After Catalina upgrade “Desktop” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found

Question

Today I upgrade to Catalina 10.15

When I go to Finder and try to open any location that is on my iCloud I get the following message

“Desktop” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.

Where Desktop is the location I am trying to access

Answer 1

I had the same problem. I fixed it by removing Documents and Desktop from the Finder sidebar and then adding them back.

Here's how to do it

• Open Finder.
• On the Finder sidebar, right-click (or Ctrl-click) on Documents and choose Remove from Sidebar. Do the same thing for Desktop.
• On the menu bar at the top, click Finder and choose Preferences.
• Click the Sidebar tab at the top.
• Check the box for Documents and Desktop.
• Close the Finder Preferences window.

NOTE: I've read that some users have a similar problem that might be related to iCloud and having the Documents and Desktop folders synced there. I don't use iCloud for these things, so I can't say if the problem is also caused by that.

Answer 2

So it seems you are having problem with your iCloud account because you logged in another user with the same iCloud credentials, so a different desktop basically.

How to fix this

• You can simply remove the Desktop and Documents from the sidebar by simply dragging it out until you see 'X' then release.
• Then simply go to your iCloud Settings by Clicking on appleid>iCloud>options>Check Desktop and Documents folder then done in system preferences and it should work normal again.

Answer 3

I had the same issue but it originated from renaming my home directory. While the methods above work, my preferred method is a bit cleaner:

1. Open Finder
2. In the upper left corner click 'Finder'
3. Click 'Preferences...' This will open
4. Click on the 'Sidebar' icon listed at the top of the new window
5. Check/uncheck which items you want to appear in the sidebar
6. Close out and you're good to go!

Hope this helps!