Folders on desktop vanishing/Empty folders not deleting

Heyo, all
I've come across a wierdness on my Mac and I'm stumped as to how to deal with it.
I have a folder on my desktop that I can rename and move to the trash but that I cannot delete. It shows as empty in the Finder and via Terminal but still tells me that it is not empty and will not delete. Also, any time I put any thing into this folder it will vanish. It's still there if I look via terminal but does not display via Finder. It will show up if I reboot then vanishes again when I try and do anything with it. For example, if I open the folder, it will display an empty folder, then vanish.
At first it was just an annoyance but now another folder has taken on the same characteristics. I'm not sure of what is going on but this disturbs me, greatly.
I have tried applications that are supposed to force delete items but have failed to achieve success.
Any advice on how to get rid of these folders and restore the integrity of my desktop would be appreciated!
Thanks,
V

Since you mentioned that you looked at it with the Terminal, I will take the liberty to respond with a Terminal solution.
Open the terminal and type the following:
sudo rm -Rf ~/Desktop/<StrangeFolder>
and press enter. Of course, substitute the name of your strange folder(s) for "<StrangeFolder>".
This command will definitely remove those folders. Make sure you have it exactly right. This is one of those commands that will do exactly what you tell it. If typed incorrectly (such as with an extra space or something), it can and will remove your Desktop and entire home directory. Years ago I deleted (half) my home directory at work this way. Luckily, we had backups. You've been warned.
"With great power comes great responsibility"

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Can anyone help me. All of my photos from iPhoto are gone. There are three weddings that I photographed and may other sessions (I am a brand new photographer and this is going to kill my business). I am so sick to my stomach. I was deleting some even files due to the fact that the start up disk was almost full but DID NOT delete everything. I finished what I was doing and then went to dinner. I came home to do more editing and EVERYTHING is gone. EVERYTHING, but the iphoto program was still there. Is there any chance that these pictures could still be somewhere on the hard drive?
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Did you use the finder to delete any photos that are in iPhoto?
If so you have trashed your library - you choices are to put it back EXACTLY like it was, restore your backup or start over (right click on the iPhoto library and show package contents, drag the masters folder to the desktop, create a new library and start importing
NEVER make any changes of any sort to the structure or content of the iPhoto library - ONLY use iPhoto to manage yoru photos
LN

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I am tired of iPhoto's difficulty to use as soon as you modify pix and try to move pix from a computer to another.
It creates tones of duplicates files, empty folders and doesn't even recognize px it already imported.
I have the same pix floating everywhere.
THen i tried to delete some folders and files and some pix are now 'offline'.
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xavier
iPhoto is a database. Think of it this way. When you use iPhoto it's like hiring a filing clerk and giving them your shoe box full of photos. "Take these and sort them out so that when I ask for one, you can give it to me, and fast." So the Clerk sets up his filing structure, then goes home for the evening and you go into the filing cabinets and move things around. Next morning, it is any wonder that the Clerk can't find things?
So here's tip one: It is strongly advised that you do not move, change or in anyway alter things in the iPhoto Library Folder as this can cause the application to fail and even lead to data loss.
You do everything you need to do via the iPhoto Window - and the good news is that everything you need to do can be done from there. So, ignore the iPhoto Library Folder. There are no user serviceable parts in there.
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3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
To upload to MySpace or any site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
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Want to use a photo editor? You can set Photoshop (or any image editor)as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically.
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In this folder there are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three folders
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Regards
TD

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"So is there anyone else who has access to your Mac, either physically, through File Sharing, or through Screen Sharing?"
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Message was edited by: Searlaid

You have done something which change the permissions and your user is not able to access anymore. You can play around and try to correct permissions manually by going to your home folder, right click on the Desktop folder and choose get info and when new window will be open, at the bottom of it, check if your username is listed and if has Read & Write permissions.
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Just days ago, I downloaded and created folders for 2 batches of photos I downloaded from my camera to iphotos but now both are missing. They were not deleted and even if they were, were not found in my trashcan. I have looked through every folder and they are not there. Is there a bug that can get into iPhoto to do this? Is there a program Apple offers to retrieve lost photos? Thank you.

debbie5891 wrote: ... They were not deleted and even if they were, were not found in my trashcan...
How do you know they were not deleted? Is it possible that they were moved to the trash and the trash has been emptied, if not by you, perhaps by someone else?
In the best case, you mean they were not deleted from your camera. If so, it will be simple to merely download again from your camera after you have corrected any problem with your Mac or workflow.
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Here are some more ideas you can consider:
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debbie5891 wrote:... I have looked through every folder and they are not there....
If you are using any version of Mac OS X, I doubt this statement can be true.
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I am not aware of any Apple apps that work specifically on photo files. If you know the pathname to the lost files, and if you are comfortable with Unix commands, you might be able to use your Mac's Terminal utility to retrieve at least some of your images. However, it will be MUCH simpler to merely download another copy from your camera.
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debbie5891 wrote:...Thank you.
You're most welcome.
If you need to post back for more information, please provide specifics on your Mac OS, iPhoto version, which of the suggestions offered here you have tried, and any details not already provided about the problem status.
Message was edited by: EZ Jim
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Help - AppleScript to delete empty folders

I have been trying to create an AppleScript that will let me clean directories of empty folders. I have scoured the web and developed the following script. It doesn't work. I have a simpler script but it requires that I enter my admin password everytime that a folder is identified to delete. I'm trying to develop something that only requires me to enter the admin password once. Can someone help me identify the problem with this script?
on killEmpty(fol)
tell application "Finder"
repeat with f in (get fol's folders)
my killEmpty(f)
end repeat
if (count items of fol) is 0 then do shell script "rmdir" with administrator privileges
end tell
end killEmpty
tell application "Finder"
repeat with f in (get folders of window 1)
my killEmpty(f)
end repeat
endtell

Hi,
If you need an administrator's password, use a command in a do shell script to find and delete all empty folders, like this script:
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set pScript to quoted form of "from os import walk; from sys import argv; from shutil import rmtree; import glob
for dirpath, _, _ in walk(argv[1], topdown=False):
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Project Manager. Most of my folders moved just fine but for some
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Okay. As far as your first suggestion of running a Topic
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with it. There is no delete option when selecting the image. There
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Yes, it one of the problems you can encounter using Launchpad at the moment. You can try to drag another app in the folder and empty the folder again. Sometimes that folder disappears, sometimes not.
There's a way to rebuild Launchpad but I won't not recommend that. It will bring Launchpad back in the default-setting, so you would have to start rearranging all over again, at the risk of having the same problems all over again.
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Folders on desktop vanishing/Empty folders not deleting

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