Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Accidentally Moved Desktop into Trash

M

mirrorchild

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I somehow managed to do something really silly, I don't know how exactly I did it, but I had moved my desktop to the trash.

So now it's sitting there in the trash. I don't dare do anything until I get some proper advice. Can I just drag it back to my home folder and clear the trash?
 
remember the "oh crap!" shortcut: command z 🙂apple: z) it's an undo of the last action. It's my favourite command for my clumsiness.

yes, you should be able to move it back out to it's rightful place without incident.
 
Thanks for the replies. I just dragged it back, but now the icon for my desktop is that of the generic blue folder, instead of the usual desktop icon. How can I restore this?

Edited: Solved that problem. A log-out and log-in again resolves the issue.

Thanks again, everyone.
 
I have done the same thing... I was developing an applescript that got the current (i.e. default) file path of an application, did stuff, and then deleted a temporary file that was created. Turns out the default location happened to be my desktop, and this got sent to the trash. I have learnt my lesson!

Anyway, I managed to go into the trash and recover my documents and have now backed them up. But it won't allow me to recover the desktop to my home folder by drag and drop. Stuff can download to the desktop, but when I try to open it gives me an error message along the lines of:

"The document "Document.jpg" could not be opened because it is in the Trash."

In the "Where" of the Info, it gives the the file path as "/Users/bridgesmj/.Trash/Desktop"

Does anyone know how I can recover this? Bear in mind drag and drop doesn't work. This article says that I'll need to re-install the OS. I'm hoping this isn't so.

Unfortunately I'm not in my sixties, and used to consider myself tech-savvy until this event.

Looking forward to responses!

Thanks,

Mark.
 
I did that too, but then I fixed it. If you just made the mistake, don't touch anything. Don't empty your trash. Don't drag the folder out. My experience is that if you drag the desktop folder out of the trash back to the home folder, it will copy instead of move the files. Also, many of the invisible files will be lost in the process. The solution is to open Terminal, and type in the following:
mv /Users/yourhomefoldername/.Trash/Desktop/ /Users/yourhomefoldername/
"yourhomefoldername" stands for the name of your home folder. Substitute it with your home folder name. Note that spelling and capitalization count, and there are spaces after "mv" and after "Desktop/". This should move your desktop back without copying the files. Log in and log out to get the desktop icon on the sidebar, or get info of the desktop and it should revert back to original.

Will
 
iBlue said:
remember the "oh crap!" shortcut: command z 🙂apple: z) it's an undo of the last action. It's my favourite command for my clumsiness.

yes, you should be able to move it back out to it's rightful place without incident.
Click to expand...



NICE I need that, they made Macs "Jim proof" lol
 
killwill169 said:
The solution is to open Terminal, and type in the following:
mv /Users/yourhomefoldername/.Trash/Desktop/ /Users/yourhomefoldername/
"yourhomefoldername" stands for the name of your home folder. Substitute it with your home folder name. Note that spelling and capitalization count, and there are spaces after "mv" and after "Desktop/". This should move your desktop back without copying the files. Log in and log out to get the desktop icon on the sidebar, or get info of the desktop and it should revert back to original.

Will
Click to expand...

I did this (thank you!). It reverted and I was again able to access the items on the desktop, however, I still have a folder in the trash named desktop. I am afraid to empty the trash for fear the whole thing will happen again and I'll lose even more files. I bought a recovery program that was less then helpful. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
dtwalter said:
I did this (thank you!). It reverted and I was again able to access the items on the desktop, however, I still have a folder in the trash named desktop. I am afraid to empty the trash for fear the whole thing will happen again and I'll lose even more files. I bought a recovery program that was less then helpful. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

The trash should show as empty if you log out and then back in.

Thanks for searching before posting, by the way. 😉
 
desktop in trach

I also accidentally trashed my desktop . Dragged the desktop 'folder' back into mac HD. but can neither get the folder to reinstate on the desktop nor the items on the desktop to go back onto the desktop . what do i do?
 
gwengillespie said:
I also accidentally trashed my desktop . Dragged the desktop 'folder' back into mac HD. but can neither get the folder to reinstate on the desktop nor the items on the desktop to go back onto the desktop . what do i do?
Click to expand...

Don't drag it back to Mac HD. That's probably not where it came from. Drag it back to your Home folder, which probably is where it came from.

Open a window to your Home folder by choosing the Home menu item from the Go menu in Finder.

Or see if "Put Back" works. Example:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/777843/
 
Another Method

Just recently trashed my desktop for the second time and had to figure out how to do it again. In my trial and error I found another method of restoring the "desktop" to the left column of the finder window. Right click anywhere in the left column and open Sidebar Preferences. On the window that pops up, select the checkbox next to "desktop" and voila!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back