Desktop Items Disappearing

I just got a new eMac G4. I'm running on the Tiger system. Every time I log out of my system and log back in, all my desktop files/items are gone. So every morning, I run the Disk Utility, "Disk Repair Permissions" and that fixes it and brings back all my files, until the next morning (after I've been logged out for the night). I also have been absolutely unable to save anything or download anything to my desktop. It would seem to me that running the disk repair should fix it once and for all...I shouldn't have to keep doing it?
Also, I have to log out every night b/c I work in a small office in which we have many different people coming through the office who we don't know in the evening for classes. I can't turn off my computer in the evening b/c that is when my computer is backed up on the network.
Any suggestions?
Thank you, thankyou.

Melody Oaks,
Does the disappearing desktop happen if you log out during the day, or only after the network backup occurs? Do you know what program is used to perform the backup (i.e., Retrospect, Backup)?
While not a solution, there's a possible workaround: in System Preferences/ Security, check the box for "Require password to wake tis computer from sleep or password" and don't log out at the end of the workday. If you put the computer to sleep at the end of the day, you'll need to set System Preferences/ Energy Saver> Options to check "wake for Ethernet network administrator access". Sleep in OS X versions earlier than Tiger would interfere with the performance of the cron maintenance tasks, so it'd be better to avoid putting the computer to sleep and instead set the screen saver (via System Preferences/ Dashboard & Exposé) to have a hot / activate corner and use that when leaving, with Energy Saver set for system sleep = Never, unchecked put hard drives to sleep, and display sleep set to something like 15 to 30 minutes. The maintenance tasks are handled differently under Tiger, through, so it's a matter of preference whether you use sleep or screen saver to lock the computer when you leave.

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Sometimes, starting up in SafeBoot (shift key held after start tone, login window appears
and semi-normal desktop Finder appears; but this is in a reduced function mode) and a
'repair disk permissions' in Disk Utility of the computer's volume on the Mac HD may help.
And after that, or any other minor repairs done in SafeBoot, the computer gets a normal
restart so the rest of the OS will be up and running. If that does not help, there are other
things one may try and do to help it. The matter involves some troubleshooting and a
cause and effect approach is sometimes taken; or on other occasions, a user may try a
long laundry-list of things and hope some issue just goes away; if one or another thing
happens to work. In this instance, learning of a specific issue's cure may not result.
Some items causing a problem, such as those cited above, may be dealt with while
the computer is started up in SafeBoot mode; since extensions and other parts of
such things may be turned off. So, some items like Stuffit can be removed when
they are disabled in SafeBoot. Be sure to run 'repair disk permissions' before and
after software updates, since for some reason this appears to help the system.
Sometimes, just basic system maintenance such as repair disk permissions, running
time/date cron-like routines (see AppleJack download, or OnyX in automation) can
resolve issues that may otherwise involve knowing more about how the system works.
These kinds of tools, free to download and try, can save a bit of trouble; some of that
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The bootable installer system disc can be helpful, since there are optional tools in the
Disk Utility on that disc's boot volume; ahead of actually running the Installer itself. A
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these a few options appear. And in the Disk Utility, chosen from the Installer menu,
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An 'archive & install' and then update the resulting new system to the latest version
of OS X including security update, java, quicktime, safari, and other parts would follow;
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There are others, but this is among the last but not least. Further study is recommended
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Dear BDAqua, Thank you very very much for your advice.
First, I tried the approach of 'safe booting'. The menu items on the top kept flickering and I could not get into either the 'applications' folder or the "users" folder.
Then, I saw your advice to pj3 on another thread about re-running the install disc that came with the computer. I did not have to run all the other steps because re-installing the system with the standard instructions took care of the problem. The hard drive and other desktop files as well as the finder re-appeared.
Thanks again for your kindness.
Cheers!

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Are you perhaps referring to dragging an item out of the Dock and onto the Desktop?
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Welcome To  Discussions jnparrott!
Exactly which model Mac G4 is it?
What is the Processor speed?
What size is the Hard Drive, and how much space is available?
How much RAM is installed, and is it original or added?
Exactly what procedure did you use to upgrade to Panther 10.3.x?
Did you use a Full Retail Version, of the Panther Install CDs?
The discs should look exactly like the images in the above links, and not say Upgrade, CPU Drop-in DVD, or "This software is part of a hardware bundle purchase - not to be sold seperately." on them.
Are you able to startup from the Panther disc 1, to run Disk Repair?
Did you run Repair Permissions before you installed Panther ?
Sorry for all the questions, but without additional info, no one will be able to assist you.
ali b

Windows 7 Desktop Gadgets disappeared

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Hi
You are not reading carefully!
You need to right click on desktop and then to marck show desktop items if you want to see gadgets.
If you want read and my w7 bugs list here:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprogeneral/thread/ee88ae8d-27d4-42b6-96d3-b68eedfcac64
Your problem is bug 12 in this list
First off I didn't need to do that because mine was already set to show desktop items. Secondly, it ended up being the UAC problem, just with mine it made me restart before it would show up. Please word your responses a little more respectfully next time. Adding
an exclamation point at the end of your sentence it generally taken to mean you are being rude and yelling at someone pretty much. You should have simply asked if I had or not before just rushing to assume I hadn't
Read your previous post!
You have listed all things you have tried and show desktop items is not between them!
Are you still wondering why there are exclamation marks?!
If there someone is rude, that is you, because you did not apreciate my time and good will to help you!!!
Do you know there is some phrase as thank you?!
When someone waste time to answer my question, I always thank him, no matter how useful replay is to me!
As a third party observer.. you are the one coming across as disrespectful
As ANOTHER party observer, I totally agree with Ventsislav, he was helping, and assuming that an exclamation is something negative is just being way too susceptible. The fact is that Muhawka described the same problem that the whole post had, he ignored all
posts, and eventually the answer was already in one of them, so indeed, he was not reading carefully, or most probably, he was not reading at all.
If only Muhawka had started with a "thank you" the whole thing might have been a bit different. But that's another story, Muhawka did not appreciate the time Ventsislav spent on him.

