I see files that are not there

[jpine]

This is kind of weird, at least to me. When I access my wife's computer via "Network" I see all kinds of files on her desktop that do not show up on her screen. I can even copy files to her desktop from my laptop and they do not show. If I need to place a file or folder on her computer, I can only do so by going to her computer and logging on to my computer and then make the transfer. She is logged on as Administrator. We're both using 10.9.x

JP

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ When I access my wife's computer via "Network" I see all kinds of files on her desktop that do not show up on her screen. ]]

That's because OS X has as many "invisible" files as it has visible files.
The invisible files are used by the OS, and are not normally accessed by users.
Even administrators don't need to see most of them.
So... in the interest of keeping things simple on the desktop, they are invisible.

I don't access my other Macs over a network, but I will -guess- that somewhere in your preferences (when networking was first set up), there is an option to show all files on other Macs.
I'll guess that's why you're seeing the invisible files along with the visible ones...

 

[skaertus]

This is kind of weird, at least to me. When I access my wife's computer via "Network" I see all kinds of files on her desktop that do not show up on her screen. I can even copy files to her desktop from my laptop and they do not show. If I need to place a file or folder on her computer, I can only do so by going to her computer and logging on to my computer and then make the transfer. She is logged on as Administrator. We're both using 10.9.x

JP

That's scary.

 

[jpine]

So it's a crap shoot as to whether or not a file I place on another computer will show up? That has never happened to me before. Never. I can't help but believe something else is gong on.

 

[stapoz]

Maybe these "invisible" files lay on the Desktop out of its bounds? How you transfer files to your wife's comp: VNC, AFP or FTP?
On your wife's computer open and check the Desktop folder in the Finder (~/Desktop), you can also list files in the Terminal ($ls -la). Finally, you can force the Finder to show hidden files by sending the command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES from within the Terminal (needs relaunching the Finder or logout)