why folders disappear from finder sidebar in mavericks?

Since installing Sierra, whenever I open/save, all my favorites on the side are gone.. Makes it a real pain to navigate to the right location. Then they disappeared altogether! I deleted sidebar preferences file (as someone else mentioned) and restarted and my favorites came back in the regular finder, but still never for open/save. Have we heard anything from Apple on this?? How is this not a major concern for them?? I was looking at DefaultFolder as a third party solution, but don't want to pay for anything TBH....

I can confirm, same issue here, with networked AFP shares. Really surprised this isn't resolved yet as the thread started in 2013! Look apple!

Going to try the Alias workaround. Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone!

Hi Robin, not sure we are on the same page. It is October 6 where I live, I have Mac OS 10.12.6 installed on my MacBook Pro early 2015, and I just lost all favorite shares from my sidebar - again, and again..... The favorites get lost each time when you try to connect and there is a timeout, for instance because you are on the road and there is no connection. Seems like the OS is set on "auto purge sidebar". Very annoying, and no - the issue is still not resolved even though many years and versions of MacOS have passed.

Willi,

Robin, clearly wrote what fixed it: Upgrade to High Sierra.

I have not verified it myself and neither have you with 10.12.6

So, before you say Apple did not fix it, try it out.

I myself am skeptical because of how long this issue has been in the OS (Maverick I think?). But will upgrade to it on the computers showing the problem once they resolve the issue with Indesign CS6 and not being able to zoom with the trackpad.

There is a workaround for this problem.

Place aliases of your network drives into a folder on the desktop, then drag that folder into the sidebar. It will remain there and the network drives within will be quickly accessible.

And i forgot to mention that it is actually not really a workaround, because all the stored subfolders in the sidebar of all disconnected volumes will vanish, too. So they will be sorted by name in the desktop-folder, but not like one arranged them individually in the sidebar. And I use about 20 entries so it's just annoying for years, now...

Sounds like a preferences issue...

Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key and choose Library. Then go to Preferences folder and trash these files:

com.apple.finder.plist

com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

Then, restart, or log out and in again.

(You will have to reset a some finder prefs the way you like them.)

This happened to me also. Very suddenly, not following an update or installation of new software. The above didn't resolve the issue.

Correction. Logging out and in did not fix it, but restarting after doing the above did fix it. Just to clarify if others have the issue.

OK, thanks for the feedback.

Thank you. I've been having the same issue so will try your solution

I've had this recurring problem since installing Mavericks the day it came out. I have about 8 favorite locations - all of them on our shared file server (Mac Mini NOT on Mavericks) in our office.

Anyone else having this problem specifically with shared folders?

Behavior #1: Sometimes when I open up my MBP in the morning and have not yet mounted the shared drive, I'll open, say, Pages, and click on a favorites in an Open... dialogue, and it will blink out right as I click on it. This doesn't ever happen this way if the drive is mounted.

Behavior #2: Open up my MBP and open a Finder window to see SOME of my favorites gone, even if the first thing I did was mount the file server. I add them back and they stick for days or weeks.

Behavior #3: Open up my MBP and find NO favorites whatsoever. Agan, I add them back and they stick for a while.

Have spent hours on the phone with Apple, selectively deleting plists and everything else you could think of. Even reinstalled the system software (not a wipe - just reinstall in place). No dice.

I have issues with shared folders disappearing on restart or when clicking. A coworker has the same folder in his sidebar with no problems. I noticed that his Connect to Server dialogue box shows that he connects directly to the folder, whereas I connect to the server, navigate to the folder I want, and drag it to the sidebar.

Any update on this? It's frustrating for network shares to just disappear. OSX used to try to connect when not connected, now it just deletes the folder.

No, it's still an issue for me. I thought I fixed it, but I didn't. I added both the share itself and the folder within the share, then I would click on the share, it would connect, and then I could click on the folder. It still removes the folder from the sidebar eventually.