Desktop folder disappears from Finder favourites

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Desktop folder disappears from Finder favourites

For a few weeks now, from time to time, my Desktop folder disappears from Finder favourites. I have reinstated it in System Prefs, and followed other advice:

Click once on the Desktop,

Click on Go in the menu bar and select Go To Folder.

Enter this text,

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

press Go.

A new Finder window will open with the file highlighted, move it to the Trash.

Restart your mac, the file will be regenerated.

Neither worked permanently. What has this suddenly started happening, and how can I stop it happening?

iMac 24″, 13.0

Posted on Nov 27, 2022 3:14 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

James Brickley

Level 5

5,692 points

Nov 27, 2022 6:36 PM in response to georgefromsouthampton

The sidebar settings are kept in a rather unique file and have nothing to do with the com.apple.finder.plist.

From Finder press Shift + CMD + G and type in ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist and press Return.

Then drag and drop (move) the com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl2 to your Desktop to make a backup copy.

Then logout and back on to the Mac or reboot.

The sidebar should be completely reset to the Apple factory defaults. Open Finder Settings and reconfigure your sidebar the way you want it. That will recreate a new file. I suspect the contents of the file we backed up were potentially damaged. If this fixes everything or at least things are stable you can delete the file from the Desktop.

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2022 8:51 AM in response to James Brickley

Many thanks for your answer. Done as suggested. Apple seem to be slow to address this annoyance.

However, Recent Folders folder has disappeared - grateful for any help to retrieve / recreate it.

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Answer 3

Nov 28, 2022 9:12 AM in response to georgefromsouthampton

I've figured how to create Recent Folders using a Smart Folder - a powerful facility. Many thanks, James.

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Answer 4

Nov 28, 2022 3:30 PM in response to georgefromsouthampton

Great news. Out of curiosity, did you upgrade from Monterey to Ventura or from an earlier macOS version?

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Answer 5

Nov 29, 2022 5:33 AM in response to James Brickley

I can't recall, to be honest, but I'm a dutiful upgrader when Apple offers it; does that answer your question?

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Desktop folder disappears from Finder favourites

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