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My hard drive became corrupted and filled with files (105 GB used and 0 GB available). The HDD capacity is 120GB. About 15GB is bootcamp. The backup failed.
I deleted a few files and freed up 200MB when I realized the hard drive had become full (I had 20GB free space on the Macintosh HD before this).
When I checked Disk Utility it told me my hard drive was corrupted and I should repair it using the operating system disc (Snow Leopard) to start up the computer and then go to Disk utility and perform Repairs.
I did all that and Disk Utility told me the hard drive was OK after the repair.
However, when I restart the computer, I get a blue screen. I cannot see the Dock. And Finder cannot be found. When I do Force Quit, there is no Finder in the list.
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How can I get Finder to show up?
I just have a blue screen at the moment.
When I get the Desktop back I want to erase some files and create space.
Somehow the hard drive got filled up when I tried to do a backup using Superduper.

All resolved.
I attached an external drive to the MBA in an attempt to export Firefox Scrapbook files onto it.
Exporting failed (my fault – I didn't follow the steps correctly) and I ended up having to restart the computer.
Surprisingly the screen opened in bootcamp.
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I selected the Mac volume as the startup disk.
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After browsing the web, I came across the reason for why my HD suddenly filled up during the failed back up before things went awry.
From Pink Mutant
http://pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html
"Failed Backups and the Volumes Folder
Another potential stealer of hard drive space is a failed backup, where the drive the backup was supposed to go to was unavailable, so the backup software simply copied the files into the invisible /Volumes folder. Again, use the Go and Go to Folder menu bar item ....."
This is exactly what happened to me. I found the two volumes, "Untitled" and "Untitled 1" as Pink Mutant said I would in "Go" ("Go to Folder") and I deleted them (I should have backed up my computer before doing this though). Straightaway, 20GB of space came back on my HD.
My computer had copied the backup onto my HD instead of the external HD during the failed backup operation. That's why the internal HD filled up.
So it's a relief that I got the Desktop back again – purely by accident – and I also found what was filling up all the HD space.
So a tip: if someone finds their backup fails for whatever reason, don't try to back up again. Check HD space and if it has suddenly shrunken, go to "Go", and then "Go to Folder", type "/Volumes" and click "Go". That should bring up the offending volumes if any. Move them to Desktop. Check "Get Info" and have a look at the contents if you can (I couldn't). Do a backup of the computer. Then delete the problem volumes (if you find that these volumes are the cause of the problem). You can then delete the same volumes from the backup at this point.

Everything on the desktop has disappeared!

Everything on my desktop has disappeared but you can still access the desktop through a new finder window. Does anyone know how I can make my items on my desktop including my hardrives to reappear?

Certainly couldn't hurt to try Repairing Permissions.
It's not guaranteed to solve your problems, but users here have seen RP fix many strange issues that normally wouldn't appear to be related to permissions.
Open up Disk Utility, select your Hard Drive on the left side, and press the Repair Permissions button.
Let that finish, then reboot your system and see if anything has improved.
EDIT: You could also try trashing your Finder preferences altogether.
Delete this file and reboot:
HD > User > Library > Preferences > com.apple.finder.plist

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of it.

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of this message. When I login to my husband's account, this message does not appear.

Hey sunnyday7!
Here is an article that can help you address this issue:
OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3411
Additional Information
OS X automatically relaunches the Finder when it is quit. If the Finder is unresponsive, use Force Quit to relaunch it. Select Finder in the Force Quit Window or Dock, then click Relaunch.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
-Braden

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

Lost all my desktop items when transfered it to a folder in Mahintos HD, Plz Help

There were photographs and videos of my new born baby on desktop, I did drag and drop to move all the desktop items to a folder in Machintos HD, Then I shut down the machine, after some time when I restarted that folder is not reflecting my files and all files from my desktop are gone and i can't find files even in finder but HD volume is same as b4, so I am sure the file is not deleted, its not even there in Trash, I use imac27 osx 10.9.5, It would be very kind act of yours if you can help me retrieve my new born baby's photographs and videos, very precious to me

Restore from your Time Machine backup, assuming these photos are precious to you then you should have been backing up the computer. If you have not then the files may still be on the machine, you just need t search for them. Use a search tool such as Find Any File to help locate them.

Contacts and calendar items disappear when exchange server is off

Hi All
I've been having this problem for a few weeks now and it's most frustrating. My iphone is setup to sync over the air to our corporate exchange server. It seems that when the server is down for repair/patching ALL my contacts and calendar items disappear from my iphone. This doesn't seem to happen if the phone is out of signal?
I know that I can sync directly with Outlook, however this would then mean that the phone is only updated when synced with my laptop at work. If I sync both over the air AND with Outlook, I get duplicates of everything in my calendar.
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hi, cheers for the info. That would make sense, however how come when I'm out of signal and not connected to wifi, the data doesn't also disappear as that too would render the server "unavailable".
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I appreciate this may not be a "problem" as such, but is frustrating as all my contacts and calendar live in Outlook and I can't function without them
Message was edited by: spongmonkey

Desktop Items Disappearing

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