desktop items have vanished

All my folders or desktop items have completely vanished ive looked in finder prefecnces and restarted and reloaded my mac. Please help

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 26, 2020 8:26 AM

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May 26, 2020 8:40 AM in response to elliej2410

MacOS is inherently a Multiple-user system. Even if you only create One or a small number of users, that does not change. There is no "owner" of a Mac. Files belong to one User, and are protected from access by any other Users.


If you accidentally log in as a different user, or as "guest" you will NOT have access to the files of any other User, and your desktop may indeed be blank, because that specific User-id has not stored anything there.

May 26, 2020 8:57 AM in response to elliej2410

Ok.


If you can remember the name of a file you left on the desktop try using Spotlight to search for it by name or contents.


An unusual but possible problem is accidentally dropping a folder (such as the Desktop folder) into another folder using the Finder. In that case a new Desktop folder may be automatically created. Your files would not be gone, but would not be where you expected them be.

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desktop items have vanished

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