I accidentally moved my Documents folder to Trash.

I accidentally moved my Documents folder to Trash. It was no longer under my Favorites list in Finder, but the Documents folder in Trash *seems* to be empty. I navigated down my Mac HD to my account name's folder, and I saw a Documents folder there — so, I dragged it into Favorites. All well and good.!


However, I still have a Documents folder in Trash, and I'm afraid I've created a symbolic link betwen the Documents folder in Trash and the one under my account name. And I'm worried that if empty my Trash is blow away my Documents folder. D'oh! Do I need to worry? Or can I empty my Trash?

MacBook Pro

Posted on Aug 31, 2020 3:53 PM

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Posted on Aug 31, 2020 4:08 PM

If the item in the Trash is an alias (or symlink) it will delete the alias, not the original.


Where did you move it from?

If you moved it from the Sidebar, then all you did was remove the Documents folder from the Sidebar (but I'm not quite sure how that would end up in the Trash).


Confirm there is nothing in the folder in the Trash?

And, confirm that if you click on the Documents item in the Sidebar, you see all of your documents?


If both of those are true statements, then you don't need to worry about the item in the Trash.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 31, 2020 4:08 PM in response to qx49

If the item in the Trash is an alias (or symlink) it will delete the alias, not the original.


Where did you move it from?

If you moved it from the Sidebar, then all you did was remove the Documents folder from the Sidebar (but I'm not quite sure how that would end up in the Trash).


Confirm there is nothing in the folder in the Trash?

And, confirm that if you click on the Documents item in the Sidebar, you see all of your documents?


If both of those are true statements, then you don't need to worry about the item in the Trash.

Aug 31, 2020 4:14 PM in response to qx49

qx49 Said:

"I accidentally moved my Documents folder to Trash.: I accidentally moved my Documents folder to Trash. It was no longer under my Favorites list in Finder, but the Documents folder in Trash *seems* to be empty.[...]"

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To Get Documents Back:

I recommend you backup your Mac, and then reinstall the macOS.


Reinstall the macOS:

1. First, Back up your Mac:

Create a Time Machine backup of your Mac, so that you can have something to restore your Mac from, should anything go wrong with the reinstall.


2. Then, Reinstall the macOS:

Nothing would be deleted. It's just that items that have become corrupted or deleted, would be replaced or reinstalled back to where they should be. Go Here: How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Sep 1, 2020 3:37 PM in response to Barney-15E

@Barney-15E:

Yes I moved it from the Sidebar. I was trying to copy my entire Documents folder to a USB external drive by dragging it over to the external drive icon, and, I'm sure how it got in the trash. I won't try that stunt again!


True, there's nothing in the folder in trash. And true, all my documents seem to be in the Documents folder that's now in the sidebar.


Yes, I've also got TM backup. And I'll probably do an extra backup of what I've go in my Documents folder right now before I empty my trash. Just in case. But it's good to know that emptying trash will just delete the symlinks.


Thanks!

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I accidentally moved my Documents folder to Trash.

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