Documents Folder Suddenly EMPTY!

Question

Level 1

19 points

Documents Folder Suddenly EMPTY!

What would cause the contents of my "documents" folder to suddenly disappear?

I had about twenty large folders in there, and the odds of accidentally highlighting them all and sending them to the trash is unlikely. Of course, anything is possible.

I seriously doubt that I did that ... but I can't imagine how else everything in my documents folder would suddenly disappear. Can anyone suggest?

-John

ps. I did have everything backed up, but I still want to know why it disappeared in the first place.

Posted on Feb 12, 2012 5:31 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 4, 2017 4:55 AM in response to a.hammam

You've posted in a thread about the problem in Snow Leopard, which could not apply to you as SL doesn't handle iCloud drive. The OP's problem was caused by a third-party program.

What you describe is how iCloud Drive is designed to work - you are supposed to access your documents from iCloud, so that you can do it on several computers. This Help page may clarify things for you - iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

In the meantime if you have further queries it's best to start your own thread in the relevant forum - iCloud on my Mac. Tacking onto a several-year-old thread is liable to get you confused by out-of-date information.

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Answer 2

a.hammam

Level 1

4 points

Mar 4, 2017 4:28 AM in response to Plenty7

Hi John,

I don't know if you find a solution or not but I faced the same too.

As I could not restore the Document (300_GB )folder form Time Machine due to space issues. I figured that it was still on my mac

So what I did is

1- Open a New Finder window

2- Click on your user name.

3- The Documents folder should still be empty if you clicked on it.

4- Now find a folder called "iCloud Drive (Archive)". That one should contain all your data.

It seems that if we enable keeping Documents on the cloud it Move all files from Document to this new one.

It is a frustrating thing indeed from Apple.

Regards

Amin

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Answer 3

Rysz

Level 8

44,391 points

Feb 12, 2012 5:35 PM in response to Plenty7

Are you looking in the right Documents folder? There's one at the root level, and one for each user.

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Answer 4

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 12, 2012 5:39 PM in response to Rysz

I did check both the documents folder in the sidebar of the finder window as well as the documents folder under my username (the icon with the little house). Both were empty.

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Answer 5

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 12, 2012 9:14 PM in response to Plenty7

John_Neumann wrote:

Jó napot, Jancsi! Long time, no see.

What would cause the contents of my "documents" folder to suddenly disappear?

Let's make sure we're on the same page. Are you talking about the Documents folder in your Home folder?

If yes, let's make sure the contents are really gone. In Terminal, do,

$ ls -al ~/Documents

(If you're not familiar with Terminal, $ is your prompt, the command is case-sensitive, and each character matters, so copy and paste from here, or type it exactly as it is. Then press Return to execute the command.)

What happens?

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Answer 6

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 13, 2012 8:19 AM in response to fane_j

Hi fane_j,

Judging from the friendly greeting, I wonder if you're mistaking me for someone else ... I don't recall your name, but thank you for responding to my post.

I think how my documents folder suddenly became emptied will remain an infuriating mystery. Unfortunately, before I posted the question, I already went into Time Machine and recovered and restored the contents of the folder ... so I can't do the troubleshooting you suggested.

First time I ever had to use Time Machine, so I was glad it was there.

Thanks again for responding, even though I don't think anyone will be able to answer my question until it happens again ... which it had better not.

😝

-John

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Answer 7

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 13, 2012 12:25 PM in response to Plenty7

John_Neumann wrote:

I wonder if you're mistaking me for someone else

Just a little joke…

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann>

I think how my documents folder suddenly became emptied will remain an infuriating mystery.

Maybe; at any rate, you should verify your hard disk with Disk Utility.

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Answer 8

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 14, 2012 1:03 PM in response to fane_j

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

Holy smokes ... here it is one day later ... and the folder is empty again!

I recovered all my stuff from Time Machine a day or two ago. I saw it all in the folder with my own eyes.

Today I clicked the "documents" folder in the finder sidebar ... empty.

Then I went to Macintosh HD and clicked on my username and the document folder ... also empty.

I searched for one of my document files in finder ... nothing.

I also ran Disk Utility ... all clean.

