Desktop files and folders hidden for seemingly no reason

Question

Desktop files and folders hidden for seemingly no reason

Hi,

I am now experiencing the exact same issue as in this case: Desktop files and folders hidden for seem… - Apple Community Have tried safe boot and that did not solve the issue.

I'm running macOS Sonoma 14.7 on an Intel MacBookPro. I wonder what process actually does this and if there is a bug in 14.7 that causes this to happen. I don't use iCloud Drive.

Any idea on how to troubleshoot or monitor some process when this happens?

To get the files visible again I run the command "chflags nohidden " but the files are not actually hidden as mentioned in the previous community thread so definitely something else going on.

Any suggestions appreciated. Except re-install of course ;-)

Thanks,

Andreas

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Sep 24, 2024 4:45 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Adanoace

Level 3

545 points

Sep 24, 2024 5:01 AM in response to AndreasBSweden

Try resetting Finder by running `killall Finder` in Terminal, check Finder preferences to ensure desktop items are set to show, and make sure you have the right permissions on your desktop (right-click > Get Info). You can also use the shortcut `Cmd + Shift + .` to toggle hidden files on and off, just in case.

If nothing helps, using Console to monitor for errors might give some clues.

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Answer 2

Sep 29, 2024 12:08 PM in response to Estimated_Prophet

Hey!

So I had a chat with Apple support on the phone a couple of the days ago and got connected to second line where we figured out that another app actually was to blame for the issue. In my case it was Parallels Toolbox which has a presentation mode and one of the features there is that it also hides the desktop icons.

I reported this issue to Parallels and they confirmed later on that this was the case and also a known issue. Their support helped me turn off this autohiding since it had this annoying bug with external screens. They are working on a fix for this.

I guess similar issues could happen with similar productivity tools such as this one.

I also used those commands until I got fed up and started digging deeper and checking all other possible apps and tools that could be doing this. And with Apple support we found the issue :-)

Hope this helps in future troubleshooting!

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Answer 3

Sep 24, 2024 6:02 AM in response to Adanoace

Hi,

I have read/write access on the Desktop so that doesn't seem to be the issue. I have tested killall Finder before but can try that again. Usually the issue comes back after a reboot, that was not course not the case at first but I noticed that it then happened after each reboot. So kind of weird behavior. I have the console up and running and will try to monitor and see if there is some process or similar causing this.

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Answer 4

Sep 24, 2024 12:04 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Hi, yeah I've seen similar things however I have not been using that actually due to some internal work policy. As of this writing the issue has happened again a potentially this is related to some iCloud thing in any case. Well well, it is quite weird so will be interesting to find out what actually is causing this :-)

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Answer 5

Sep 24, 2024 8:46 AM in response to AndreasBSweden

There are a number of similar threads, and the common factor seems to be iCloud - more specifically, having "Documents and Desktop in iCloud" turned on at the time of upgrade, apparently.

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Answer 6

Sep 26, 2024 7:15 AM in response to AndreasBSweden

This keeps happening to me too. Since updating I've had to run the following command in terminal every morning.

cd ~/Desktop
chflags -R nohidden ./
killall Finder

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Answer 7

Sep 29, 2024 12:28 PM in response to AndreasBSweden

This is likely my issue. Thanks for posting.

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Answer 8

Oct 15, 2024 3:57 PM in response to AndreasBSweden

Hooooray!!!! Glad someone found this. Driving me crazy. This worked for me too.

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