Blue System Folders Appearing on Desktop, Macbook Pro 16 (2019) Sonoma 14.4.1

MzDemeanor wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

Here's what the screen looks like:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/425c5f82-ec4b-45c6-bd21-b73ca29a4598

It's rather bizarre, and I have no idea how this happens or how to remove those blue systems folders.

Any help would certainly be appreciated.

Thanks.

System folder or user folder(?)

If you click on a blue folder to highlight it , Command i will open the Information pane.

There may be a clue... the full path, permissions, etc can be seen

ex. a user folder

MzDemeanor wrote:

Hi again,

So, as is always the case here, this screenshot does not seem to conform to convention nor look like yours, in that no "users" indication exists. Rather, what exists here is a location of "desktop" and "Icloud Drive." There is also an indication that this folder is a shortcut, meaning that it could probably be deleted from desktop without any negative consequence, though I am not entirely certain of this.

None of this information, however, tells me why these folders appear when I save a document to desktop. O', the inscrutability of the Mac!

In any case, what do you think causes this?

Thanks again for the help. It's much appreciated.

NB: Here is a screenshot of this folder, system of otherwise.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/c15cefa3-7555-4ed9-8110-799818ac4559

It is coming from iCloud Drive.

It sounds like your iCloud got turned on by default ...

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple ...

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

iCloud drive missing desktop and documents

Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

You can turn off iCloud Drive "Desktop & Documents" and restore them to your Mac in an effort to sort your issue.

How to Restore Your Desktop and Documents After Disabling ...

https://www.howtogeek.com/273629/how-to-restore-your-desktop-and-documents-after-disabling-icloud-sync-in-macos-sierra/

How to find your Documents and Desktop folder contents after disabling ...

https://www.macworld.com/article/3396119/how-to-find-your-documents-and-desktop-folder-contents-after-disabling-icloud-sync.html

Finder>Go>Go to Folder>copy & paste:

~/iCloud Drive (Archive)

the "iCloud Drive (Archive)" - here you should find all your files 

MzDemeanor wrote:

Hi all,

Strangely, when I attempt to, say, save a page to my desktop, a blue systems folder appears separately, for some strange reason, with the new, saved document.

I have no idea why this is happening, nor do I know how to stop this from happening.

I've tried going into Finder to drop the folder there--without much luck. Every time I open a destination file, the blue folder disappears and, strangely, ends up in the opened location. While this looks as though the problem is solved, not so quick. Upon closing the location, the file "jumps out" of the location, only to end up back on the desktop.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

Never heard anything quite like it.

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

unplug all non-essential peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS