MacOS X: Missing File & Data Dictionary

Question

After I cancelled syncronization between my Mac and MEGA, my local target dictionary became empty. However, after I used du to acquire the disk status, I found my data are moved to ./.debris/2016-07-22/.... I tried chflags nohidden ./.debris/ to cancel the hidden status for ./.debris/ but the system still told me that chflags: ./.debris/: No such file or directory. Now how can I do to save my files?

Thanks

Answer 1

The directory .debris is not hidden because of the flag, but because it contains . in the front. Such files and directories in Unix-based systems are considered hidden, and by default are not displayed in OS X GUI (and regular CLI ls command).

You can try just to move the subdirectory 2016-07-22 outside of the hidden directory:

mv -i ./.debris/2016-07-22 ~/2016-07-22

or rename the .debris directory with:

mv -i .debris debris

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The error chflags: ./.debris/: No such file or directory is however strange, maybe you were executing chflags from a different directory. To be 100% sure, use absolute paths.

I guess your .debris is in your home directory, so you can use a ~ (tilde):

mv -i ~/.debris/2016-07-22 ~/2016-07-22

or

mv -i ~/.debris ~/debris

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The -i flag protects you against overwriting (and losing) files if the destination directory existed. It's not likely, but better stay safe.