Missing my own favourites locations in the Finder Sidebar

Question

Missing my own favourites locations in the Finder Sidebar

I have updated my system, now Ventura 13.7.5 (22H527), and after the obligatory restart I miss the favourite Locations that I use for a quick navigation into a favourite folder.

I can again drag the Folders in the sidebar but its annoing if this occurs every time a must restart (after a update-reboot) my iMac.

I use a 3,8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017 with a Radeon Pro 580 8 GB on 64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM.

This issue is not appearing for the 1st or 2nd time :-(

Can anyone help or suggest how to resolve this issue?

THX

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 13.7

Posted on Apr 24, 2025 12:00 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

6x6

Level 6

19,155 points

Apr 24, 2025 4:00 PM in response to Massimo Lombardo

Hello Massimo,

Your Finder preferences file is corrupted.

In Finder, go to the folder "~/Library/Preferences" (the "~" is important) and delete the file "com.apple.finder.plist". Reboot your Mac and set again your Favorites and other Finder preferences.

You may want to make a few screen captures of your settings before deleting the file as to make it easier to set them up again.

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Answer 2

6x6

Level 6

19,155 points

Apr 25, 2025 4:36 AM in response to Massimo Lombardo

Yes, recovering the file from Time Machine would also be a solution. Finding the uncorrupted version might be challenging as it may require a lot of tries to locate it. Don’t forget to reboot your Mac after recovering the file.

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Answer 3

Apr 25, 2025 9:35 AM in response to Massimo Lombardo

After 2 - 3 tries I gived up and reconfigurated my sidebar favourites; also the replacing of the com.apple.sidebar.prefs brought the success (Restore Finder Sidebar Favourites)

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Answer 4

6x6

Level 6

19,155 points

Apr 25, 2025 6:56 AM in response to Massimo Lombardo

I meant you’ll have several versions of that file in Time Machine. Each version will correspond to a certain date, the date of that backup. You may have to go back in time sufficiently to find an uncorrupted version of the file.

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Answer 5

Apr 25, 2025 12:38 AM in response to 6x6

Hi 6x6,

I have a running TimeMachine and I suppose there I can find the uncorrupted "com.apple.finder.plist" for a secure regenerating of my prefs. Can you confirm that also this way a good solution is?

Thx for your help

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Answer 6

Apr 25, 2025 5:50 AM in response to 6x6

I want to try this way; I think that a uncorrupted version of the file will be on the same place (home/Library/Preferences). I will report if this works fine.

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Missing my own favourites locations in the Finder Sidebar

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