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

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This is sometimes caused by Bad Blocks on the Hard Drive.
If 10.7, hold down Command-R at startup, and choose Disk Utility.
If 10.6 or earlier, boot to the Installer/Utilities DVD, answer only the "what language" question and wait for the MenuBar to be drawn. Choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu.
Select your Hard drive by Make & Model and check the SMART Status (lower right of the right window). Choose "Repair Disk" . This ONLY examines and repairs the Directory area of the drive, but may improve things a bit. If errors cannot be repaired, you may need a stronger tool, or a new drive.

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Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
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☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
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Enter the name of the crashed application or process (Finder) in the Filter text field. Post the messages from the time of the last crash, if any — the text, please, not a screenshot.
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
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Still in the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the process. The report name starts with the name of the crashed process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post shutdownStall, spin, or hang logs — they're very long and not helpful.

TS4036 I deleted Pages from icloud on my iphone. the next time i was on my ipad it flashed and all of the files disappeared. did i deleted them from icould without realizing it? are they gone forever or is there a way to restore them?

I deleted Pages from icloud on my iphone. the next time i was on my ipad it flashed and all of the files disappeared. did i deleted them from icould without realizing it? are they gone forever or is there a way to restore them?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
If you mean you deleted the files from Pages on your phone whilst using iCloud, then yes they will disappear from Pages on your iPad too.
If you simply deleted the app from your phone, if you were using iCloud then they should not have disappeared from your iPad.
It's not clear from your post, which of these you did.

Desktop files disappeared from displaying on the Desktop

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Do a backup.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.
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Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

On Finder Freeze/Relaunch All my desktop files & icons disappear

The title sums it up.
When ever my mac decides to go into spinning wheel mode and I have to force quit/relaunch finder, when I relaunch finder every desktop file & icon disappear.
At that point I'm forced to push the shutdown button on the tower and reboot, then all is well until the next time.
And the next time could be a day or a few days or a week. No rhyme or reason why.
Please help me solve this frustrating problem.
Thanks
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Cloud backup plans can slow your Mac down, and if used simultaneously with your Mac's networking, or you have an unreliable internet connection, could be the cause of your freezes. You may be better off seeing if turning off iCloud temporarily helps. This can especially be a problem with non-Apple routers whose firmware may not be up to date. Multitasking with backups can lead to corruption of your backups. Time Machine should only backup to hard drives twice the capacity of the original, otherwise it spends a lot of time trying to discover which archives to eraes to maintain room. Here are some other options:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1992
Energy Saver can also create problems for backups, as it takes a moment for the Mac to recognize the connection. Use screen saver instead of Energy Saver when backing up. System Preferences lets you control both. Putting hard drives to sleep when backing up is ill advised.

Desktop files disappeared (advanced user)

