Documents folder not in Sidebar or Favourites - solution

You're welcome, friend.

In your posts you didn't mention the very critical aspect of this situation, that being that you use iCloud to synch your Desktop and Documents. I am aware that those folders are affected by iCloud synch and that they do disappear from the Mac when the service is activated. It's actually one of the reasons I don't synch those folders. I do allow my apps to save their data on the iCloud drive and I do manage other docs that I might wish to access with other Apple devices. i just pick and choose rather than give over the whole Desktop and Documents folders to the synch process. To be honest, I was unaware that iCloud synch had this negative impact on the Sidebar.

Live and learn, I suppose.

I'm happy to know that your solution works for you, and I hope others find it helpful as well. 🙂

The Documents folder remains optionally visible in the Finder sidebar in all current versions of macOS. By default the visibility is ON.

To change this, go to the menu bar and click Finder > Settings... then the Sidebar tab.

In the list of items now displayed, click the check box to enable the Documents folder to be displayed.

If you don't see the Favorites list in the sidebar, perhaps the list has been collapsed. Hover the mouse cursor on the Favorites title and then click the disclosure carat to the right of that heading title.

Customize the Finder sidebar on Mac - Apple Support

This really has became a pain point. On my side, I have no access neither to DESKTOP, DOCUMENTS or PICTURES in Finder. I need to go the long pathway of Macintosh HD - Users - Myprofile- to get access to these folders!

Litterature says to go make sure those items are checked in Finder's settings in order to be visible. These are!

Then further, if still not visible (which is also a nonsense), check to ensure these are not saved in iCloud Drive. In my case, these are not! Moreover, Icloud Drive is disabled for this mac (as for all my macs).

I have this issue only on macs I have upgraded to Sequoia. And one of the many reasons I prefer to keep my main system on Sonoma for now.

In my view, this is a real PITA. And it should not require to make an alias or anything.

Your statement that Apple have deliberately removed the feature is incorrect. I simply pointed out for you and whomever else may be reading this thread that the feature is still available in macOS Sequoia. Neither of the two methods I posted for troubleshooting the problem has been disabled. Clearly the function is not working properly on your machine.

You've stated neither which Mac mini you have (there have been at least 19) nor what macOS version it's running, so I'll assume the new M4 and Sequoia. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

You also haven't told us what you've done to troubleshoot the problem, and not knowing your level of computer literacy I'll just start with this: have you rebooted your computer lately?

If a simple reboot of your Mac doesn’t fix things, see if the problem still happens in safe mode.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support 

Safe mode will often correct weird software behavior by forcing the OS to do disk repair, clear caches and other housekeeping and temporarily disables third-party mods. When you're in safe boot, the machine won’t be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's expected.

Does the same thing happen while in Safe mode?

You can exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally, then reevaluate the problem.

If you have FileVault on turn off and test. This works to add and keep Airdrop in the sidebar from disappearing after a boot up.