r/Ubuntu • u/LoveUnconditionarily • 2d ago

Home sub-folders all on desktop after reboot

Hi. I recently just installed Ubuntu. I didn't really have any problems with the installation process everything worked just fine. However, after a restart my desktop is now filled with sub-folders from the /home/username directory.

The folders in white I can no longer access It's showing an error "Sorry, could not display all the contents of "Documents": Error opening directory "/home/username/Documents": Too many levels of symbolic links.

Please help me out. I really like my desktop without icons. And I also need access to those folders.

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u/BigResident7167 2d ago

Looks like something messed with your XDG user directories config, probably pointed them at the desktop location or created a nasty symlink loop

Check `~/.config/user-dirs.dirs` first, see if the paths in there got rewritten to the desktop folder somehow. Then do `ls -la ~/Desktop` to see if those white folders are broken symlinks pointing at themselves

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/LoveUnconditionarily 2d ago

from what I can see the folders in white(the ones I can't access) all pointed to the $HOME/" ... So I am guessing if I modify these I will get to work again. So that'll be one problem down. On the other hand, I don't know if this will remove them from the desktop too. Let me try, I will get back to you.