Lost All Folders in Desktop!!

[katias]

Fellow humans, I was using Camtasia (video editing software) and it got stuck and I did force quite. Suddenly all folders in my desktop disappeared. I restarted my computer but it is still not there. These folders contained videos & audios so I may have overwhelmed the device, lesson learned, but I really need these files. It is worth months of work and I may have to quit my job if I didn't find it. I know the folders names but can't find them, I have been looking online since yesterday night for different solutions and tried many of it with no success. I listed the list of things I tried below. I'm really on the brink of a mental meltdown. Please any help will be really appreciated.

Something that may be useful, in tge video editing softaware (camtasia), I still have some videos from these folders, usually even if I moved the file to another folder or location, I lose the video in the software. Which means that the files are exactly at its location in the desktop (but as if it is in another dimension that I can't see). So maybe there is hope.


I already tried:

• Restarting laptop
• Finder (relaunching) & spotlight search
• Not in the trash
• I don't have ICloud on my laptop
• Don't have a time machine
• I don't have another user (e.g guest)
• Desktop icons ordered (right click-- sort by)
• Already selected all preferences in the Finder
• I used one recovery software but nothing

Guys I will really appreciate your help. Also, I'm using Mac El Capitan, my laptop is MacBook Air from 2011 so I can only upgrade to high Sierra, would you recommend that or will it make things worse?

Looking forward for your answers.

 

[alien3dx]

A quick and easy way to find secret files within a folder is to hold down Cmd + Shift + . (dot)..
open finder and try above..

 

[katias]

I don't have that option in El Capitan, but I used Terminal to show hidden files using (defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES) but it still won't show my lost folder even after relaunching finder.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you go into your user folder: From the finder, choose the Go menu, then the Home folder.
You will see the Desktop folder. Open that folder. Do you see your folders and files then?

How much space is free on your hard drive? If this is not obvious to you, go to the View menu (again in the Finder), and look for Show Status Bar. Click that item. You will now see how much space is available on your boot drive. You can also Get Info on your hard drive, which will show you more information, but you want to know how much space is free now.
You may be running low on space (less than 5 GB available, as an example)

 

[katias]

DealtaMac, thank you for your response. Yes I tried that and it only shows me the folder I put on the desktop today after everything was wiped. Even after restarting I keep seeing only these new folders. I have 85 GB free. I don't have much stuff on my computer. I can still see the folders in my documents and downloads. It is only all the folders on my desktop except for the Macintosh HD icon. PS. even the folders that disappeared, yes it was videos and audios but I don't think the size was extreme.

Looking forward for your assistance!

 

[NoBoMac]

Quick Google, appears that this is a somewhat common problem with Camtasia. And where it's at seems to move around a bit. So...

Check your Movies folder: some versions save in Movies/Camtasiasomething/Temporary Recording, Movies/Camtasiasomething/Recordings.

Windows, stuff is at times saved to the %TEMP% folder, so on Mac, Terminal, then: cd $TEMP then do an "ls" command to see what's there.

Also on Windows, sometimes in "App Data", Mac, maybe something in the user folder under the Library/Application Support/Camtasiasomething (Library might not show in Finder due to it has a hidden attribute on it, so, will need the Finder "Go to" pulldown menu option to go there, or Terminal).

Add standard lecture: in the future, backup your work, Time Machine or manually.

Oh and: don't upgrade. If saved in a system temp folder, probably would lose everything for good after upgrade.

 

[katias]

NoBoMac, I did and nothing there under Camtasia. Also although Camtasia was the problem, the folders that I need most were normal videos and audios I put in folders in the desktop so it won't be under that extension. :/ Trust me I need a real time machine right now!

 

[DeltaMac]

How many user accounts do you have on your Mac?
Is there a possibility that you booted to a different account when your system had locked up?
Check in the Users folder, which is at the root level of your drive. You can often go into the other user folders in that Users folder, just to check on Desktop folders in those other accounts.

 

[katias]

How many user accounts do you have on your Mac?
Is there a possibility that you booted to a different account when your system had locked up?
Check in the Users folder, which is at the root level of your drive. You can often go into the other user folders in that Users folder, just to check on Desktop folders in those other accounts.

So when I open my mac, I only have one user (my name) which I use to open my laptop with a password. But you may be right as I'm the second user of this mac after my brother. When I go to Users & Groups in System Preferences, there is only one user (my name), which is the same I use to log in. But when I go to Macintosh HD and click on users it shows a different user (My brother name), and no other users. But I believe it was always like this. I checked in the hard drive under this user and still no folders and there are no other users that I can see.