Favorites in sidebar keep disappearing

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Level 1

10 points

Favorites in sidebar keep disappearing

I'm running an iMac with Sierra 10.12.3. The favorites I've created in the sidebar which link to folders on my external hard drive keep disappearing, meaning I have to keep recreating them. Usually they all disappear, but sometimes just few of them. This happens on average once a week. I have searched other forums and it appears this is a widely reported problem which Apple has failed to fix for over 4 YEARS!

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to stop this happening, or whether this issue is actually on Apple's radar? I've personally reported the bug, as I know others have.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.3)

Posted on Mar 18, 2017 6:20 AM

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Answer 1

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Eric Root

Level 10

684,069 points

Mar 18, 2017 7:45 AM in response to pabloninos

Might be a corrupt .plist.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.sidebarlists.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.

Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.

If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.F

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Answer 2

pabloninos Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 18, 2017 7:11 AM in response to dialabrain

Mac OS Extended (journaled) / GUID. Pretty sure it's not a problem with the WD drive because the same problem happened with a previous Seagate drive.

Re. Apple's radar - thought as much, but thought I'd check anyway.

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Answer 3

dialabrain

Level 10

122,633 points

Mar 18, 2017 7:45 AM in response to pabloninos

I can't reproduce the problem. It may be a corrupt Sidebar plist.

From the Finder Go Menu, type or paste…

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

and delete it then restart. You will have to re-add your Favorites.

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Answer 4

pabloninos Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 18, 2017 7:43 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks Eric and dialabrain, I will try this later. However, I should point out that other people have said this particular fix did not work for them. I will let you know how I get on, although the sporadic nature of this bug means I might not be able to tell for a week or so.

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