Twice in the past few months I've lost my custom Finder Favorites, reverting to the default favorites. Does anyone know where Favorites are stored? Is it possible to selectively restore Favorites from Time Machine. I'm running Ventura 13.2.
Thanks
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.2
jh6u wrote:
Twice in the past few months I've lost my custom Finder Favorites, reverting to the default favorites. Does anyone know where Favorites are stored? Is it possible to selectively restore Favorites from Time Machine. I'm running Ventura 13.2.
Thanks
Could be corrupt plist... I would delete the com.apple.finder.plist
Found here from the Finder>Go>Go to Folder, copy and paste:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Relaunch your Finder from the >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch or reboot. This re-creates a stable default...
One last time rebuild the side bar as you see fit, add your favorites from Finder>Settings>Sidebar or drag and drop custom folders, etc.
You could try using the Time Machine to restore an older plist "prior to your known issue" if you are inclined to try that
method. You have the complete path as posted above.
report back your success or failure
restore items backed up with Time Machine
Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support
jh6u wrote:
Twice in the past few months I've lost my custom Finder Favorites, reverting to the default favorites. Does anyone know where Favorites are stored? Is it possible to selectively restore Favorites from Time Machine. I'm running Ventura 13.2.
Thanks
Could be corrupt plist... I would delete the com.apple.finder.plist
Found here from the Finder>Go>Go to Folder, copy and paste:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist
Relaunch your Finder from the >Force Quit>Finder>Relaunch or reboot. This re-creates a stable default...
One last time rebuild the side bar as you see fit, add your favorites from Finder>Settings>Sidebar or drag and drop custom folders, etc.
You could try using the Time Machine to restore an older plist "prior to your known issue" if you are inclined to try that
method. You have the complete path as posted above.
report back your success or failure
restore items backed up with Time Machine
Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac - Apple Support
That didn't work.
I'll copy below a fix that works, from our IT guy who wishes to remain nameless. He did some incredible sleuthing.
I learned a bunch about Time Machine from this exercise.
From your Time Machine Disk:
Go to the appropriate backup in the Finder.
Note that this doesn’t work using the standard Time Machine ‘Restore’ from the menubar, since invisible files remain invisible from there.
Show invisible files by typing: cmd-shift-. (period)
Navigate to the path below, where ~ is your Username:
~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl2
Copy this file.
Open Terminal and type:
killall sharedfilelistd
Paste the replacement file from the Time Machine backup into
~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/
Use Apple Symbol/Force Quit on “Finder” which will Relaunch it.
Finder Favorites should be restored.
I'm keeping a copy of a functional version of com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteItems.sfl2
on my desktop in case this happens again.
Good luck!
Finder Favorites