Hello,
Main Problem:
While working (though not specifically while I was watching, ie: I was cycling through firefox, acrobat reader, outlook 2010, and microsoft word 2010 without viewing the desktop very often) all of the documents on my desktop disappeared.
Meaning, they were all there (some have been there for months) this morning when I came to work and turned my computer on, and while working (without rebooting or doing anything abnormal) the files disappeared. None of the folders have disappeared nor have
their positions on the desktop changed. The only thing out of the normal routine that I did today was update Adobe Acrobat Reader 9. I don't use X because it conflicts with my printer, though lately it's been acting up anyway so I thought it might be 9 and
did the check for updates(I've had check for updates turned off until now). It updated from something like 9.2.5 to 9.5.1. Other than that it's been a usual day of typing in Word, opening PDFs and printing them out, with a little Outlook 2010, Mozilla Firefox,
and some wordpad.
Some specs:
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (no pending windows updates)
ESET Smart Security, active, up to date, and running the entire time. (Full scan returned no problems)
8gigs ram, C drive 500GB, D drive 80GB, E drive 1TB
and other various goodies I'll be glad to divulge if anyone wants to know.
Things that are -not- wrong:
I've been using computers for over 20 years, I built this one from parts as I do with all my computers, yada yada, I'm the "computer guy" at my company I run the network, I setup all the boxes, and take care of all the repairs and problems. Then again I am
not certified or licensed in anything, there is plenty about Windows, and especially Windows 7 that I do not understand. Also, and this is quite unfortunate, I live and work in Japan so my OS is in Japanese. I am fluent to an extent but I cannot navigate some
of the control panel areas without a little trial and error because the chinese characters get a little tricky when you get into too specific of a subject; BUT, I love and have been using ACDSee Classic forever, with it's "show hidden" and "show system" files
options, I have free reign over hidden files and programs from the rest of the people that use this computer who do not know what ACDSee is (safer for them).
Nothing shows up in ACDSee or explorer with show hidden files active in my desktop folder or any other user's desktop (there's only one user but windows makes those "all users" folders anyway) or on the desktop itself. All the folders remain untouched.
Files that were positioned between two folders are missing, meaning I didn't accidentally click and drag the whole desktop into my recycle bin and some how clean the bin without noticing.
Only one file shows up in quick recovery scans of the recycle bin or the desktop, and I'm currently in the process of a deep scan of the entire C drive. (though I didn't delete the files, so why should they?)
Solution?
The only thing I can imagine is that somehow some sector of the desktop got "archived" or sectioned off in some manner. If I can assume the folders within the desktop folder have their own paths (their own separate sectors on the disk, albeit within the desktop
sector) and that the files within the desktop folder all share a common sector (the desktop folder) perhaps that sector got somehow funked with? For example the shortcut to "My Computer" even went missing. All I had left was a recycle bin and 9-10 folders
scattered across the desktop. So is there some way I can look into recovering that specific sector? Some sort of indexing/archiving that might cause this?
I don't have recovery points, nor that recent of backups to recover files such as last nights work or last weeks work, but more important than getting my data back is, [u]What Happened[/u]!? So it doesn't happen again.
It seems there are actually a fair share of people (on this site and MANY others) that have or have had this problem and now fear their desktop as an evil devourer of mid-term papers. In my case as well, weeks of work, in a business environment, definitely
NOT acceptable.
Help!
If anyone has any insight or ideas of what could be causing this that would be great. We need an open discussion on this. Again it does not have to do with Human error (me), nor does it seem to be a virus (the hidden files deal); I have plenty experience with
computers and after scouring the task manager and the hard disk with various tools I cannot find tens of files all from one single location, that were all there just hours ago!.............??? Trying a search or turning desktop icons on something simple like
that has already been done XD no offense, but this is not that simple.
Thanks for any input!

Thanks again Milos.
A. The desktop theme and start menu etc. remain unchanged. Would that stand as proof the profile was not reset?
B. I was directed towards recuva on a different forum as well and gave it a shot. The deep scan (of the desktop and all sub folders) did recover about 4 of my files, but they are older over written versions of the files; some of the more recently created
files don't even show up on the list... I can see stuff that was deleted last year, but not some of my missing files? That what leads me to think it's something to do with file restructuring, or maybe as you're suggesting a profile management problem. The
files just plain aren't considered to be related to the desktop folder anymore.
C. That makes sense. The desktop folder is handled differently than say a root folder on the D:\ drive... I don't save stuff on the desktop at home either... it's just something everyone seems to do for convenience at my office, though I've never seen this
problem before.
D. I sometimes have that too and usually am dealing with PDFs received via outlook 2010, thus am opening them directly with adobe's reader.
E. ?
F. Yes.
G. I will look into that; thank you.
H. Ya the administrative warnings in Windows 7 are quite a pain in my opinion... being told I don't have privilege on my own computer is a little silly... no doubt my fault for not spending the time to reassure my system that it's my fault though. I'm interested
in opening system rights both personally and for work, I will look into that when I find the time.
I also ran scan disk after a reboot (before I went home two hours later than normal the day before yesterday) but it only lasted like 3 seconds and said all is well?? Which I've never seen before, but maybe I forgot to check the "check for bad sectors" box.
So I plan to try and run that again today in as deep a format as possible.... I still assume that is somehow the problem... for the files to not even show up from a program like recuva, it feels like the sector was written off as corrupt somehow or...??
why only one specific folder, exclusive of it's subfolders! XD

HT204365 Why did all my PDF files disappear from ibooks on my iPad

All of my PDF files disappeared from iBooks on my iPad. Where and why did they suddenly disappear? How can I retrieve them?

As far as I can work out, from incomplete downloads, ticks denote all downloaded ok.
The manually manage option is for those who want to tailor their library collections in Music and Video to specific items. If you have this ticked, then it will sync with the sync selections in your devices pages (eg, Music, videos).
If you want to sync all of your collection 'all' the time, leave manually manage off and put the a tick in the devices' page to sync all items Dependent on iCloud use, and or automatic download options in iTunes, new purchased items are added and synced automatically as they are added - this only applies to Store purchased items.
If you are going to added content outside of the Store, then Manually Manage is the option to take for Music and Videos - it does not affect anything else. IE Apps or podcasts, etc.
If you have manually manage off, and 'selected playlist' option ticked, then it will sync existing ticked items, but new items downloaded will require you tick them (a) after the next iTunes automatic download when it connects to the store and downloads any items, or (b) you download to a device and then sync the device, in which case it transfers the new download to your library - but, as happened to you, deletes it from your idevice.
Retcicking and resyncing will add the item back on next sync.
Don't forget that whenever making any kind of manual change to hit Apply and resync, to stop changes being lost.
However, and i cannot stress this enough, iTunes is very problematic, especially when handling large collections. Its sync operations can be erratic or non-functional at times (even buggy perhaps)
If all options fail, then go to your program installation control folder (Control panel\Programs etc on windows) and select to repair iTunes.
And if you have not already got it
http://help.apple.com/ipad/5/interface/ the ipad manual (not the used guide - this is more about how it operates)
may prove usefiul to you.
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Desktop files disappearing ?

I have a 2010 white Macbook with OS 10.6, and halfway through this morning 85% of my desktop files and icons disappeared while I was elsewhere. I've looked in Spotlight for them, checked the trash, and they are nowhere to be seen - has anyone any idea what has happened and where they might have gone to ? It is bizarre, and even slightly amusing for a moment, but I've looked high and low for them on the machine and can't find them anywhere. Most of my work is contained in those files, so that is worrying, and 40GB's of iPhoto has also gone missing. I have backups, so not a problem, but I'd like to find out what has happened - or is happening - before I reload my desktop, especially if the same thing is going to happen again.

clonquehopper wrote:
SNIP
[1] MacDropAny has been busy working for me for months. The way I have it set up it simply syncs my desktop to a copy on the Dropbox server. It's never deleted anything, until yesterday, when it synced a nearly empty desktop back to itself, which as I said, and you then agreed, explains the disappearance on Dropbox.
[2] I'm unsure as to what you mean about Dropbox and copies. If I sync something on my computer to my Desktop, I can still access the file on the laptop with no internet connection, and indeed, often do so. I'm pretty sure you simply have the file on both ends. You can, after syncing, delete the file on either your computer or on your Dropbox without it affecting the other - unless you are using MacDropAny which simply syncs your chosen files instantaneously.
[3} "Business account" simply refers to the size of my Dropbox. I'm a one man band, no one else accesses it.
CountDOWN
[3] gottit Interesting - leads us to suspect #[1] is perpetrator.
[2] Can you turn MacDropAny off temporarily? If so, run a test. Make a Test.txt file - save to desktop.. Drag/Drop from Mac Desktop to Dropbox icon. What happens to the original test.txt file on your Desktop?
In my experience with such an act, the original 'DIS'appears from the Desktop and 'A'ppears on Dropbox - i.e., as if you moved it on your Mac from one folder to another folder - NOT copied from one HD to another HD. The latter is actually what is happening is it not?
Be interesting to know if MacDropAny prevents the normal Dropbox behavior I just described.
Dropbox was intended to behave just like another folder on your Mac. No need to SYNC cuz you are working on the file from the Dropbox folder
[1] I am now trying to figger out why you need this syncing App to be involved? Why not just use Dropbox normally? Doesn't solve the mystery....
[0] BLAST OFF !! It is clear that the files/folders on Dropbox disappeared first. MacDropAny then synced that fact. We are back to
Why did they disappear from Dropbox? Not quite square one, but I'll bet that Dropbox support could have some input. Bet they have it all backed up to where they could restore Dropbox to ±the time before the poltergeist struck.
Advise to contact Dropbox
CCC

All my desktop files will now only open in the photoshop elements edit page. How can this be corrected?

As stated in my question I tried to open a manual I have on my desktop and it opened it Photoshop Elements edit page in a thumb nail format. I checked and all my desktop items will only open in the photoshop elements edit page. what do I need to do to correct this?

Now that we have your post in the correct forum, I have a few questions, please:
What is the file format of this "manual?"
What OS version are you running?
If this is Windows (a PC), then what is that file format associated with in File Types? It is likely that the particular format has been associated with PsE. If that is not what you want, the association can be changed from the Control Panel, to link it to the desired program.
Good luck,
Hunt

Logic 8 Deleted all my desktop files/folders.... !!!???

I just downloaded some groove templates from LogicCafe.com and ran into something quite disturbing and or interesting. So the file downloaded to my desktop... its a .lso file named MPC3000Q.lso. I double clicked it and it opens fine in L8... there are 2 packed folders with the midi regions in there for the groove templates. In the quantize drop down menu sure enough there are all the MPC Groove Templates. Here is were I ran into trouble... I hit Apple+N to open a new session... because the MPC3000Q.lso was just a test, I select the "Close and Don't Save" options. When the new session opens I'm presented with a pop up window reading *"Project MPC3000Q.lso has not been saved since it was created. Delete the created folders and files?"* So I selected delete... This deleted every file on the same level as the MPC3000Q.lso file... sooo EVERYTHING ON MY DESKTOP! I was able to recover this stuff from the trash but I was quite alarmed by this. This could potentially be a VERY BAD thing! I can repeat this every time... and played with it a bit by placing that original MPC3000Q.lso file inside its own folder... and it did what you'd expect it too (delete that folder and everything inside of it). But I'm sure everyone can see if for example if you did not have this file inside its own folder (like I didn't) and for example had this file placed inside the folder where you normally keep all you sessions (on a root level) and chose delete, it would delete everything inside that folder. Here is the bad part... even if you were aware of this and found out before emptying your trash... when you go to retrieve this stuff from the trash every file has now been taken out of its original folders and placed in one huge pool of files. The folders and sub folders disappear. So reorganizing your projects which were just mistakenly deleted would be a next to impossible task as you can see. So no real acceptable way to recover from this mistake as far as I can see. Hope I'm making sense. And I hope Apple will take a look at this soon.
Can Any of you reproduce this (take caution when trying!)? Has anyone else already experienced this? I couldn't find anything in my searches.
Cheers!
3OT

Hi defeq.com
Although I was not able to reproduce what happened to you - This here happened to me:
This morning I answered some guys post about Logic deleting everything in the same level as the project folder under certain circumstances. I Tried trouble shooting for him but could not recreate it.
Then this happened to me today:
When working in Logic 8 in Leopard all of a sudden it stopped communicating with my Unitor8 via USB. I restarted but the Unitor 8 Which I reset twice would NOT communicate with L8 anymore. It would remain in patch mode (red light lit though CPU is running)
I've had this erratic behavior many times since the past years on many computers so it wasn't really new. All one needs to do is reinstall the Unitor Family driver.
So I decided to do so:
I inserted my Logic Studio DVD and opened the installer and checked ONLY the Unitor family Drivers. After completed install I restarted the Mac. Everything went fine. So I booted L8. While booting I saw my hardrives on the right side of the desktop flash once. I thought that to be strange and took closer look.
Now my boot drive was missing from all the drives on the desktop and in the sidebar window...
I tried to Apple+Click on a Application in the dock. The finder opened the applications folder and showed me the app I had clicked on. But I could not navigate to the root of my System Drive even via the "path" sysmbol in the toolbar. So I hit shiftappleg and entered /Volumes/MySystemVolume - it showed my volume "Grayed Out" in the finder window...
I tried repairing the disk and permissions but nothing was wrong with my boot drive apparently besides the fact that the finder (and all other applications when wanting to open or save) could not "see" my system drive... I could launch all the apps normally that were residing on the SystemDrive in the AppFolder... So this kept getting weirder...
So I opened my favorite application Tinkertool System and went to the Tab Files and chose the underlying tab "Attributes" which shows me Macintosh HFS and Finder Attributes... I pulled my SystemDrive onto the Drop Area and discovered something VERY amazing: The Display in Finder option had mysteriously been altered to "INVISIBLE"
I changed it to Visible and there it was - My System Drive... Showing up in the finder...
I made a restart to make sure everything was OK....
After the restart the following settings had VANISHED:
1) Pixadex = ALL ICONS (I had 230 MB) of sorted icons stored in my Application Support Folder
2) All my Safari Book marks were gone - They were still in ~/Library/Safari - but the Bookmarks.plist was UNREADABLE even with a text editor and XML editor
3) Numerous other applications had LOST their authorization preferences so I had to re-authorize many of my Audio Unit plug-ins...
4) My Dock had been reset
5) My Monitor arrangement had been reset...
6) My date and time had been reset
7) My energy settings had been reset.... (I had NOT zapped the P-RAM)
Since installing Leopard 2 weeks ago - I have CAREFULLY monitored ANY activity after INSTALLING anything in order to be able to troubleshoot - and this problem definitely occurred right after installing the USB Family Drivers and launching L8....
There was really NO HARM done other than the sweating that I did troubleshooting but if L8 is capable of doing what happened to this other guy loosing his whole folder and now doing this to me - where are the limits? When is someone going to get REAL hurt.
Please Apple - I am sending you this post as a BUG report as well - could you PLEASE look into this as there has to be some kind of VERY dangerous MALFUNCTION within Logic or its Installers.

What did Tiger do with all our desktop files?

When we closed out an imaging program, we noted that all the files and folders on the desktop were gone. just the Hard drive icon was there. There was maybe 15 folder with several GB total on the desktop. But the desktop was clean. The trash still had a lot of old files/folders, but nothing from the desktop was in the trash. This is very serious, and I'm wondering if anyone knows how a iMac could selectively delete so many files, w/o emptying the trash.
Thanks.
-wayne

One possibility is that you have a sever case of directory corruption. The files may still be there, just that the system lost track of them. This type of thing can happen for any number of reasons. Are you certain that these were not temporary files? What imaging program were you using? Did you remember to save your work? If you saved your work can you find it?
If it is a directory problem you will want to start by booting from you system install CD and running Disk Utility to see if it can repair it. Directions for doing that can be found here:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/repairprocess.html
Try doing all the steps from the FAQ and let us know if it helps.

After updating Mavericks all my desktop files and folders were deleted

I just updated to Mavericks and after going through the registration and settings process I have a desktop wiped clean. No personal files, no personal folders, Thunderbird email reset and deleted, etc. All previous settings were reset. All files were deleted that weren't part of Apple's default files or the Mavericks OS. They don't appear in finder, or spotlight, or when I open an app to try and view 'recent documents'.
How does this happen?

Did it have you create a new user during your first startup after installing Mavericks? If so, check your "user" folder to see if you old account is still there. You can follow these steps the to restore that user account:
1. If your computer is starting up as if it is a new / clean install, create a dummy user (i.e. User name: test).
2. Get to the desktop logged in as this dummy user and navigate to the "Users" folder. In addition to the dummy user you created and the "Shared" folder you should see a folder for your old user account. Take note of the exact spelling including cases of that user account.
3. Go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups
4. Confirm that the user you are trying to access is not in the greyed out list of users.
5. Create a new user with the user name (short name) identical the name of the user's folder you are trying to restore.
6. It will say "a folder with that user already exists, do you want to use the existing folder?" Confirm "Use Existing Folder"
7. Let it run for a minute and you will see the dummy user's name appear in the menu bar, on the right hand side.
8. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing and change the computer name to something other than 'dummy user account's' Computer
9. Congrats, everything should be back to normal. Log out of the dummy account and into your old account, everything should be waiting for you as you left it.

Finder flashes, can't access trash, desktop files disappeared...

Running a fairly new iMac with 10.7.4 and came home to find that the finder flashes, I can't access the trash and the files on the desktop disappeared. Haven't downloaded anything (and my kids also claim not to have). Suggestions?

My fault they used to be called "Accounts" now "Users & Groups" in System Preferences.
Do that but then try this.... it really sounds like Finder prefs got wonky...
(if you can't do this in normal mode or if you're still in Safe Mode do it in Safe Mode)
Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key and choose Library. Then go to Preferences folder and trash these files:
com.apple.finder.plist
com.apple.sidebarlists.plist
Then, restart, or log out and in again.
(You will have to reset a few finder prefs the way you like them.)

After the last Maverick update desktop files disappeared.

I can no longer drag files to my desktop. The files I had on desktop before the update are in Finder (glad I didn't lose them altogether) but I liked having them so easily accessible. I don't think this was an intended change and wondered if anyone else experienced this and how to fix it?

Take these steps if the cursor changes from an arrow to a white "prohibited" symbol when you try to move an icon on the Desktop.
Sometimes the problem may be solved just by logging out or restarting the computer. Try that first, if you haven't already done it. Otherwise, continue.
Select the icon of your home folder (a house) in the sidebar of a Finder window and open it. The Desktop folder is one of the subfolders. Select it and open the Info window. In the General section of the window, the Kind will be either Folder or something else, such as Anything.
If the Kind is Folder, uncheck the box marked Locked. Close the Info window and test.
If the Kind is not Folder, make sure the Locked box is not checked and that you have Read & Write privileges in the Sharing & Permissions section. Then close the Info window and do as follows.
Back up all data before continuing.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo Desktop
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You should get a new line ending in a dollar sign ($). Quit Terminal.
Relaunch the Finder.
If the problem is now resolved, and if you use iPhoto, continue.
Quit iPhoto if it's running. Launch it while holding down the option key. It will prompt you to select a library. Choose the one you want to use (not the Desktop folder.)

Help! All my desktop files disappeared.

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