ubuntu 24, Desktop, music, downloads, pictures .. folders disappear

[khalilxg]

-so while using my ubuntu 24, i clicked onDesktop icon and i've got "oops something went wrong unable to find /home/Desktop please check the spelling or try again later"
- i reboot the laptop and found out i cant login, Msg password incorrect, tried to reset the password in recovery mode and i succeed, ---> relogin
- same behavior for other folders,
-the disk 500G exists with df-h

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs           3.2G  2.9M  3.2G   1% /run
/dev/nvme0n1p2  468G  184G  261G  42% /
tmpfs            16G  140M   16G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M   12K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
efivarfs        192K  128K   60K  69% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /run/qemu
/dev/nvme0n1p1  511M  6.2M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3.2G  164K  3.2G   1% /run/user/1000
ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$

- ls -la not showing those folders,

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ ls -latotal 5884
drwxr-x--x 57 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   30 14:26 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root   root      4096 ماي     3 15:11 ..
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 14:43 .5681250646225525941
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس    8 15:48 .anaconda
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     168 جوان   24 00:30 .angular-config.json
drwxr-xr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي     5 13:18 .anydesk
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu      36 جوان   12  2023 .bash_aliases
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu    4950 جوان   30 14:26 .bash_history
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   90480 ماي    10 23:00 .bash_history-07755.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   93601 ماي     9 13:01 .bash_history-08984.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 ماي     9 11:59 .bash_history-12384.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   50706 ماي    29 01:39 .bash_history-17868.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 جوان   11 01:51 .bash_history-22185.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 ماي    12 00:48 .bash_history-29454.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 ماي    19 22:27 .bash_history-33958.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 ماي    12 00:48 .bash_history-34172.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 فيفري  12 16:33 .bash_history-36866.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu  119610 جانفي   4 14:52 .bash_history-39824.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 فيفري   7 14:17 .bash_history-55260.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 جوان   23 14:38 .bash_history-55360.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 ماي    18 17:34 .bash_history-66143.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   61006 جوان   24 00:31 .bash_history-81150.tmp
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   93770 ماي     9 00:47 .bash_history-95085.tmp
-rw-r--r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     220 جوان   12  2023 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu    5020 ماي    18 16:08 .bashrc
drwx------ 64 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   28 15:53 .cache
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان    9 23:29 .codeium
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان    1 15:36 .conda
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu      90 جوان    1 15:21 .condarc
drwx------ 61 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   30 15:40 .config
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   17  2023 .continuum
drwxrwxr-x  5 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان    6 16:19 .dbclient
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 15:21 .docker
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   17  2023 .dotnet
drwxr-xr-x  4 ubuntu ubuntu   45056 جوان   29 18:04 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x  4 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس   10 18:40 .EasyOCR
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 نوفمبر 15  2023 .electron-gyp
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس    4 03:42 .fonts
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     217 ماي    18 18:45 .gitconfig
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 سبتمبر 20  2023 .gnome
drwx------  4 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   30 15:09 .gnupg
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 18:04 go
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس    9 23:18 .gpac
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جويلية 30  2023 .gphoto
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس    4 03:43 .insightface
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 نوفمبر 24  2023 .ipynb_checkpoints
drwxrwxr-x  5 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   18  2023 .ipython
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 أكتوبر 13  2023 .jupyter
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   18  2023 .keras
drwxr-xr-x  3 ubuntu    999    4096 جوان   12  2023 .kube
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     715 أفريل   1 13:32 .labelImgSettings.pkl
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu      34 جوان   29 20:33 .lesshst
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 18:04 llama.cpp
drwx------  6 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ديسمبر 15  2023 .local
drwxrwxrwx  7 root   root      4096 جوان   29 18:04 Mask_RCNN
drwx------  4 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    20 17:48 .mc
drwxr-xr-x 10 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جويلية 18  2023 .minikube
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    20 17:44 .minio
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    15 13:27 .mongodb
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   12  2023 .mozilla
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu       4 جانفي  12 21:49 .node_repl_history
drwxrwxr-x  7 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    23 22:25 .npm
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    23 22:32 .npm-packages
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 أوت     7  2023 .nv
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     449 ماي     5 01:12 .nvidia-settings-rc
drwxrwxr-x  8 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    23 22:43 .nvm
drwxr-xr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 فيفري  26 16:49 .ollama
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 مارس    4 03:52 .opennsfw2
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 19:17 Pictures
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   20  2023 .pip
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   12  2023 .pki
-rw-r--r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     843 ماي    19 21:25 .profile
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu     116 ماي    23 16:09 .psql_history
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu   26738 جوان    2 00:12 .python_history
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu      34 ماي    17 22:42 .rediscli_history
drwxr-xr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 نوفمبر 15  2023 .rpmdb
drwx------  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 19:17 snap
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu     127 جويلية  1  2023 .sqlite_history
drwx------  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 17:51 .ssh
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ديسمبر 22  2023 .streamlit
-rw-r--r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu       0 جوان   12  2023 .sudo_as_admin_successful
-rw-r--r--  1 root   root   5097501 جوان   30 15:42 testdisk.log
drwx------  6 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   12  2023 .thunderbird
drwxrwxr-x  2 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جويلية 23  2023 .tuxcut
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu    5510 ماي    19 20:50 .v8flags.8.6.395.17-node.28.1d41c853af58d3a7ae54990ce29417d8.json
drwxr-xr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ديسمبر 12  2023 .var
-rw-------  1 ubuntu ubuntu    7436 مارس   24 03:52 .viminfo
drwx------  5 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    14 23:04 .vnc
drwxrwxr-x  4 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ماي    31 19:56 .vscode
drwxrwxr-x  4 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   17  2023 .vscode-insiders
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   25 19:59 .wdm
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     423 أفريل   2 14:11 .wget-hsts
drwxrwxr-x  3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 ديسمبر 25  2023 .yarn
-rw-rw-r--  1 ubuntu ubuntu     116 جوان   28 15:51 .yarnrc
ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$

