I have a whole set of files and folders stored in one folder that are now inaccessible and marked as 'Kind:Alias' even though I never created an alias for these files/folders. These files are in various formats (.doc, .docx, .pdf, etc.). "Find original in Finder" does not help because there is no 'original' - the alias is the original. In other words, these are not true aliases! All these 'false' aliases have the sizes of their 'original' files/folders. (Not all the all the files&folders in the folder have been turned into 'false' aliases but those that have all share the same 'modification' date and time and were once stored on my desktop folder before I moved them to a new folder under 'Documents').
I've tried to turn off the "alias" bit by running Path Finder [http://www.cocoatech.com] - Path Finder's 'Get Info' window allows you to clear the alias bit by unchecking the appropriate box. Unfortunately, even then I can't access the files as the appropriate applications either do not recognize the format or consider the file as damaged (e.g. Preview) or read them only as some illegible code (e.g. Unicode text via MS Word File Converter).
Does anyone know what has happened?
More urgently, can anyone suggest how I can revert these files and folders back to what they were originally and have them readable by their appropriate applications (Word, Excel, Preview, Adobe, etc.). Unfortunately, I don't have a backup of these files and folders (at least not from when they were still 'original' files that I could open).
I've tried to turn off the "alias" bit by running Path Finder [http://www.cocoatech.com] - Path Finder's 'Get Info' window allows you to clear the alias bit by unchecking the appropriate box. Unfortunately, even then I can't access the files as the appropriate applications either do not recognize the format or consider the file as damaged (e.g. Preview) or read them only as some illegible code (e.g. Unicode text via MS Word File Converter).
Does anyone know what has happened?
More urgently, can anyone suggest how I can revert these files and folders back to what they were originally and have them readable by their appropriate applications (Word, Excel, Preview, Adobe, etc.). Unfortunately, I don't have a backup of these files and folders (at least not from when they were still 'original' files that I could open).