Deleted OS X Pictures Folder using Terminal, How do you recreate?

Question

Deleted OS X Pictures Folder using Terminal, How do you recreate?

Deleted Pictures folder using Terminal command "sudo rm -rf ~/Pictures" or "sudo rm -rf ~/.Pictures".
I deleted it because the folder wasn't being recognized by iTunes iPhone Photo sync. I could just make a Pictures folder in the home folder but I would rather have the OS X Pictures folder back. I did't loose any photos because I moved them to another folder on my Desktop.

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 11:41 PM

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Answer 1

Király

Level 6

10,017 points

Dec 16, 2010 12:34 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

What have you been using to make backups? Time Machine or some other program?

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Answer 2

Dec 16, 2010 12:59 AM in response to Király

Time machine but the history doesn't go back to before the folder problems.

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Answer 3

roam

Level 6

13,631 points

Dec 16, 2010 2:26 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

I could just make a Pictures folder in the home folder but I would rather have the OS X Pictures folder back.

If you create it, the OS will give it its custom icon. If not you may need to log out/in to have it recreate its icon.

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Answer 4

Dec 16, 2010 9:27 AM in response to roam

I did that and it did give me the icon, but I an still able to delete it by dragging it to the Trash which means it isn't the OS folder. If it's any folder besides the Pictures folder iTunes will sync up my pictures to my phone but when I use the Home folders Pictures folder this error message displays "The iPhone "_" cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found." The underscore is just the name of my iPhone. This problem was occurring before I had done this to my Pictures folder, and I had deleted it to try to solve this problem because I though it was a permissions error similar to the .Trash problem.

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Answer 5

k.panic

Level 3

605 points

Dec 16, 2010 9:33 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

I've seen that error before. It usually has something to do with the iPod Photos Cache folder. If you have such a folder after trying to sync, delete it and retry.

See also:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1306
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1314

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Answer 6

Dec 16, 2010 9:34 AM in response to k.panic

What is the path for that?

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Answer 7

k.panic

Level 3

605 points

Dec 16, 2010 9:57 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

I think by default it's in the same directory as the photos are.

I guess it doesn't make sense if you deleted/recreated the folder.

Hmm.

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Answer 8

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,590 points

Dec 16, 2010 10:03 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

Heavyrifleman wrote:
I did that and it did give me the icon, but I an still able to delete it by dragging it to the Trash which means it isn't the OS folder.

A folder is a folder--there is nothing special about it. However, since you created it, it is missing is the ACL to prevent deletion. In the Terminal copy and paste this command:

chmod +a "group:everyone deny delete" ~/Pictures

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Answer 9

Dec 16, 2010 10:05 AM in response to Heavyrifleman

Apple decided to keep people from accidently Trashing their pictures/iPhoto library by slapping a completely unnecessary access control list entry onto the default folders in the Home folder. All it does is deny you the ability to trash those default folders should you wish. Simply creating a folder and naming it Pictures is all you really need to do. And you can then trash that folder easily instead of needing to use the Terminal, because there is no ACL entry on it. Don't know what the sync problem is, but it has nothing to do with your recreated Pictures folder.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 10

Dec 16, 2010 10:25 AM in response to Barney-15E

Recreating, running the terminal command for denying deletion, and deleting the iPod photo cache fixed all of the problems, thanks everyone!

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