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My Desktop appears empty. All the files appear "missing". But I have not moved or deleted them. When I type in Terminal this command:

ls -al ~/Desktop

I see that all the files are present, but the Desktop does not show the files.

This happened after the computer went to sleep and I logged back in.

How can I make my "missing" files appear again on the Desktop?

Computer: MacBookPro, 2021, Apple M1 Max, macOS: Ventura 13.3.1.

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    Much clearer, but if you were to “confirm” they were there with a command like ls ~/Desktop, it would go a loooong way!
    – Allan
    Commented May 2, 2023 at 18:15
  • Did you have iCloud Desktop and Documents turned on and then turned it off? macOS does not move your files back when you do that. You need to move them yourself.
    – Marc Wilson
    Commented May 2, 2023 at 22:57
  • @MarcWilson No, I did not have iCloud Desktop and Documents turned on and then turned it off. Also, please note that my answer below fully solves my question.
    – Timur Shtatland
    Commented May 2, 2023 at 23:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Relaunch Finder to make the files appear again in Desktop.

There are multiple ways to do this :

  • Go to Apple menu  → Force quit → Finder → [Relaunch]
  • Option ⌥+Right-click (or Control ^+Option ⌥+Left-click) on the Finder icon in the Dock. Then select Relaunch at the bottom of the pop-up menu.
  • In Terminal, type the command : killall Finder

Related:

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In my Ventura, the following procedure brought back desktop icons after mine had failed to appear after a power up.

Trashed the following file at ~Library > Preferences “com.apple.finder.plist” The Finder will remake the plist with defaults resulting in you having to set up your Finder preferences again. Then I restarted my Mac

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