Documents Folder Suddenly EMPTY!

What would cause the contents of my "documents" folder to suddenly disappear?
I had about twenty large folders in there, and the odds of accidentally highlighting them all and sending them to the trash is unlikely. Of course, anything is possible.
I seriously doubt that I did that ... but I can't imagine how else everything in my documents folder would suddenly disappear. Can anyone suggest?
-John
ps. I did have everything backed up, but I still want to know why it disappeared in the first place.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.
Holy smokes ... here it is one day later ... and the folder is empty again!
I recovered all my stuff from Time Machine a day or two ago. I saw it all in the folder with my own eyes.
Today I clicked the "documents" folder in the finder sidebar ... empty.
Then I went to Macintosh HD and clicked on my username and the document folder ... also empty.
I searched for one of my document files in finder ... nothing.
I also ran Disk Utility ... all clean.
I downloaded, updated, and ran VirusBarrier X6 ... all clean.
This is obviously not an issue of me accidentally deleting the files now. Something unusual is definitely going on.
Please, can anyone help?
-JOHN
ps. If you have advanced processes you want me to go through, please use 'idiot-speak' and that's my native language ... ie, not hip to Mac lingo beyond folders and basic prefs.

Similar Messages

Contents in Documents Folder Suddenly Empty

I'm a single user and I found that today my contents in documents folder suddenly empty. I also noticed that my free space doesn't have any change (the documents folder contents contain of thousands SVG, Ai, EPS, PSD, PNG, JPG, files). Unfortunately I don't have time machine, I just bought this mac for about three months ago. This is so frustrating.
I tried to:
-check my trash bin, nothing found
-search my files over spotlight and finder, nothing found
-restart my mac, nothing happened
-verify disk permissions, found one invalid permissions, fixed
-verify disk, no problems found
I tried another solutions:
in terminal (ls -ael ~/Documents)
ls -ael ~/Documents
total 24
drwx------+ 8 riccotjhang staff   272 Oct 15 17:13 .
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxr-xr-x+ 37 riccotjhang staff 1258 Oct 15 13:58 ..
0: group:everyone deny delete
drwxrwxrwx@ 3 riccotjhang staff   102 Apr 7 2012 .12SVF2G1IP1DCG
-rw-r--r--@ 1 riccotjhang staff 6148 Oct 15 17:13 .DS_Store
-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 riccotjhang staff     0 Jul 3 19:48 .localized
drwxr-xr-x   3 riccotjhang staff   102 Oct 11 20:36 Adobe
drwxr-xr-x   2 riccotjhang staff    68 Oct 12 23:18 Adobe Scripts
drwx------   4 riccotjhang staff   136 Oct 15 13:19 SeamlessPro
squirtle:~ riccotjhang$
Tried recover through diskdrill (both quick scan and deep scan)
BUT NOTHING FOUND what's in my documents folder.
What would cause the contents of my "documents" folder to suddenly disappear?
Right now I'm scanning my Mac if there's any virus. I'll update soon if I found any.

There is not malware involved. It's extremely unlikely that you would have any Mac malware, though the scan may well turn up some Windows malware attached to e-mail messages or something similar.
As to what the problem is, that's hard to say. One possibility is that you have somehow accidentally moved them to a different folder. Since Spotlight does not search everywhere and could be handicapped if something is wrong with the search indices, try searching for one file whose name you know with certainty using EasyFind.
Unfortunately, whatever may have happened, if those files can no longer be found on your hard drive and cannot be found by data recovery tools, they are gone for good since you don't have any backups.

Disk Utility Repair Disk Permissions now Documents folder is empty

After having trouble downloading a file (error message said disk was full but I had 12g free) I decided to try the 'Verify Disk' and then 'Restore Disk Permissions' actions in the Disk Utility application.
Now my 'Documents' folder is empty! No disk space has been freed up so I believe the files should still be there, I just can't see them. When I choose the 'Get Info' action on the 'Documents' folder it says 0 files.
Can anyone help? Please and thanks.

OK, I'm not sure what happened here, but I'd get EasyFind...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/8707
Use that to search your whole drive for some file you're missing, search for files only, include invisible files.
Or we could make the Finder show invisible Files & Folders by using Terminal &...
Open the terminal and type or copy/paste:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
Reverting to the default of NOT showing hidden files:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false
*Restart or Force Quit Finder* required to take effect.

All my files folder suddenly empty, what to do?

all my files folder suddenly empty, what to do?

Kiara19,
What do you see in Finder when you try to open such a folder. If you see a big blue folder icon, then there is something mixed up with your user privileges.
Highlight the folder, and press CMD+I to get the info window.
At the bottom of that window is a section called "Sharing & Permissions". In there you'll see some users and the Privilege associated with that user. If you have the Privilege of 'Read only' then you need to change this to 'Read & Write'.
To do this, click on the closed lock-icon at the bottom right of the info window. You'll be asked to enter your administrator username and password (mostly these are the same as your login credentials). After that, you can change the privilege of the user to 'Read & Write'.
Before closing the info window, also tick the gear-icon on the bottom of the info window and select 'Apply to enclosed items...'. Depending on how many files and subfolders there are in this folder, it might take some time to change all privileges.
After all changes are done you can close the info window, and all your files should be visible to you again.
I hope this solved your issue.

User Documents Folder Is Empty!!

I created a new User account and wanted to utilize the Documents folder from my original account. I copied (option/drag) my User Documents folder (in the original account) to my User Public folder (also in the original account). I then copied (option/drag) the Documents folder from the Public Folder to the new account. When I looked in the new account Documents folder, it was empty, as was the copy in the Public folder as well as the original!! I've looked everywhere I can think of, but can't find the contents of the original folder. I've even searched for invisible items, but no luck. I'd appreciate any guidance you can give. Thanks.

How did you search? Try using spotlight to see if you can uncover any items in your original Documents folder?

Music folder suddenly empty

I tried to open iTunes and it had trouble opening (took forever, hard drive made scratchy sounds while it was trying). It finally opened, but there is no music in there. I checked the Music folder in the Finder and it's completely empty. No folders, no library file, nothing. Any ideas on how this could have suddenly disappeared and what I can do to restore it?

Hi I had a similar problem when my computer guy uploaded my data to an new PC. I though I had lost some tracks. I have forgotten just where in my documents or my music?? but there was a list of files with alpha numeric numbers which I copied and pastwe into my ITunes library and he presto.
If you open a track on your library and go to "Get info" you will see at the bottom in small print the file file name eg; dc454.
It is still in my music as Itunes is only the tool to play your music as opposed to Nero or Windows player etc.
Hope this is some help??

Safari Plugins Folder Suddenly Empty

Just figured this one out and thought i would post my solution because i couldn't find it on the forums anywhere. Last week for no reason safari suddenly could not run any plugins. Every site i visited required that i install a plugin. I would install and go back to site and it would give the same error. I checked the installed plugins in safari help and it was empty. I installed some plugins manually via finder opening content folder and copying into internet plugins folder, still nothing showing up.
I ran the disk utility to fix permissions still no good.
Solution: I finally went to Applications/Safari.app and right clicked, then clicked on GetInfo. Here i looked at permissions, unlocked them and added my user account as read/write. Finally success!
I have no idea why this account was dropped by Safari but all works now. I hope this can help someone else.

