You should be able to follow the folder tree to find your Desktop folder (Data > Users > username > Desktop). Expand the Existing tab to view files that are only missing and not deleted (use the correct tab for your situation).

You’ll be greeted by a list of files Disk Drill found.

Once it’s complete, click Review found items.

Select the drive that contained your missing desktop files – this is usually your system drive, called “Apple SSD”.

Launch Disk Drill by opening Finder > Applications and double-clicking Disk Drill’s icon.

To learn more about its features and our experiences using the tool, read our full Disk Drill review. We often recommend Disk Drill to our readers because we’ve had great success recovering data with it, and its GUI (graphical user interface) is very friendly to beginners – this also makes it great for demonstrating data recovery on our blog. In fact, there are a lot of reasons why files disappeared from the desktop on a Mac… and this article explores them all.įor this article, we’ll be using a freemium tool called Disk Drill.

It’s also pretty common, thanks to macOS’ many customization settings.

If your desktop files disappeared on your Mac, don’t worry – it’s fixable. What should I do if my Mac desktop files disappeared after update?.Why did everything on my MacBook desktop disappear?.Why did my desktop files disappear on my Mac?.Method 7: Unhide Desktop Files Through Terminal.Method 6: Find Disappeared Mac Folder Through Stack.Method 5: Disable iCloud Drive Sync to Restore Desktop Folders on Mac.Method 4: Show Hidden Desktop Files Using Finder.Method 3: Recover Lost and Deleted Desktop Files and Folders Using Time Machine.Method 2: Restore Desktop Files Using the Trash Folder.Method 1: Use Spotlight Search to Find the File.How to Find Disappeared Desktop Files & Folders on a Mac.How to Recover Desktop Files & Folders On a Mac?.☁️ iCloud drive deleted local desktop files.⚙️ Desktop files are set to hidden in Finder/Terminal.Case 2: All the Files/Folders on My Desktop Disappeared.Case 1: Certain Desktop Files/Folders Are Missing.Where Did All My Desktop Files and Folders Go?.

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