Missing desktop folders

Jacqui00000 wrote:

I have a Macbook Pro, Catalina. Today all my desktop folders have disappeared. How can I retrieve them?

Verify you are logged into the correct account

If ICloud Drive got turned on look in iCloud

kennifromstenstrup wrote:

Don’t you need to include the $ in the start?

No— that is the shell prompt for BASH and is not part of the command.

you can see your current shell from Terminal.app copy and paste:

echo $SHELL

In Catalina the default shell has change to ZSH and the prompt there will be: %

Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208050

kennifromstenstrup wrote:

Sorry the terminal code Has apparently Changed in at resent update. The new code is

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder

https://support.apple.com/en-hk/guide/terminal/apdb66b5242-0d18-49fc-9c47-a2498b7c91d5/2.10/mac/10.15

If your still have the files in finder and you Cannot right click on your desktop the fix is easy. Open terminal and write this in

$ defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true $ killall Finder

then press enter

the problem may be that the desktop isn’t actually there and therefore is not linked to finder.

let me know if this helps🙂

Jacqui00000 wrote:

I have a Macbook Pro, Catalina. Today all my desktop folders have disappeared. How can I retrieve them?

If iCloud Drive is not turned on, then yes you can try the Terminal command, however as it is posted by kennifromstenstrup is not going to work as written. It is the right idea, but as they say—garbage in, garbage out.

kennifromstenstrup wrote:

If your still have the files in finder and you Cannot right click on your desktop the fix is easy. Open terminal and write this in

$ defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true $ killall Finder

then press enter

the problem may be that the desktop isn’t actually there and therefore is not linked to finder.

let me know if this helps🙂

You can however from Terminal.app safely copy and paste:

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true  && killall Finder

ok, I’m no expert. I just had the same problem, and this command fixed it. Ps. The code was actually Wong. Is has been change to

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder

in macOS Mojave

Don’t you need to include the $ in the start?

Sorry the terminal code Has apparently Changed in at resent update. The new code is

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder