I've looked all through the LimeWire OS X forums and haven't found anyone reporting my issue.

My Shared folder seems to have simply disappeared. I didn't change my sharing preferences and lose the link. My LimeWire "Saving" Preferences still show the right directory path to the location of where my Shared folder was, it just isn't there anymore.

I used Sherlock to search my hard disk for traces of my files. Nothing. I used Norton UnErase to see if the folder and/or files somehow ended up in the Trash. No sign of anything resembling any of the files I had in my Shared folder.

Has this happened to anyone else? I can accept the idea that the files are lost, but I would like to ensure that whatever happened doesn't happen again.

First I've heard of this.

Which version of Norton?

Hmmm--any luck with the Finder's Find command, set to also search for visibility "both"? (this will only search the Home account)

I wonder if a new home account was created In System Preferences->Accounts

I was using version 8.0.2 of UnErase as part of Norton SystemWorks 3.

I tried the "Find" command as you mentioned and also found nothing.

There are no new accounts on the PowerBook. I am the only account there is, but I thought I would check anyway - there are no others.

I am completely stumped.

Well, I'm stumped too. I can't think of any way a folder can disappear without user action.

Even LimeWire's "delete" button won't work on folders in the Library. It will work on files, but even then a "Are you sure . . . " dialog pops up.

For the record, could you post which LW version you were using? I'm assuming LW is working normally now, but if you could try to repeat the loss that would be VERY useful to know!

Just a small point. If it's a shared folder, it will show in LW's Library window. Why not click onto the folder, click onto one of the files inside & press the Explore/Browse button. This will open the folder up for you. Alternatively, I presume you also manually checked thru the hard disk drive (using the path set in the Prefs-Saving or Shared list which will show the folder's name, location & path. You can set a folder in the finder to Column view & follow the path thru yourself.

I'm using a legit copy of LimeWire 4.0.7 Pro.

I put a new "Shared" folder back where the old one was and everything seems to be running normally. My aliases and directory paths act as though nothing ever happened. LimeWire is saving files to the new Shared folder and all seems well.

I can't think how to set things up to repeat the situation, but if it happens again I'll post again, I guess.

Actually, it was the Library window that made me understand that something really wrong had happened. I originally clicked on the alias for the Shared folder that I keep in my Dock and got nothing but a big, gray question mark.

I then opened LimeWire and checked the Library and only saw an "Incomplete" folder - no more "Shared" folder.

I've tried everything I can think of to find some remnant of one of the files it contained that I could try to trace, but nothing showed up.

In my experience, when you open up the Sharing option in LW's Preferences, it will open to the same directory in which the previous shared folder was added. eg: If I added folder A as a shared folder within folder Z, then the sharing addition would show folder Z as the 1st option to add another folder from.

But if it's gone, it's a mystery. Have you tried restarting the comp in Safe mode & doing repairs such as permissions. Then restarting (The system may need a breath of fresh air.) There are utilities that can turn all invisible files within osx to become visible. Question is how/why LW stopped sharing in the 1st place.

If your alias stopped working then that sounds like a system problem. Bit of system refreshing could help.

gludwig--thanks for the info. Having the download folder in the dock is a bit unusual, and Norton's excellent reputation on OS 9 took a beating in the early days of OS X, but I can't think of how this could have happened. I'll keep watching and post back if I find anything.

Cheers

btw--have you tried deleting files and seeing if UnErase can recover them, just to see how well UnErase works with OS X?

Dare I but in again, lol. But in my experience with norton unerase it can take a day/2 before results or all results show up of files that've just been trashed. And that generally means 1-3 restarts.