations connected with desktop folder.
I try to explain the issue:
I got a brand new PC with Xeon CPU E3-1246 3.5 GHZ, 8 GB RAM, Windows 7 64bit and Clean installation of Indesign CS6.
Indesign works great and fast, but everytime I try to open a file (from file ---> open) and select the desktop folder the program stop thinking for 1 second than closes down without crashing, without errors without anything.
Same thing happens when I try to insert a picture in a frame selecting it from the desktop folder (only this folder, all the others work perfectly).
I couldn't find anything useful on the internet to solve this kind of problem.
Does anybody had the same problem? How did you solve that?
Thanks in advance for help.

The following is the error code:
Firma problema:
Nome evento problema:                    BEX
Nome applicazione:                           InDesign.exe
Versione applicazione:                       8.1.0.420
Timestamp applicazione:                   54aaae3e
Nome modulo con errori:                  StackHash_a7aa
Versione modulo con errori:             0.0.0.0
Timestamp modulo con errori:         00000000
Offset eccezione:                                f0104c61
Codice eccezione:                               c0000005
Dati eccezione:                                    00000008
Versione SO:                                        6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
ID impostazioni locali:                        1040
Informazioni aggiuntive 1:                a7aa
Ulteriori informazioni 2:                     a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d
Ulteriori informazioni 3:                     a7aa
Ulteriori informazioni 4:                     a7aa91f17ea749d42a4de3b390fa5b3d

"Desktop" folder on external hard drives

Hi all,
I have regularly seen a folder called "Desktop" appear on my external firewire and usb drives. I usually delete it and think nothing more but today I attached a new external drive and there it was again......
Why is it there? What use is it?
Does anyone know????

It is probably a relic of Apple's old OS, which lives on partly in the Carbon library. Used to, you could have two paths:
Macintosh HD:Desktop Folder:latest_updates.doc
Macintosh HD:Desktop Folder:latest_updates.doc
and they would refer to two distinct files. In some respects, the good 'ole days weren't all that good.

Desktop Folder Redirection slow access

Ok, I've scoured the network for weeks now trying to resolve this.
Using Windows 7 fully patched, and file servers are 2012 R2
We have folder redirection in place for Documents and Desktop.
The folders are redirected to one of their mapped drives. When accessing the mapped drive, the drive hangs whilst the green progress bar occurs when trying to display the desktop folder. Once accessed, this can be ok for further accesses but
then may recur again later. It is only the desktop folder. Documents is fine. I've tried customising the folder for item type, removed the icon cache, indexed the server, recreated local profiles, moved information off and deleted the folder
on server to allow to recreate etc etc. The issues as I say is intermittent but extremely frustrating.
The group policies originally redirected to a mapped drive when the home directory was set up in AD. However, we've moved away from that, and now the group policies use unc for the redirected folders. All permissions on the server are set up
correctly according to the MS kbs. Some people don't appear to have the issue.
The desktop in favorites in Windows Explorer appears to respond fine even when the mapped drive doesn't. Occasionally the mapped drive is fine, and in this case the Desktop in Favorites isn't.
I've checked the registry, all values in Shell Folders and User Shell Folders are set up correctly.
I've reached the end of what could be wrong, and have no idea what is causing this issue. Any help greatly appreciated.
Regards
Ian

Hi lan cope,
Please take a try to uncheck the "Automatically detect settings"
under
Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings -> Automatic Configurations.
Check if this could help here.
Besides, disable TCP autotuning with the following command and check again:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
Reference: (Description of the Receive Window Auto-Tuning feature for HTTP traffic on Windows Vista-based computers )
Best regards
Michael Shao
TechNet Community Support

When I click on my desktop folder in the sidebar, I get a screen titled: Desktop-bash-80x24...

When I click on my desktop folder in the sidebar, a screen comes up titled "Deskto-bash-80x24". On the screen it reads: "Last login: Thur Feb 16 17:23:49 on ttys002
(name of my mack): desktop (my name)$
And, the "terminal" icon appears in the dock.

If that doesn't do the fix try this fix from Linc. https://discussions.apple.com/message/17853661#17853661

Is there a way to password protect a Desktop Folder in Yosemite

I have an IMAC running Yosemite 10.10.2. I would like to password protect a Desktop Folder. Is there a way to do this?

You need to find a third-party utility that does that. You should find one at macupdate.com or at the App Store. In order to use OS X you would need to create an encrypted disc image using Disk Utility, then store your folder in the disc image. That way only you can mount the disc image and access the data.
How to create a password-protected (encrypted) disk image

Why doesn't Spotlight reveal searched item if it is inside a Desktop folder

Scvenario:
I created a folder on Desktop called Test into which I placed two Word documents and one pdf document.
Then I went to Spotlight and had it search for these documents.
Spotlight listed every occurrence of these items EXCEPT their presence in the Desktop folder.
In seven years of Mac ownership, I never knew this.
So if I have several folders on the Desktop into which I have put a number of items, there appears no way to locate a specific item via Spotlight but only by opening each folder separately and looking into it.
Surely this can't be right.
Thanks

I have some new information:
I created a folder on the Desktop called XXXXXXXX
Into this I dropped a Word document and gave it a name that is not present anywhere in the computer.
Then I went to Spotlight. It finds the document in Word but makes no mention of the XXXXXXXX file.
HOWEVER, when I click "Get Info", it shows the document to be in folder XXXXXXXX
I have a friend whom I am trying to get to clean up his Desktop on which resides perhaps sixty files/folders. I want him to put these items into a couple of folders. He maintains he will not be able to find the files. He knows very little about computers, and I am trying to make this as easy as possible.
But Spotlight will not pinpoint a file inside a Desktop folder unless we click Get Info.
Why???

Desktop folder is invisible

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