-find cant find the folders
- editing ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs , found out the paths are not existing

"XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/"XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

" i tried to rewrite the paths and reboot but the file return to None values like is the recent past "

if writing in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs , add just Desktop, then use killall nautilus to proceed for solution. ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs will be

  GNU nano 7.2                   /home/ubuntu/.config/user-dirs.dirs                            # This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run.
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"


but when i click on Desktop i got the error message" oops something went wrong check the spelling or try again", and also Desktop will not appear in ls nor ls -la, like adding Desktop to   ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs did nothing :(

- i dont have a restore plan
- i have sensitive data they can't be lost
-all trying cases are followed with reboots etc, but the result is same "oops something went wrong check the spelling or try again" or folders not found

[The Cog]

Let's start by looking what disks you have, where they are mounted, and what should be mounted. Please can you try these commands, and post both the commands as you type them and their output here:

sudo mount -a
lsblk -fmp | grep -v snap
cat /etc/fstab
ls -l /home
ls -l ~

[khalilxg]

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ sudo mount -a
lsblk -fmp | grep -v snap
cat /etc/fstab
ls -l /home
ls -l ~
[sudo] password for ubuntu:
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
/dev/nvme0n1 476.9G root disk brw-rw----
├─/dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat FAT32 355A-80B3 504.8M 1% /boot/efi 512M root disk brw-rw----
/
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=6e405ba9-a41b-4b47-9840-c0efb2fb677a / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation
UUID=355A-80B3 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 ماي 3 15:11 linuxbrew
drwxr-x--x 57 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 30 14:26 ubuntu
total 5028
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubuntu ubuntu 45056 جوان 29 18:04 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 18:04 go
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 18:04 llama.cpp
drwxrwxrwx 7 root root 4096 جوان 29 18:04 Mask_RCNN
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 19:17 Pictures
drwx------ 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 19:17 snap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5074519 جوان 30 15:09 testdisk.log
ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$

[khalilxg]

