why folders disappear from finder sidebar in mavericks?

So Mac has its own share of bugs which might be considered unimaginable by someone transitioning from Windows. One example is the file open and save dialog. Windows has a text box where you can type the path of the file or folder and reach there straight. Well... Mac's file open and save dialog does not have a text box at all (there is one to type the filename but can't put in the path there). So you need favourite locations in the left panel from where you can navigate quickly. The bug is that they stop appearing at times and even if you add folders under favourites in the left panel, they keep disappearing. This can make file open or save really painful and slow. Luckily (with some Googling) was able to find a solution to it. Here is the solution:

1) Open terminal window. (Type Terminal in spotlight search)

2) Paste this command at the prompt. (⌘+c to copy from here and ⌘+v to paste in terminal command prompt)

cd ~/Library/Preferences && sudo find com.apple.finder.plist* -exec rm {} \; && killall Finder

3) Enter the password when asked by terminal. It won't show anything on the screen so make sure you type it correctly and press return.

4) Logout and log back in. That should resolve the issue.

Yes, I too found that deleting the plist file seems to make the issue go away. You actually don't need to do it through the terminal - you can just do it in Finder. We'll see if it returns 🙂

David Bregande wrote:

Well, wait a second. Maybe my problem isn't the same as yours, but I just discovered that when I rollover the word "favorites" on the sidebar, a "show" button pops up. It seems mine had been hidden.

Does this apply to any of you?

Thank you, that just fixed my problem!

THANK YOU! This worked for me. 🙂

To get your folder to appear, try mousing-over the word "Favorites" on the sidebar. The word "Show" should appear. Click it.

That wasn't my issue though but thanks for the suggestion. I had to delete the files in my library.

Im also facing the same issue helping a customer using El Capitan.

I came across some free maintenance apps that claim to rebuild indexes etc, and I wonder if any of them help.

Unfortunately I cannot test with the one user that is having the issue (I dont want to expose him to my Trial and Error) and I cannot reproduce it on my Mac.

The tool is Onyx for Mac, link below

http://www.titanium.free.fr/onyx.html

Would anybody confirm if any of the options on the tool helps?

the same website has also another tool called "Maintenance" that seems to run deep clean up.

I ran both tools on my Mac for test, but since I cannot reproduce the original issue I cannot tell.

Replying to my own message here – I wanted to close the loop on the test I ran.

Having added the server login to my Login Items, I no longer have the problem of disappearing folders. Period. This has solved the problem for me, and I hope others will find it to do so as well. To recap: make sure that the server on which the "disappearing folders" are stored is included in your Login Items in System Preferences / Users & Groups. If that login is done whenever you turn on the computer, and you remain connected to the server, you will not lose the folders in the sidebar.

Keith

I dont think your particular issue is the same some other people are experiencing.

On one of your posts (Nov 2015) you described your issue as follows "All of the folders that disappear are links to a mounted server volume".

I think some users, myself included, are experiencing all Favorites disappearing, not just mounted links.

The particular user Im trying to help, doesnt even have servers to connect to, the closest thing to a server that he uses is Time Machine, connected to a Mac Airport Time Capsule, only at his office.

The folders disappear for him, sometimes while at the office, sometimes on the road.

He doesnt use VPN or anything special.

The favorites on his Mac just have subfolders from his Document folder, Dropbox, Desktop, and so on, very simple stuff.

Obviously, your solution cannot be tried on him, because he doesnt connect to anything.

Happy that it worked for you though.

>>Dottest37

Actually, what Keith is referring to is the problem many of us are having. The favorites that are connecting to network drives are disappearing after a reboot.

I have tried what Kieth has stated as his solution and our Macs will not auto login when the alias to the server is put in the users startup items. It gives an error or does nothing at all. This happened when Apple switched the default to SMB. When it was AFP/IP it seemed fine. Since the last update I haven't noticed the problem with the items disappearing but I also haven't extensively tested it either.

The solution to guarantee it would word was to make an alias folder, put all the folder alias's in it and then copy the local files into the favorites and then they would always be in the sidebar favorites.

There were some issues with that, like you can't drag files on to that sidebar favorite when it was connected to the local alias and have it go to the share correctly, but I didn't consider that near as big of an issue as losing them each time.

Yes,, I know the solution might work for people with similar problem,, but if you check online, the majority are having a different issue I think. Like I said, I have that one user that never had any network share access, and I have seen screenshots and videos online from people with the same issue, no relationship to network shares.

Im still looking for a solution myself , that one liner that delete the plist file(s) from Finder and kill it, works, but it is annoying, because the users sometimes needs to reboot for it to work, so it is very disruptive.

I was thinking on creating some script that would detect when the plist files changed in an undesirable way and then replace them with good ones,, not sure if that would be feasible. It is not a clean solution, or a solution at all but at least the user wont have to run the one liner manually.

I wonder if anybody could give a try to the software on the links I provided before, some of the functions on that software fix permission issues,, so it might worth a chance.

Unfortunately I cannot test it myself, but perhaps someone else can and let us know.

I thought I would try with the new 10.11.4 update to see if dropping the favorites is still a problem and guess what? It is! So far this week I have replaced them 3 times. I've tried deleting the preferences, I've tried replacing the finder preferences with one from when it was right. It didn't matter it still loses my favorites.

The only "fix" is to use aliases that are stored locally and put them in the favorites. This solution is good with the exception that you cannot drag things on top of aliases in the sidebar and have it copy to them.

It doesn't lose the favorites until halfway through the work day. What's ironic is they are still there in open and save dialog boxes. They are gone in Finder. Once I reboot then they are gone from the dialog boxes of apps too.

This is so annoying. It affects my computer more than some of the others, but it still happens.

Exactly the same case we have in our company (300+ people). It's really annoying and pity that Apple can't fix it over so many years. If they are aware of this problem they could at least let us know that it's acknowledged. We also have some workarounds to solve this problem, but we are continuously checking this forum and all the new versions on this subject.

I do have the same problem. Favorites disapearing from sidebar. 😠😠😠.

Does Apple have solution? Using MacBookPro - OSX 10.11.4

The only solution I have found is to make a folder and put aliases in it and then put those in your favorites.

It's funny because I have three computers that have no problem with putting the shares directly in the favorites. I have two macs that will lose them within two days of putting them in. They all run the same OS (10.11.4). Two of them are even the same model. All are on the same network. The computers that lose them will just drop them even after being connected to the network shares for the first half of the day. Suddenly, during use they just go.

Deleting the finder preferences made no difference and neither did restoring finder preferences (copied after they were all in place) and then restarting Finder. I also tried to have the computer auto mount the server by putting it in user's login items. It didn't help and only gave errors. BUT it has worked for others, so you could try those options too.