Desktop can t be opened because the original item can t be found

I installed Mac OS Catalina 10.15 beta.

When I go to Finder and tap on folders in the sidebar, an alert window appears saying the folder "can't be opened because the original item can't be found".

I have tried the following...

- Force Quit and restart Finder.

- Dragging and dropping a folder called "Data" to the desktop. It just disappears from Finder without appearing on the desktop.

- Rebook Mac in recovery mode > Disk Utility > Mount Disks > First Aid > Restart. When I do this I see two disks that can be mounted.

Macintosh HD

Macintosh HD - Data

I have tried mounting them together and separately without success.

Any suggestions to fix this?

Replies

In Finder look on the side and delete what's not working. Then click on iCloud Drive and drag what you need to the side. This worked for me.

I found a solution...

- Search for folders in Spotlight

- Drag them into Favorites sidebar

- If necessary, right click and select "Show in enclosing folder"

- Drag folder display at top of window bar back into Favorites sidebar

Only thing that still doesn't work is displaying top level folder when clicking on Macintosh HD.

Thanks. Have checked it out because I found another solution.

What I did was delete the desktop folder and documents folder and re-added them into the sidebar

Remove them from sidbar and drag and drop them from user profile to sidebar, It worked for me

I got the same error message after upgrading to a new computer and transferring info from my backup drive. Thank you SO much for this simple solution! It worked for me and saved me so much frustration trying to find a solution.

I fixed this issue by renaming my own macbook's HD from "Macintosh HD" to something else, next it started working!!! I think error was because of same name on remote mac [air m1] and my own

none of these worked for me?????

i've been bashing my head about it for a while now. i looked under my home folder /Users/myname/ and saw that there were two aliases "Documents" and "Desktop" that were actually broken links. i removed them, and mac auto created them again, now all is fine :]

Desktop/Documents can't be opened because the original item can't be found

macOS Mojave 10.14.6

Desktop became empty and non-usable, only background image. When I tried to launch it from Finder there was a mistake "Desktop can't be opened because the original item can't be found". The same issue with "Documents" folder.

Tried to reboot in safe mode - black screen, nothing happened after log-in.

Tried to delete Desktop & Documents from favorites and can't add it again. I just don't see these folders in the Sidebar list.

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 2:51 PM

Per chance did you enable the "Store in iCloud" "Desktop and Documents" option for your iCloud account?

Ref: Add your Desktop and Documents files to iCloud Drive - Apple Support

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 3:17 PM

Today I upgrade to Catalina 10.15

When I go to Finder and try to open any location that is on my iCloud I get the following message

“Desktop” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.

Where Desktop is the location I am trying to access

asked Oct 8, 2019 at 15:25

I had the same problem. I fixed it by removing Documents and Desktop from the Finder sidebar and then adding them back.

Here's how to do it

• Open Finder.
• On the Finder sidebar, right-click [or Ctrl-click] on Documents and choose Remove from Sidebar. Do the same thing for Desktop.
• On the menu bar at the top, click Finder and choose Preferences.
• Click the Sidebar tab at the top.
• Check the box for Documents and Desktop.
• Close the Finder Preferences window.

NOTE: I've read that some users have a similar problem that might be related to iCloud and having the Documents and Desktop folders synced there. I don't use iCloud for these things, so I can't say if the problem is also caused by that.

answered Oct 16, 2019 at 21:34

1

So it seems you are having problem with your iCloud account because you logged in another user with the same iCloud credentials, so a different desktop basically.

How to fix this

• You can simply remove the Desktop and Documents from the sidebar by simply dragging it out until you see 'X' then release.
• Then simply go to your iCloud Settings by Clicking on appleid>iCloud>options>Check Desktop and Documents folder then done in system preferences and it should work normal again.

answered Jun 4, 2020 at 14:08

I had the same issue but it originated from renaming my home directory. While the methods above work, my preferred method is a bit cleaner:

1. Open Finder
2. In the upper left corner click 'Finder'
3. Click 'Preferences...' This will open
4. Click on the 'Sidebar' icon listed at the top of the new window
5. Check/uncheck which items you want to appear in the sidebar
6. Close out and you're good to go!

Hope this helps!

answered Jun 4, 2021 at 18:57

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