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ sudo mount -a
lsblk -fmp | grep -v snap
cat /etc/fstab
ls -l /home
ls -l ~
[sudo] password for ubuntu:
NAME FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
/dev/nvme0n1 476.9G root disk brw-rw----
├─/dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat FAT32 355A-80B3 504.8M 1% /boot/efi 512M root disk brw-rw----
/
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=6e405ba9-a41b-4b47-9840-c0efb2fb677a / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation
UUID=355A-80B3 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 ماي 3 15:11 linuxbrew
drwxr-x--x 57 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 30 14:26 ubuntu
total 5028
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubuntu ubuntu 45056 جوان 29 18:04 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 18:04 go
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 18:04 llama.cpp
drwxrwxrwx 7 root root 4096 جوان 29 18:04 Mask_RCNN
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 19:17 Pictures
drwx------ 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان 29 19:17 snap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5074519 جوان 30 15:09 testdisk.log
ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$

[oldfred]

Please use code tags.
And go back and edit your posts above with each command, its output with code tags.
Easy to add code tags in Forum's Go Advanced Editor & # icon.

I cannot tell which command & which output is which.

Did you actually use ubuntu and ubuntuu as user & system name?
Default for live installer is ubuntu@ubuntu so getting confused if your system or live installer.

Post should look like this for mine, I have never edited this file:

fred@z170-noble:~$ cat ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update 
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're 
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run. 
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped 
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an 
# absolute path. No other format is supported. 
#  
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop" 
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads" 
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates" 
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public" 
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents" 
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music" 
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures" 
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

[khalilxg]

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ sudo mount -alsblk -fmp | grep -v snap
cat /etc/fstab
ls -l /home
ls -l ~
[sudo] password for ubuntu: 
NAME             FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS                              SIZE OWNER GROUP MODE
/dev/nvme0n1                                                                                                                     476.9G root  disk  brw-rw----
├─/dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat     FAT32       355A-80B3                             504.8M     1% /boot/efi                                512M root  disk  brw-rw----
                                                                                          /                                                         
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=6e405ba9-a41b-4b47-9840-c0efb2fb677a /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation
UUID=355A-80B3  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0
total 8
drwxr-xr-x  3 root   root   4096 ماي     3 15:11 linuxbrew
drwxr-x--x 57 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 جوان   30 14:26 ubuntu
total 9520
drwxr-xr-x 4 ubuntu ubuntu   45056 جوان   29 18:04 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 18:04 go
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 18:04 llama.cpp
drwxrwxrwx 7 root   root      4096 جوان   29 18:04 Mask_RCNN
drwxrwxr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 19:17 Pictures
drwx------ 3 ubuntu ubuntu    4096 جوان   29 19:17 snap
-rw-r--r-- 1 root   root   9672733 جوان   30 15:56 testdisk.log
ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ nano ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs
# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update
# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you're
# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run.
# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR="$HOME/yyy", where yyy is a shell-escaped
# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR="/yyy", where /yyy is an
# absolute path. No other format is supported.
# 
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/"

ubuntu= is name of user
ubuntuu= is name of laptop

we have ubuntu@ubuntuu:~$ AND root@ubuntuu:~#

[currentshaft]

It is likely someone or something deleted those directories. Try looking at logs in /var/log to find out why.

[khalilxg]

same, this action have been done after exactly one hour of opening port 80 and 443 for testing deployments of my apps, nginx as reverse proxy for other opened local ports. Why that was fast and so brutal, deleting default ubuntu named folders, i dont know why ! i thought ubuntu is more secure shelter

[khalilxg]

i didnt even can to login even, after the first reboot, like how and why. user informations likke user password is gone, also the log is deleted

[currentshaft]

same, this action have been done after exactly one hour of opening port 80 and 443 for testing deployments of my apps, nginx as reverse proxy for other opened local ports. Why that was fast and so brutal, deleting default ubuntu named folders, i dont know why ! i thought ubuntu is more secure shelter

Well, did you expose these ports to the Internet, or only your secure local network?