You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Deleted downloads, documents and desktop folder

Hi, my desktop, documents and downloads folder just disappeared. I can't get new folders for them and I can't download anything and all my stuff is gone. I don't want the stuff back, just the folders.

Posted on Jul 28, 2020 3:27 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 9, 2020 3:36 PM

maximus153:


Since you haven’t responded to my enquiries about what you see when you create a new user, on your system, without an Apple ID, I’ve done some testing on my own system:

  1. Both Users with and without Apple IDs get the «downloads, documents and desktop folder[s]». The only difference is whether those folders are on the Local hard-drive, or on the iCloud Drive.
  2. Only the Users without Apple IDs will actually see their Desktop and Documents directories in the Finder, when they Go -> Home!
  3. Both sorts of Users will see a Downloads folder, but, for Apple ID users, this will be a separate folder from their iCloud Drive:Downloads folder.
  4. Even though the Finder does not show the Desktop and Documents directories in the Finder, for Apple ID Users, those folders actually exist, there, and can be seen using a Terminal window, running the ls (that’s lower case ‘ell’ and ‘ess’, short for ‘list’) command.


Does any of this help?

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 9, 2020 3:36 PM in response to maximus153

maximus153:


Since you haven’t responded to my enquiries about what you see when you create a new user, on your system, without an Apple ID, I’ve done some testing on my own system:

  1. Both Users with and without Apple IDs get the «downloads, documents and desktop folder[s]». The only difference is whether those folders are on the Local hard-drive, or on the iCloud Drive.
  2. Only the Users without Apple IDs will actually see their Desktop and Documents directories in the Finder, when they Go -> Home!
  3. Both sorts of Users will see a Downloads folder, but, for Apple ID users, this will be a separate folder from their iCloud Drive:Downloads folder.
  4. Even though the Finder does not show the Desktop and Documents directories in the Finder, for Apple ID Users, those folders actually exist, there, and can be seen using a Terminal window, running the ls (that’s lower case ‘ell’ and ‘ess’, short for ‘list’) command.


Does any of this help?

Deleted downloads, documents and desktop folder

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.