Mac desktop files and folders disappeared

HELP! My files and folders have disappeared. I have looked in the desktop folder within my user folder and they aren't there either. Searched in Spotlight for some of the files (that I can remember) . . . not there either. Finally, I have checked in terminal. . . . not shown there either.

What happened? Where did they go? Can they be recovered? Unfortunately, I do not have a backup.

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Posted on Mar 25, 2017 12:33 AM

Me too (3123) Me too Me too (3123) Me too Reply Question marked as Top-ranking reply User level: Level 8 42,584 points

Posted on Mar 25, 2017 12:44 AM

Check your iCloud settings in System Preferences> iCloud>iCloud Drive options

you have probably elected to have Desktop and Document files kept on iCloud.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply User level: Level 8 42,584 points

Check your iCloud settings in System Preferences> iCloud>iCloud Drive options

you have probably elected to have Desktop and Document files kept on iCloud.

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Try quitting System Preferences using the  menu Force quit if necessary.

Copy the files from iCloud Drive to a folder other than Documents and the Desktop. Go to System Preferences/iCloud/iCloud Drive/Options and turn off syncing or if you want to sync, turn off Optimization . Rearrange the files as desired. If desired, you can then delete the files from iCloud if syncing is turned off.

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Go to System Preferences/iCloud/iCloud Drive/Options - do you have Documents and Desktop syncing turned on with Optimization selected?

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I did this, too, only I don't have any room left on my dropbox and searches do not show the folder -- which is all my documents in a master folder. I can't imagine it is gone forever, but please. . . any suggestions?

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Hi, can you explain exactly what you did? thanks

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What changed recently? Files don't just disappear on their own. Did you turn on iCloud Drive? Check the trash? Someone else have access to or use your machine?

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I am in the same boat. No backup. It started when I saw "uninstall.app" for Yahoo It wasn't the classic Yahoo symbol, however, but rather a generic- looking black & white hexagon that said read, "uninstall.app" and "uninstall Yahoo search engine". I uninstalled it and my desktop files disappeared.

A month or so ago Yahoo ( and MacKeeper, for that matter) installed themselves on my computer. Don't know how that happened.