Missing files from desktop.

I've been a bit lazy recently, saving image and text files to the desktop temporarily, with the intention of deleting them once i had no need of them anymore. Needless to say some files i still need and somehow they have just disappeared and i'd like to find them.

After some time troubleshooting what was initially a problem finding/restoring my missing firefox profile (another issue i'm still working on), i noticed the desktop didn't load properly, shortcuts and files were missing. After some time the desktop "junk" recovered itself in the background whilst i was in firefox, half my icons had returned, then after another few moments i had it all back. I deleted some of the useless files to clear some space and look for a file there i was told i needed for firefox after a browser crash, with no luck. I thought maybe a reboot would reset what might have been a bad boot. Maybe reset the memory. Only the icons are gone again, but with the exception of one of the random text files.

I'm completely stumped on this one. The files were gone, then they weren't and now they're mostly gone again. Someone on another site with a similar issue was told it might be a corrupt user profile? Anyway, i have a feeling my missing firefox profile and this problem are connected. Firefox had a brain fart last night whilst i was using it, asked me to reconfirm my login details for sites that usually remember it and i didn't take much notice. But my entire history, along with bookmarks is gone.

Help with resolving either would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Here's some more info. The desktop "folder" shows just that one text file as well so there is some consistency there, but i decided to do a search for a file that was on the desktop i remembered the name of. The file still seems to be there. Windows is telling me the file is on the desktop and i even opened it and viewed the file, i just can't see it on the desktop. If the file is there and accessible maybe the firefox profile isn't related. I'm glad the data seems to still physically be there, but it would be nice to resolve the problem of not being able to see it.

OK, sorry for the double post, i didn't want to have a huge intimidating first post. But i found my files. I had a second user account for guests which i deleted, it was called "Temp" and i realised that probably wasn't a good idea, especially after reading that that is the name given to a temporary user profile if the intended windows profile doesn't load properly. I deleted the profile and saved any files just in case (to my current, main profiles desktop (this action was the default save location for this process).

The weird thing is, this is where the files are. In this "temp\temp\desktop" folder on my (actual) desktop (the other folders in this directory, music, videos, documents are empty).

So really i don't know how these ended up there and i'm still trying to solve this firefox profile issue.

Thanks for the reply, but i have covered these basic steps. This is why i've resorted to asking people who might be experience with the nuances of these issues for some personal tips.

As far as the FF profile goes, it's like it was only just installed. There are no backups for some reason. There does seem to be a secondary FF profile folder which i'm trying to access at the moment in firefox, but the protocol for switching profiles doesn't seem to want to play ball. SeaMonkey doesn't seem to registor anything i can work with to resolve the issue, but i'm on the FF forums as we speak asking for help there too.

Basically all my data is just gone. Vanished. Unless it is in this mysterious secondary profile. But i'm not holding my hopes up as it doesn't seem to be a complete folder. the new profile i'm running off seems to have more files in than the other. Which doesn't seem right when the other profile has been active at least 5 years.

Hello, I have the EXACT same problem. On Friday, 8/7/15, everything seemed to be fine. On Sat, 8/8/15 AM, I found all but 4 bookmarks totally gone, no backups where they ordinarily would be. An hour later, my desktop was 90% gone. I did System Restore and half of my desktop returned. I was able to go back one week in Desktop Previous Versions and get everything from that time, but I didn't have any backup for the entire week, a LOT of work now gone. I've run Recuva, done all Windows Updates, tried to time-machine back in Firefox, and changed User Profile details. Nothing. Have you got an answer? Thanks in advance! Tom

Hey Tommyzax, i was never able to resolve this problem in firefox, i managed to recover most of my missing sites i needed for reference purposes through my own remembering and various independent logs on my computer (such as chat histories). However this problem persisted with future firefox profiles, after about 3 weeks, the (second) profile went missing. I started another (third) profile and by the next day that was gone as well at which point i gave up.

BUT, do not fear. I did save the original profile folder i couldn't seem to open in firefox and imported it into Google Chrome. Voila! My original, entire profile complete with bookmark tabs back in action and not a problem since. It was a while ago now, but i remember the process being pretty simple at the time, moving it along to Chrome. Although i did lose a lot of bookmarks from the hidden bookmark menu, my last bookmark save was from 3 years ago and i was never able to recover that information.

EDIT: I do notice that both of our problems happened right after Windows updates.

EDIT 2: As for your desktop data, i found that in a mysterious duplicate folder in my "my documents" that seemed to be where all the desktop stuff was "dumped". I found it looking for stuff on my desktop as i could locate the files manually in the windows search function, by remembering the file names and typing them in. The files would show up, but seemed to be missing where they were supposed to be located. Upon further inspection they were in a desktop folder, it just wasn't the actual desktop. Very bizarre.