Desktop icons have disappeared after installing Lion.

I had encountered the same problem while upgrading to lion. I know forbade fact thisbisnt how lion work because for the first few hours I had lion installed, I was able to see everything on my desktop. They recently on a bootup just disappeared, but I can still access them from the finder.

Really stuck on this one. Would appreciate help! Thanks.

My Preferences folder does not contain the files: com.apple.desktop.plist ; com.apple.finder.plist. I do not know why they arent there.
I cant even delete the caches folder. The system will not allow it.

okay so i finally was able to try this method, but no success -.-

You have a permissions issue.

Your stuff IS there so do not worry, you simply do not have priveledges to see them at the moment so they are hidden.

1. Boot holding CONTROL+R

2. Choose your language

3. Choose Utilities from the top menu bar and open Terminal

4. Type: "resetpassword" without quotes.

5. The Reset Password Utility will open:

6. Highlight your Hard Drive in the top section

7. Select your username in the first drop down

8. Leave the remaining options alone and click the "Reset" button at the bottom of the screen to reset your permissions and ACL's associated with your home folder to what they should be.

9. Close the Utility.

10. Click the Apple and choose "Restart"

If your issues persist after this you will need Terminal commands to resolve this.

If you need to supply me your shortname so I can give you the proper commands

Your shortname is the name of the folder in "Macintosh HD/Users/" with the house icon.

EE

This method did not work.

shortname: angelnieves

1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/)

2. Copy and paste the first line into the window and press enter.

3. You will get a warning message about improper use of sudo, and then you are prompted for your password, enter it (the screen willl give no indication of typing so just type and press enter.

4. Once the next line (ending with a dollar sign $) pops up copy and paste the next line.

5. Repeat with all four lines.

6. Close Terminal.

7. Reboot.

LINES:

sudo chflags -R nouchg /Users/angelnieves/

sudo chmod -R 775 /Users/angelnieves/

sudo chmod -RN /Users/angelnieves/

sudo chown -R angelnieves:staff /Users/angelnieves/

EE

if this does not resolve your issue your desktop has become a package.

To find out if your desktop has become a package:

1. Click on the Finder icon in your Dock.

2. Click "Go>Home" in the top menu bar.

3. Right click on your Desktop folder, if the option for "Show package contents" appears in the menu then it is indeed a package.

To Resolve:

1. Choose the "Show package contents" option from the aformentioned menu.

2. In the window that opens highlight the contents and choose to copy them

3. Paste them into a folder in your Documents folder.

4. Then open Terminal and type (or copy and paste) the following command:

sudo rm -fr ~/Desktop/

5. Type your password after the warning about sudo.

6. Once the next line appears ending in a dollar sign ($) close the window.

7. Reboot.

8. Once rebooted drag and drop the desired items from your Documents folder back to your desktop.

EE

First thing is to try quitting iTunes. Usually works for me.

my solution :

open terminal and type without sudo

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true

killall Finder

This worked for me, and took just a moment.

Hope this bug is fixed in 10.7.2

I had the same problem and used Keith Fountain's advice of quitting iTunes and it fixed the problem. Hope you get it resolved

This worked - up to a point.

My icons appeared - but in Finder the desktop object still is listed as a package.

Deleted all the objects under Desktop, reran the command - rebooted.

At first, I was still seeinbg the 9g size of the old desktop, but it did then refresh and show the more appropriate 15k.

However, it's still listed as a pkg, which means I can't access it without jumping through hoops.

Here is the actual fix if your Desktop folder is listed in GetInfo as a Package (none of the fixes listed here resolved that fully for me)

http://www.switchingtomac.com/tutorials/how-to-restore-a-folder-that-has-turned- into-a-package-in-os-x/

It's an attribute set incorrectly.

Can also be fixed without any additional software if you have dev tools installed.

Great advice, it just worked for me ! thanks so much

thierry