Strange folder on desktop after Big Sur 11.3 update

Hey KI7PBG,

I’m late to the party but experienced this from an earlier update and an Apple Support Specialist let me know it is most likely from shared drive type services common with Amazon or Google. The info below will be helpful for you to understand where it came from at least. If you do not have a PDF explaining it I would contact Apple Support before opening files or applications you don’t recognize.

"About the Relocated Items folder:

While creating the two separate volumes during the upgrade process, files and data that couldn’t be moved to their new location are placed in a Relocated Items folder. The Relocated Items folder is in the Shared folder within the User folder (/Users/Shared/Relocated Items) and available though a shortcut on the Desktop. The Relocated Items folder includes a PDF document with more details about these files."

About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina - Apple Support

I hope this is helpful for you,

-Scott (he, him)

I just want to send a summary post since it seems this thread is getting some attention again.

My original answer will give you contacts on when these “storage folder started.

User medwds was helpful in explains what an .ipdf is. If you want to see the other languages just command click (right click) the file and select “Show Package Contents."

User damimic23 was very helpful by providing the boiler-plate language from the explanation PDF.

I only want to add a bit about the two different possibilities since it seems many are misunderstanding this.

The two different outcomes:

1. "These configuration files were modified or customized by you, by another user, or by an app. The modifications may be incompatible with the recent macOS upgrade. The modified files are in the Configuration folder, organized in subfolders named for their original locations."
2. "Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or customized, but the changes were allowed to remain installed. The system_default version of the file is provided to demonstrate what the Apple supplied version of this file would look like. It is recommended that you compare the two and evaluate whether you wish to integrate any changes Apple may have made to the default version."

So, if your configuration files in the Relocated Items Folder end with .system_default you are only looking at an example doc. If you delete the folder or these items all you are deleting is an example Apple provided so you can compare what custom configurations went into place.

To compare you will need to access the private folder of your macOS. To access this folder follow these steps:

1. Open a Finder window
2. Select “Go” from the menu at the top of your screen
3. Select “Go to Folder…” from the list
4. Type “/private/etc” without the quotation marks then select Go.

Finder will open the private folder etc which contain the documents macOS is actually referencing while running operations.

In my case this is the comparison revealed:

1. I am missing the listing "_appstore:*:33:33::0:0:Mac App Store Service:/var/db/appstore:/usr/bin/false"
2. I have an additional "_nsurlstoraged:*:243:243::0:0:NSURLStorage Daemon:/var/empty:/usr/bin/false"
3. I am missing everything below the wwwproxy... one.

I have no idea what this means for my system so I am contacting Apple Support. If anyone knows, feel free to reply letting me know.

I hope this helps.

Hi,

I had this same issue, I right clicked the file and opened with textedit. Needless to say it was full of text I didn't understand!

I then chatted to a apple specialist online. They said I could right click the desktop folder and go to the original folder in finder and then I deleted as I didn't need this!

I hope this helps.

You are certainly not alone with seeing this type of folder after 11.3 update of Big Sur.

Jay

So is the version that popped up after update was installed (Configuration folder, private folder, etc folder, group.system-default text ) MY VERSION or APPLES version? I cannot find any other version in my library...so I'm guessing this is my version (which I don't remember making changes to). So where is the apple version supplied for me to compare the 2, as mentioned above?

PS Not that I know what anything means on the text edit, but some of it sure sounds weird, and it was changed at 1am when I am NEVER on my computer), but I do sometimes accidentally leave it on overnight.

KI7PBG wrote:

So i have a strange folder on my desktop after latest update called Relocated Items, but darn if i know what this is , inside is a folder configuration with another folder called private and then another one inside private called ETC with a document i cant open called group.system_default that says There is no application set to open the document leaving me not even knowing what this is . any help appreciated thanks much.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Reference:

If you see a Relocated Items folder on your Mac after... - Apple Support

You can safely delete your 'strange' folder on the Desktop, it is simply an alias generated by the upgrade. If it has no use to you then delete it.

You can always go to the source if you having any reason to review the the config files etc. From Finder>Go>Go To Folder> copy and paste:

/Users/Shared/Relocated Items

In my case they are not the same... The default contains this one extra line:

_trustd:*:282:_trustd

Which, of course led me to google and then to this:

• https://www.howtogeek.com/331343/what-is-trustd-and-why-is-it-running-on-my-mac/0
• TL/DR: "trustd, is a part of macOS itself, and has been since 10.12 Sierra. It is a daemon, which means it’s a process that runs in the background performing critical system tasks. To be specific, trustd manages and checks certificates."

And how can one PDF with just text be 1.2 MB?

You can compare the file group.system_default with the file called group which you find inside the folder etc. In many cases the content will be the same.

diff /etc/group ~/Desktop/Relocated\ Items.nosync/Configuration/private/etc/group.system_default

There is no issue at all. This is a Unix System and have lots of configuration files. Every update contain modifications in this files. Some won't needed anymore or some files been updated or added to work in the new update/Upgraded System.

These are System_default configuration files that you usually not see except you're an expert.

If you have do any modifications to this files as mentioned in the pdf file you can compare this files like @homaxto has written few lines above or use a graphical tool like Beyond Compare to Compare this files. You can add the missing lines in the new configuration file if need . But again, this files are system defaults. Usually you don't need to modify them.

Remove the "Relocated Items" System works well with no issues.

And how can one PDF with just text be 1.2 MB?

Note the special extension .lpdf which, as far as I know, means "localised PDF". If I recall correctly, some older versions of macOS started out with About Downloads.lpdf and About Stacks.lpdf in the Downloads and Documents folders respectively. While I never tested it, I always assumed they contained the same information in multiple languages, and showed only the user's own language when opened in Preview.

If you don’t know what it is, you can just delete it.

The update modified the file and moved the old one there in case you had changed it. If you had, you would recognize it and know to change the new file. Since you don’t recognize it, you can just delete it.

For the file about which the original poster is asking, it's actually the other way around. The explanatory PDF says:

Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or customised but the changes were allowed to remain installed. The system_default version of the file is provided to demonstrate what the Apple-supplied version of this file would look like. It is recommended you compare the two and evaluate whether you wish to integrate any changes Apple may have made to the default version.

I have never knowingly modified /private/etc/group, but my Relocated Items includes group.system_default for me to compare. The latter contains one additional line:

_trustd:*:282:_trustd

Since my computer appears to be working normally, I've held off from overwriting /private/etc/group with the default version.

This was added during the update. A assume this is a special security group. You should not delete the content if you don't know what you do. Please, anyone that have no knowledge about this files don't touch them. If you save the file in wrong format this will not longer work.

As Apple, as ever, made no comment when they upgraded Big Sur once again, and it is probably irrelevant. I just wish that they would stop causing problems and leaving us to deal with them, instead of testing things properly and releasing them without bugs. In the history of OSX's there has not been this particular issue before Big Sur that I can remember.

I beg to differ. If there is no issue why is this folder appearing on our screens on each update since Big Sur arrived? The confusion and discussion is enabled by Apple creating an intrigue, which they are choosing to do. If it is irrelevant why is the folder being created and to what end? This has not happened before in any OSX that I can remember so, why is it happening now, and why is ]t nor explained by Apple? Using their customers as free labour seems t have been bought into wholesale by Apple users, regardless of the fact that their products are vey expensive in the first place.

We used to have CD's for OSX's and the free nature of OSX's now by slow download appears to have created a loose structure of putting out OSX's and updates that are not properly tested or fully functional. This undue haste means that all users are expected to tolerate extra updates and messing about forever onwards.