HI and welcome to Apple Discussions...
In case permissions isn't the issue in the future...
From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences and select the Security tab.
Make sure: Enable plug-ins is selected.
If that box is already checked, then go here to trouble shoot 3rd party plugins.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1594
Also make sure Safari is not running in Rosetta.
Right or control click the Safari icon in your Applications folder then click Get Info. In the Get Info window click the black disclosure triangle so it faces down. Where you see Open using Rosetta... make sure that is NOT selected.
Carolyn

ITunes folder suddenly empty

All my music and apps, everything suddenly disappeared from the iTunes. I have no idea how this happened but I had like 4000+ songs on it and am so ****** right know because this is the work of few years. I read apple discussion site and found a possible solution for me to get back my itunes library back to normal with all the play counts etc on it, because to keep this is extremely important for me. It told me to get a previous itunes library and saw that the previous update was before today, like 03.07 or smth, and the only one that was from 2011. so I did what they told me to and updated my library back to it, and before I noticed, I thought this should've been 03.07 like it is in europe but mistakenly I had updated back to 07.03. There was no updates after this and this means I have an itunes library which is 4 months old and a lot has changed in this time in the library. Please can someone find me a solution how to get my itunes library back to what it was few days ago? I would appreciate this a lot!! Thanks

i just migrated all my mp3's over to a new computer. installed the latest version of itunes 6.
when you open itunes on a 'clean' install, there are no songs in your library folder.
so what i did was copied 5 gigs of songs into the default itunes folder into "my documents/my music/itunes/itunes music" folder. to be honest, your 'music' folder can be on any local drive on your machine. i just put mine where i can access it quicker than a networked drive or itunes sharing from another computer.
then in the 'file' column, i did "add folder to my library" to load the songs into the library. after about 15 minutes, itunes had all 5 gigs of my songs. i'm listening to my itunes as we speak.
good luck.
btw- if it doesnt do it the first time.
un-install itunes, re-start, install itunes, re-start, then do the above...

"Documents" folder is empty, all files and folders disappeared.

Hello there.
I was trying to install a software, and since it couldn't work, I was advised to remove different files.
Since then, seems all my files and folders from "Documents" have all disappeared. They're not in the trash, they're not anywhere.
I'm actually using MacKeeper to try finding them among deleted stuff. But so far, nothing has showed up.
Before anyone asks, I did not change my folder user name. Can't be this.
Thanks for your help. I'm in real ****.
Friendly,
Cyrille.

No I don't have any backups.
The software I am talking about is Parallels Desktop.
I had to remove those files :
rm -rfd /Users/~Cyberpen~/Library/Preferences/com.parallels*"
rm -rfd /Users/~You~/Library/Preferences/Parallels/*"
rm -rfd /Users/~You~/Library/Preferences/Parallels"
sudo m -rfd /private/var/db/Parallels/Stats/*
sudo m -rfd /private/var/db/Parallels/Stats
sudo m -rfd /private/var/db/Parallels
sudo m -rfd /Library/Logs/parallels.log
sudo m -rfd /Library/Preferences/Parallels/*
sudo m -rfd /Library/Preferences/Parallels
sudo m -rfd /private/var/db/Parallels
sudo m -rfd /private/var/.Parallels_swap
sudo m -rfd /private/var/db/receipts/'com.parallels*'
sudo m -rfd /private/tmp/qtsingleapp-*-lockfile
sudo m -rfd /private/tmp/com.apple.installer*/*
sudo m -rfd /private/tmp/com.apple.installer*
sudo m -rfd /private/var/root/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.desktop.plist
I did this manually (didn't work with Terminal) so I had to go deep into the macbook and sometimes change permissions to access those specific files (I was probably not supposed to touch).

Media folder suddenly "empty" after restart... what happened?

I've been having problems with my MDD over the past couple weeks, ranging from the inability to force quit to having very slow system reactions for basic tasks.
Now, I've probably come to the apex of frustrations within the past few hours because I've got a failing hard drive. This particular hard drive has four partitions on it. Of the four partitions, one of which was used primarily for video storage. One folder in particular had about 150 GB of data in it, and the total remaining free space on this volume equaled about 2 GB. Unfortunately, after having to perform a forced shut down, this folder now shows up as having "Zero KB for 0 items" (even though I didn't manually delete any of this folder's items), but the volume's total remaining free space is still standing 2GB.
I also think that it's important to point out that the partition this folder is on has, according to the OS, become irreparable by the computer. As a result, this volume has become read-only, so I don't know if it's possible to access these files through as a Root User (wouldn't hurt to try).
Any thoughts or suggestions as to how I might regain access to these files -- if at all?

You must repair the HD, if Disk Utility or fsck should fail to repair it, your best bet is DiskWarrior from Alsoft, you'll need the CD to boot from if you don't have another boot drive...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Your best bet is DiskWarrior, you need the CD/DVD though.
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
But others that may work…
Drive Genius…
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
TechTool Pro…
http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=83

Where is my document folder after using Migration Assistant?

I am setting up a new computer. First I repartitioned it to taste and filled a second partition with data. Then I fired up Migration Assistant to transfer my old computer to the new one, using a Time Machine backup. Both machines speak Lion. After this completed I noted the presence of all Apps, support files and various libraries - all accounted for. However my Documents folder is empty, except for one file, "About Stacks." How come?

Migration Assistant created a new user with the same name and password as the old one. Log in to that account and move the files to the Public folder. Then log into the account you want to use and copy the files from the other account's Public folder.

I cannot delete a file from the document folder. I can move it to the trash and then empty the trash, but when I go back to the documents folder it is still there.

I cannot delete a file from the documents folder. I can move it to the trash and then empty it, but when I go back to the documents folder, the file is still there.

Gay,
I wonder what your computing environment is. Is your account being administrated by another account? Are you working in an account subject to "Parental Controls"?
Jerry

"Documents" folder is suddenly locked, can't change HELP!!

Help!!
All of a sudden my Documents folder, in my home folder has a little "lock" in the icon and its marked "read only". The attributes ar "dr-xr-Sr-- " I've never seen the "S" before, no clue...
Nothing I do will change this. What could have possibly happened and better yet how do I fix this. It's the Documents folder and ALL the sub-folders. I've tried changing the permissions in Finder and it won't stick. Nothing I try seems to work and now I'm desperate.
Please help!
Peter

As well as the advice posted above, enter the following into the Terminal:
ls -Aol drag enclosing folder into Terminal
Both instances of l in the command are lowercase Ls. Post back with the results of the command, which can be done before or after changing the permissions on the folder. The S permission in that place means that the setgid bit is set on that folder but not the execute/search right for the group. This bit causes all items created in the folder to have the same group as the folder if the underlying file system supports this feature.
(18084)

Empty Documents folder after upgrade

I have just upgraded to Mountain Lion.
When I go to my Documents folder it is empty. If I use spotlight to find a document I know exists it finds it - if I get Info on the document it shows the correct path with the file in my Documets folder. So my Documents folder shouldn't be empty.
If I go to Applications / Utilities that folder is also empty.
Any ideas please?

How were you getting to your Documents?
Via the sidebar alias, or navigating directly through the Finder, folder by folder?
If using the Sidebar, those are only aliases to the original items. If the database that stores all the linking information was damaged, it won't point to the right place.

DOWNLOADS folder in dock... all of a sudden DOCUMENTS folder!

What the hayhay? Seriously... I was just getting used to the new download folder, and it magically switched to the "documents" folder. And, I have no idea where my downloads are now going.
Help?
e

Spotlight (the magnifying glass icon in the upper right of the screen) can help you find where your downloads have gone. Most likely they are still going to the Downloads folder, which is just a standard folder in your home directory (the one that has your login name in the Finder).
The Documents and Downloads icons in the Dock are just pointers to the actual folders in your Home directory. If you click and drag one of them away from the Dock it will go "poof" and vanish -- as you have just removed it from the Dock.
To replace it in the Dock, open up a Finder window showing your Home directory, and drag the folder you want (Downloads in your case) back into the Dock on the Trash can side of the Dock's divider bar. The "real" Downloads folder will stay in your Home directory and you will get a new pointer (a "Stack" view) of your Downloads folder in the Dock again.
--Bob

Documents Folder Suddenly EMPTY!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for