Folders under "Places" in Finder Sidebar not opening

[trinacmt]

I have an iMac, and I recently read something that said its performance would degrade if you kept a lot of things on the desktop...which I did. I then read something else that said they should all be organized under the finder...which I did.

I added folders of "photography" and "digital scrapbooking" (contains mostly png's). Neither of these is opening now. There was a considerable amount of data I moved there, and I'm more than a bit worried, since I can't get them opened. I also attempted to "find" one of the files I know is in one of them, and it does not come up.

I can open "pictures," "desktop," "applications," and for some reason "dropbox" is there now (I didn't intentionally add it).

These two folders are extremely important to me, and I'm wondering what I did wrong or didn't do and what I need to do to get them back.

Also, about this same time, my iMac's performance went to hell in a hand basket. I could ALWAYS run PhotoShop, LightRoom, iTunes, AND Safari at the same time. Did this since I bought the thing. Now I can barely have one of those programs open and they lock (programs lock with the spinny beachball thing).

Are my two issues related??

Here is hopefully some helpful info:

Mac OS X 10.6.8

3.6 GHz Intel Core i5

8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Thank you for any help! We live hours away from the nearest service center.

Trina Lankford

 

[Peace]

What happens when you try to open one of the folders ? Does any kind of dialog box open ?

Also where are the folders located ?

You could simply be running out of hard drive space.

 

[trinacmt]

What happens when you try to open one of the folders ? Does any kind of dialog box open ?

Also where are the folders located ?

You could simply be running out of hard drive space.

I can move my cursor over the word "pictures," and without even clicking, that folder opens.

If I move my cursor over either "photography," "digital scrapbooking," OR "downloads" (just noticed that one), absolutely nothing happens. It doesn't highlight. I can't click it. Nothing

And I'm not sure I know what you're asking, where are they located. I assumed they were in the same magical Mac spot the other "places" were. I added the folders to that panel like another forum instructed (dragging and dropping).

Thanks for your help. I have a really sinking feeling about this.

I do have a 1TB machine, and it says 250 are free, if that means anything??

 

[justperry]

I can move my cursor over the word "pictures," and without even clicking, that folder opens.

If I move my cursor over either "photography," "digital scrapbooking," OR "downloads" (just noticed that one), absolutely nothing happens. It doesn't highlight. I can't click it. Nothing

And I'm not sure I know what you're asking, where are they located. I assumed they were in the same magical Mac spot the other "places" were. I added the folders to that panel like another forum instructed (dragging and dropping).

Thanks for your help. I have a really sinking feeling about this.

I do have a 1TB machine, and it says 250 are free, if that means anything??

If you add folders to the SideBar this makes only a link to that folder in the SideBar, this is not the actual Folder, where is/Are those Folders located on your Hard drive.

Example, I have a Folder inside my home folder called Data, I then drag this folder to the sidebar, if I click the sidebar I get the contents of that data folder, but I can also go to /User/myhomefolder/data, it is still there even if the sidebar won't work or if I delete that link from the sidebar.

I think your sidebar preferences are corrupt.

 

[trinacmt]

If you add folders to the SideBar this makes only a link to that folder in the SideBar, this is not the actual Folder, where is/Are those Folders located on your Hard drive.

Example, I have a Folder inside my home folder called Data, I then drag this folder to the sidebar, if I click the sidebar I get the contents of that data folder, but I can also go to /User/myhomefolder/data, it is still there even if the sidebar won't work or if I delete that link from the sidebar.

I think your sidebar preferences are corrupt.

So to cut the content off my desktop (which was the goal to begin with), the shortcut goes in the Finder sidebar, but that folder has to go to /User/myhomefolder/ as its magical little homebase now.

I have no idea where those files are, but I don't think they are anywhere on my computer since I can't search for them in finder and pull them up.

I am more than anal about backing up, so the main components of those folders are not gone...they are on an EHD somewhere. I have many. I just need to find them and move them back to the above folder...right?

I can't delete those folder names from the sidebar panel, though. If I go into sidebar preferences, they don't even appear there. Only "myname," "desktop," "applications," and "documents." The folders I can't get open are not there for me to disable or delete or whatever.

 

[justperry]

So to cut the content off my desktop (which was the goal to begin with), the shortcut goes in the Finder sidebar, but that folder has to go to /User/myhomefolder/ as its magical little homebase now.

I have no idea where those files are, but I don't think they are anywhere on my computer since I can't search for them in finder and pull them up.

I am more than anal about backing up, so the main components of those folders are not gone...they are on an EHD somewhere. I have many. I just need to find them and move them back to the above folder...right?

I can't delete those folder names from the sidebar panel, though. If I go into sidebar preferences, they don't even appear there. Only "myname," "desktop," "applications," and "documents." The folders I can't get open are not there for me to disable or delete or whatever.

You can delete folders, Apps or any file you added to the sidebar by clicking and dragging them of the sidebar.

The System does not delete folders/files by itself, you must have done something wrong yourself, they don't just disappear.

To see what I meant in my last post, make a folder on the desktop, name it anything you like, make some new textiles and put them inside that folder, now add this folder to the sidebar by dragging it into the sidebar, click on that folder and you'll see you files. open up the folder on you desktop and you'll see the files, now drag the folder out of the sidebar, now it is gone the folder on your desktop is still there isn't it!