Help - Desktop and documents folder have disappeared

[1brajesh]

Help.

My desktop and document folders have disappeared!
This is a 1 month new iMac running 10.15.7 Catalina, I bought it in October.
The desktop and documents are still on iCloud Drive so the files seem to be intact.
They are just not on my local external harddrive any more???

What to do?

 

[IowaLynn]

Is your home directed to the external?
Happen after this last Supplemental?
Did you drag folders over or another method?
Some things are just links, pointers to another location.

 

[1brajesh]

You are correct @IowaLynn.

I called Apple support and for some reason the "Desktop and Documents" folder was unchecked in my iCloud settings.
Once I checked it, that fixed it and all my links returned.
I asked the guy how that could have gotten unchecked and he said he didn't know.

Scary.

ps

Yes I do have my home folder directed to the external.

 

[IowaLynn]

So you don't think it was triggered by recent security update. Did you boot into recovery to verify the drives?

 

[1brajesh]

I had my Mac on auto updates, so I wasn't aware of any recent updates, so yes it could have been due to recent updates. I have turned off the auto updater now. No I didn't boot into recovery to verify the files, they all seem to be back.

How do you boot into recovery, is that the "safe mode" where I hold down the shift keys when rebooting?
Or is recovery something different?

 

[IowaLynn]

If you can't start up from macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Learn what to do if you can't get your Mac to start up from macOS Recovery.

support.apple.com