Desktop Files Missing Since Sequoia Update

For those who are missing folders from their documents folder, it may have saved to a weird place in the icloud driv. I was able to find mine via the below path.

Go to the "Go" tab and then select "Go to Folder" and input this "iCloud drive > Text Input"

If nothing comes up then just search the desired folder via the "Go to Folder".

I had the same issue. It was Parallels!! Thanks for the help!!

And indeed all my files are there, including the aliases I made. The MacOS Window system(?) is hiding them!

A "Shift+CMD+Period" shows the files on the graphical Desktop. (I think @tommytron mis-stated it was "Shift+OPTION+Period". ) What doesn't work for me is when the Sequoia upgrade hid my original files. I tried to "ls" in the Trash directory to see if it's there but I guess I need to sudo to do that and I'm too tired to look up how to create a su password tonight. All this doesn't solve the problem though. Something is routinely hiding the files for some reason. Apple needs to chime in here.

Thank you for this! What a lifesaver. I had rebuilt permissions, rebooted in safe mode, force quit the finder, trashed Finder preferences, etc... with no effect. I merely opened Parallels Toolbox again and suddenly the files popped back up on the desktop.

What's maddening about this is that though I could find ways to get to the files through other methods, they truly were invisible from the desktop folder, so I had to remember what was on the desktop in order to find ways to access each file – there was no way to browse, even through hierarchal finder menus and column view.

Interesting. Either I don't follow you or it doesn't work for me. I don't see anything new.

However I have another example of the problem. I reboot and find everything OK on the Desktop. I then plug in the external monitor I use off and on. ALL THE DESKTOP ITEMS THEN DISAPPEAR and I have to recover them from backup again. This time they all say "(from backup)". We're about to get hit by Helene (I live in the NC mountains) so I may be offline for a while. I'd appreciate others hitting up Apple on how to fix this Sequoia upgrade problem. My Mac is essentially unusable in the current scenario.

Correction: The monitor point I made is a red herring. All I need to do is reboot and what was on my desktop before the reboot is now gone (I can literally watch the icons disappear as MacOS starts up.) When I try to move my Aliases I had made as a safety net, I get:

Which seems to confirm the Hidden point @tommytron made. At this point, the Desktop is essentially useless to me. Someone from Apple needs to step in here.

I have a lot of files missing and hidden, from desktop and docs. Some are hidden, some are missing, some have the download icon. I have iCloud desktop and drive on. I don't use parallels.

Before I realised some were hidden, I began restoring from Time Machine, so now I have two copies of some folders...what a mess. 1000s of files, and they're so randomly scattered, I have no idea what's missing.

I have been on 2 different Apple support chats/calls today for more than an hour and after searching high and low - ALL of my CLIENT files that are missing. All they were able tell me was that they highly doubted it had anything to do with the new update.

Well, all my files were there on Saturday, I didn't even open up my computer yesterday, update happened this morning and as soon as it rebooted, all files are gone. Not in icloud, not hidden anywhere I can find them, just - gone.

A FULL catalog of Lightroom - gone.

Now what?!

I really appreciate you trying to help.

I've tried the "Shift+Option+Period" and it didn't do anything. lol

I restarted it and now even the few things I was able to find and put on my desktop are missing also. 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️ (As bad as all this sounds, at least now I know it's definitely the update. I just have to figure out to get all the files back before my clients start to get ******. lol)

I'm just gonna sit back, try not to throw my laptop and restart it another million times to see what happens.

I cannot find any of my folders that are not on my desktop. All my settings are changed after software update. This is on top of my iPhone 14 Pro not having setting to turn off Private Caller. Apple is going down hill - did you layoff all the tenured developers for cheap help?

Brilliant! This solved the problem. It was the second time that my files were hidden.

One question. Under "Choose for how long", why select "Until the end of the day"? Wouldn't it be better to select "Forever"?

Thanks for your help!!!

What is PARALLELS?

Where is the dashboard?

I have Mission Control and Launchpad.

I am angry that this was not an opt in. I FREQUENTLY use my iMac in situations where I do not have access to the Internet. This is obnoxious.

I don't have Parallels, and Apple support was useless. I used to have Parallels but removed it. Could some aspect of it be running in the background? A search for Parallels on my MacBook 2020 turns up nothing, but searches for many items that are clearly on the computer are also fruitless. Help!

SAME ISSUE.

I have recently updated to Sequoia and now I am facing issues with desktop and documents folder which is inside iCloud drive by default. I tried many ways and searched on internet but none of them were worked.

HELP!!

Sorry but I do not use (nor have) PARRALLELS on my system, and I have the same issue : no desktop, no Documents, no Movies, pictures, applications.... visible in Finder.

I do not use iCloud drive on that mac.

All those are checked in Finder's settings.