Disappearance of desktop items

When I upgraded from 10.2.8 to 10.3.9 all my desktop items - including the HD icon - have disappeared and are not able to be accessed. What am I doing wrong?

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

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IMac monitor - desktop items disappear/reappear - applications pause

For about a week now, every 2 minutes all of my desktop icons will disappear and then reappear. If I have a folder open, such as the Pictures folder, it will close during this process.
If I am using Firefox or Safari or Photoshop, when the desktop items disappear, so does my mouse's ability to function on the application. I have to click on the application again for the mouse to function on it.
Today I was attempting to burn files to a DVD, but it fails because of this "refreshing" or whatever you call this symptom. Last night my computer did appear to do its weekly backup, (it said it was successful) but I wanted to copy files onto a DVD just in case.
Can someone give me some direction on how to troubleshoot this? In beginner terms? I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.
P.S. The only new things that happened recently that I can think of was that I did a software upgrade (think it was Quicktime...) and downloaded a Wordpress Theme.

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
is preventive in that the routines can be done per schedule to keep the system well.
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
menu bar appears in the first full Installer window with drop down menus in it, and of
these a few options appear. And in the Disk Utility, chosen from the Installer menu,
there are a variety of tools which can totally obliterate or attempt a repair to the HDD.
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;
in some cases, perhaps extreme, this is one way to resolve system software issue.
There are others, but this is among the last but not least. Further study is recommended
before going the A&I plus update the new system folder route; depending on what else
is going on in the system as it exists now. If this archive & install is performed, be sure
the checkbox to save user account info is marked, so the new system will retain this...
In any event...
Good Luck & happy computing!

Desktop items only appearing in finder

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Also, I can click on desktop and the items will appear, but when I restart the computer they are not there. I've looked at the Finder preferences and every thing is checked.

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All desktop items disappeared following the restart after updates on 25 Jan to my MacBook. I also cannot click on the desktop to access Finder. I cannot drag anything onto the desktop.
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Thanks for the feedback. Moving preference files associated with various applications, such as desktop, out of /Users/username/Library/Preferences/ to the Desktop, logging out and back in, will cause the application to create a new default version. If that fixes the problem, then the original preference file (e.g., com.apple.desktop.plist) was most likely corrupted. Good computing.

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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

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.

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Hi ApMaX
According to wikipedia the .DS_Store files on Mac OS X contain the metadata for icon position and view settings. If the file permissions for the Desktop .DS_Store file were incorrect then one could assume that the icon position and view settings aren't being saved.
First let us check the permissions on the .DS_Store file for the Desktop we can do this by running the following command in Terminal (located in the Utilities folder)
ls -ld /Users/<<UserName>>/Desktop/.DS_Store
replacing <<UserName>> with the short name of your user account (name as viewed in the finder sidebar)
On my system I get the following permissions readout
-rw-------@
Further info on .DS_Store files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store
If your permissions differ then we will look at correcting them.
J.C
Message was edited by: J.C

Every time I open a New File from the File Menu and I open it all of my desktop items are in it. What's up with that?

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J G B wrote:
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The issue is with the latest automatic update.
With enlarged size of desktop items and fonts (Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization->Display->Change the size of all items) the text in the setup window overlaps with some setup options, effectively making them impossible to see and click. I'm using Windows 8.1 (Russian). Screenshot attached.
Setting desktop item size back to 100% fixes the window.
Attachments:
skype_setup2.png ‏135 KB

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Click on the Desktop then select Show View Options from the Finder's View menu. Check the box labeled "Snap to Grid". If you prefer Desktop items be arranged alphabetically you can also select Name from the Arrange By drop down menu.

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I have had the problems for months. Ever since I upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5. I don't recall when that was now or exactly which version, but people have been reporting this ever since 10.5 came out it looks like (by the dates).
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-- gw

Disappearance of desktop items

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