For those people (like me) who stumble across this thread with the same issue, I found a solution:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+b...576/comments/3
If Gnome can't read your Desktop, it seems to change your XGD_DESKTOP_DIR to $HOME in ~/.config/users.dirs.dirs . Change it back to $HOME/Desktop and you should be back in business - at least, it worked for me.
Bookmarks