I downloaded, updated, and ran VirusBarrier X6 ... all clean.

This is obviously not an issue of me accidentally deleting the files now. Something unusual is definitely going on.

Please, can anyone help?

-JOHN

ps. If you have advanced processes you want me to go through, please use 'idiot-speak' and that's my native language ... ie, not hip to Mac lingo beyond folders and basic prefs.

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Answer 9

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 14, 2012 3:37 PM in response to Plenty7

Try the Terminal command I suggested above. At least it will tell us if everything is really gone, or there's some issue with Finder.

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Answer 10

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 14, 2012 4:10 PM in response to fane_j

Hi fane_j,

You've got to go a little slower for me.

I'm not John von Neumann. I'm just plain ol' John Neumann.

I'm the one *less* acclimated to high technology.

I've never done a terminal command, so I have no idea what you're asking me to access or how to go about it.

I saw the line command you suggested I input. Where does it go?

🙂

-JOHN

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Answer 11

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 14, 2012 4:31 PM in response to Plenty7

John_Neumann wrote:

I'm not John von Neumann. I'm just plain ol' John Neumann.

Understood, Your Excellency.

I saw the line command you suggested I input. Where does it go?

<http://guides.macrumors.com/Terminal>

Btw, if you don't know what Terminal is, that probably means you would benefit from reading a book on Macs. Once this issue is taken care of, try David Pogue's "Missing Manual".

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Answer 12

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 14, 2012 5:38 PM in response to fane_j

Finally, fane_j, you've got the right John Neumann. We can discuss kissing my ring and any needed healings after this is all wrapped up.

For now, my Documents folder needs a miracle.

Okay, I opened Terminal and copied and pasted the line you gave me and hit return. Here's the earthshaking results:

Last login: Mon Feb 13 18:20:12 on console

John-Neumanns-MacBook-Pro:~ John$ $ ls -al ~/Documents

-bash: $: command not found

I assume that line you gave me was intended to go in all at once? ie, copy and paste the whole line?

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Answer 13

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 14, 2012 5:47 PM in response to Plenty7

John_Neumann wrote:

John-Neumanns-MacBook-Pro:~ John$ $ ls -al ~/Documents

-bash: $: command not found

Too many $s. As I said, $ your prompt, so you don't type it or copy it.

Open a Terminal window; once your prompt appears, paste

ls -al ~/Documents

and press Return.

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Answer 14

Plenty7 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 14, 2012 7:19 PM in response to fane_j

Got it. Thanks for the coaching, fane_j.

Here's what I see:

John-Neumanns-MacBook-Pro:~ John$ ls -al ~/Documents

total 16

drwx------+ 4 John staff 136 Feb 14 12:54 .

drwxr-xr-x+ 28 John staff 952 Feb 14 17:49 ..

-rw-------@ 1 John staff 6148 Feb 14 17:16 .DS_Store

drwxr-xr-x 2 John staff 68 Feb 13 12:28 Roxio Converted Items

John-Neumanns-MacBook-Pro:~ John$

I don't know what this business is about "total 16". I ssume that's the number of items it sees?

The only thing I see that keeps remaining in my Documents folder when everything else disappears is an empty Roxio Converted Items folder. (I guess that's my Toast software ... possibly recreating a new empty folder every time I turn on the computer.) For some reason, that empty folder stays, but everything else is gone.

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Answer 15

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 14, 2012 10:54 PM in response to Plenty7

John_Neumann wrote:

I don't know what this business is about "total 16".

The number of blocks. It means the whole thing takes up 8KB on disk. IOW, it's well and truly empty.

We definitely have a problem here; it's no Finder illusion. Your stuff is gone.

First, do again the ls command in Terminal, but this time

ls -ael ~/Documents

The e option will read the ACLs, but I don't expect much.

As for the rest, I've no clue what's going on. Perhaps someone else will recognise a typical occurrence; if not…

What Mac are you using? Do you sync it with any other device -- eg, iPhone, or another Mac, or cloud storage?

Does anyone else have access to your computer? Is the Mac on a network? Is your Home folder or Documents folder shared on the network? Has a network Home folder ever been set up for you? Do you use any kind of sync or backup software other than Time Machine?

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