Files not showing up in desktop

do the usual; repair permissions and see how it goes. Other than that, Im stumped

 

Dumb question...but are you sure Safari and FF are set to download downloaded files to the desktop? What happens if you drag a file from another place on the disk to the desktop? Does it show up, or is it also incognito? Finally, what happens when you do "ls -la ~/desktop"?

 

You are sure the files are actually downloaded to your desktop?

Could be that the files are downloaded elsewhere, but using "show in Finder" does direct you to <your_home/Desktop/>?

BTW.. what do you mean by: "The files are invisible. I cannot try directly opening a movie, txt or mp3 from within the appropriate program."
Are these files also invisible in a new "Finder" window, showing your desktop?

 

I am experiencing the same problem

My macbook was just returned to me with a clean slate (my hard drive died and I had to have a new one put in). I am trying to get set up again and using Camino as my browser and nothing that I download is showing up on the desktop! If I then search for the new file and "open enclosing folder" sure enough it is there. I tried changing the download folder from desktop to documents but it didn't solve the problem. I then tried this using Safari and encountered the same problem. I feel like I have accidentally changed some setting because this problem did not appear right away. I was happily downloading things to my desktop and they were appearing for a few hours before this started. Does anyone know what might have happened.
Thanks!