Document folder disappeared from Finder

Hello, today I noticed that my Documents folder disappeared. I found that my recycle bin was empty and none of the advice online worked, i.e. to use system preferences for iCloud Drive or Stacks. My Time Machine also seemed to stop working. I would be so grateful for assistance and advice as I have lost all of my important documents. I haven't backed up my laptop in a while (long while) so, I have learnt my lesson. Thank you

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 5, 2021 12:04 AM

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Posted on Jun 8, 2021 4:12 AM

1) Press Commmand-Shift-H to open your Home folder. Is there a Documents folder in it? Does it have your documents?


If not, then perhaps you unwittingly activates "Documents & Desktop in iCloud".

Click iCloud Drive in the Sidebar and see if there is a Documents folder.

9 replies

Jun 8, 2021 3:02 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thank you. I have managed to locate my university folder. I upgraded my iCloud storage and decluttered a bit... this seemed to slowly bring all of my documents back. My Documents folder is in iCloud Drive but, I still can't get the Documents option to appear in the Finder sidebar. Anyway, I have found all of my missing items and at least they are stored in iCloud. I might do a back-up and update before I try to resolve this small issue. Thank you everyone for your help :)

Jun 5, 2021 2:13 PM in response to tbirdvet

Hi, thanks for your response. The Documents folder has completely disappeared from my Finder Preferences sidebar. I will restart my computer again and see if this makes any difference, although it didn't seem to yesterday. I searched my folders on my hard drive. Under "Users" there was a "Documents" folder, which is hopeful. However, my access was denied to all Users folders and they all read 'zero bytes'. Please help

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Document folder disappeared from Finder

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