Sidebar inoperable and missing com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file

If you don't have a com.apple.sidebarlists.plist in your /Library/Preferences/ folder, then you have a corrupt or conflicting set of plist files. Step one is to create a new admin user account, log into it, set up the sidebar as desired, check that the plist file exists in that users Preferences folder, log out and back in, and ensure that the settings are retained. Report back.

OK. Since the issue is specific to your original user account, you can proceed in two ways. One is to log into your new account, make a list of the preference files (plists) located in /username/Library/Preferences/, including any in the ByHost subfolder, log back into the original account, move everything on that other account's list from the original account's Preferences folder into a newly created folder on the Desktop, log out and back in, and see if the problem goes away. If so, you can copy the ones in the Desktop folder (one at time) back into /Preferences/, restart, and see if the problem returns. If so, you've identified the corrupt/conflicting one. Continue with all of them until isolating the bad ones. That'll save you the trouble of resetting preferences.

The second way is much more detailed and I'll not burden you with the steps unless the above doesn't fix the issue.

Have you ever done anything to change permissions on your home folder or one of the folders in it?

Yep. The process is a manual version of Conflict Catcher from pre-OS X days. Here's the second way:

While logged into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. If the problem's solved, open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving conflicts or identifying corrupt plist files is a laborious process. Good luck.

Well, something has changed them. The Library folder should only have rwx permissions for yourself, not admin. This should not be a problem, but makes me wonder about what's inside the Library folder.

Type this command in Terminal and post the lines for your Preferences folder:

ls -leO Library

Or, just make sure it looks similar to this:

drwx------+ 504 username staff - 17136 Jun 11 19:11 Preferences
 0: group:everyone deny delete

Having this exact problem, and posted on it a while ago in this forum. Never found a solution that was short of reinstalling Snow Leopard.

I restored from a Time Machine backup once but of course that gave exactly the same behaviour.

I've finally decided to do something about it again after trying to live with it but I really need this function to speed up my workflow.

Similarly to the OP I have created separate accounts which do not suffer from the problem - they retain any customisations once restarted.

Also, I cannot find the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file. I'm going to try the same steps suggested here and will report back - in the meantime however if you have managed to solve the problem another way I would be very interested.

I had thought that setting up a new account and transferring over all of my files might be the way to do it but am quickly running into issues (for example, transferring an iTunes library and retaining ratings / playcounts etc....).

^^ - Just re-reading my post - the iTunes problem is down to filepaths for tracks rather than playcounts etc...

Transferring stuff between accounts requires using the other account's Public/Drop Box/ which eliminates most issues with permissions.

I ended up essentially doing 'option 2', though rather than selecting the save data option I simply restored files from a Time Machine backup of earlier today.

Have just completed and checked all applications / document paths etc... and everything is working again.

It was well worth the 3+hrs to get the sidebar working as it should again.

Thanks for the feedback. Now, close the thread. Good computing.

How can I close the thread?