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

Un-Undoing - Finder

G

Great Dave

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 19, 2007
116
0
So, I had saved some files from a network drive into my documents folder. I came home and on accident I removed Firefox from my dock. I hit command-z to see if it would put it back on my dock. Instead, the files in my docs 'poofed' and disappeared.

They didn't go to my recycle bin, they are just gone. Can I get them back somehow? Where can I find them?

Thanks!!

* Edit *
- The files are what I am wondering on how to get back.
 
richthomas said:
drag Firefox in your applications folder onto the left side of the Dock and drag your Documents folder onto the right side of the dock.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply! But, I am wondering about the files that disappeared. I did get Firefox back into the dock.

Where did the files go? I tried opening terminal and listing the doc directory, but I don't see them there either.
 
Great Dave said:
… I hit command-z to see if it would put it back on my dock. Instead, the files in my docs 'poofed' and disappeared. …
Click to expand...

im not sure what you mean by this? usually the 'poof' effect only happens when you remove something from the dock. applications & stacks are only aliases so you can just drag them back if you remove them by accident.
 
richthomas said:
im not sure what you mean by this? usually the 'poof' effect only happens when you remove something from the dock. applications & stacks are only aliases so you can just drag them back if you remove them by accident.
Click to expand...

Sorry - I know I am not explaining it well.

There is the documents folder next to the trash can on the dock. When I saved the files from the network, I saved them in the documents folder. You could see the icons of the files on the dock in the documents folder. When I clicked command-z, I saw the poof , (puff of smoke) in the docs folder next to the trash can. Looking at the documents folders in finder verifies that they are gone.

Thanks!!
 
That folder is still on your harddrive somewhere... you just deleted the shortcut in the dock...
Check your home folder or use spotlight with some names of your files...
 
coolbits said:
That folder is still on your harddrive somewhere... you just deleted the shortcut in the dock...
Check your home folder or use spotlight with some names of your files...
Click to expand...
I did try that, but spotlight didn't find them.

Can you try this for me and see if it happens to you?

1. Connect to a networked drive (or some shared folder on a computer on your network).

2. Copy a copy files to your documents folder

3. Command-Z (make sure that finder is active)

4. files are gone
 
Did you try pressing Command-Z again? Sometimes this acts as a 'redo' action in the Finder.
 
karenflower said:
Did you try pressing Command-Z again? Sometimes this acts as a 'redo' action in the Finder.
Click to expand...

I did and I got an error message stating something like, 'network resources are unavailable'. ( Probably because it was trying to recopy the files from the network, but I was already at home.)
 
I think you didn't actually copy the files, I think you just added references to them on the network to your Dock. You have to be careful about how you drag files to folders on the dock. If the folder isn't darkened and doesn't have its name showing, you're just adding aliases to the files in the dock: that's why they appeared there.
 
killmoms said:
I think you didn't actually copy the files, I think you just added references to them on the network to your Dock. You have to be careful about how you drag files to folders on the dock. If the folder isn't darkened and doesn't have its name showing, you're just adding aliases to the files in the dock: that's why they appeared there.
Click to expand...

I thought of that, but I have done tests since then.

Here is one of the tests.

1. I copied over a word file
2. Open Pages or Word and open the file within the program - If you open the file by clicking on the file, finder will not let you undo.
3. After you see the contents, close it down.
4. Then back in finder hit command-z
5. File disappears - it is not in trash and I can't find it in terminal.

I just think it is kind of bizarre, because it was written to my hard drive, but I can't find it.

Thanks!!
 
I had the same problem today, nearly 10 years later; since this post shows up as the first answer on Google, I am posting the simple solution here, found at this link:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236
You can then press Command-Shift-Z to Redo, reversing the undo command.

That restored my files to the Finder folder!
 
Great Dave said:
So, I had saved some files from a network drive into my documents folder. I came home and on accident I removed Firefox from my dock. I hit command-z to see if it would put it back on my dock. Instead, the files in my docs 'poofed' and disappeared.

They didn't go to my recycle bin, they are just gone. Can I get them back somehow? Where can I find them?

Thanks!!

* Edit *
- The files are what I am wondering on how to get back.
Click to expand...

Any icon u remove from the dock would just vanish in a puff of smoke... Just drag them back from the folder. When u drag to he dock, it crates an alais.. all that happens is when u vanish it, it just removes that alias, but the original file is still there
 
If this thread was nine years old in 2015, it is now - eleven years old - ! It is still relevant though and I feel for the OP, few seemed to understand what he was talking about.

I too am 'a victim' of this phenomenon. I copied a bunch of files from a flash drive to my MPB. I then accidentally removed the 'Documents folder' when i tried to backup the newly copied files to our work NAS. By force of habit i hit cmd+z. That of course didn't restore the folder shortcut I just removed, but sent my recently copied files in to a cloud of smoke. There is no option to further undo or redo. The files are just gone. And I am certain they were copied to my drive since I looked at them in Photoshop after copying from the USB drive.

Is there any way of prohibiting this or get the files back without copying from the original source again?
 
Time Machine may have had a chance to backup the files before you deleted them.
 
15 years after the original post, and the problem still exists. If you hit Cmd+Z after copying files from an external drive to your local drive, your files will be permanently deleted without confirmation prompt, and without any way to retrieve them, as they aren't placed in the bin, either. This is a major UX faux-pas from Mac OS developers and I can't believe we are still facing this issue 15 years later.
 
I had to try this. I'm running the latest OS. I moved a file from an external drive to an internal drive, then did an undo with Cmd-Z. It deleted the file on the internal drive and restored the file to the external drive just as it was before.

Both drives were APFS. That might matter.
 
chabig said:
I had to try this. I'm running the latest OS. I moved a file from an external drive to an internal drive, then did an undo with Cmd-Z. It deleted the file on the internal drive and restored the file to the external drive just as it was before.

Both drives were APFS. That might matter.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is absolutely possible that it is a problem between APFS and NTFS. It does however also cause problems when copying from an SD card, like in a camera. You will likely disconnect the camera soon after the transfer, making the "undo" impossible as ther is no target drive (also, these are usually formatted in ExFAT). I've lost many photographs and videos to this, even though i had confirmed successful transfer, prior to formatting the SD card. The undo action was still saved in my OS memory.
 
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