Finder seems to be broken, Desktop files missing I have an old imac mid 2010 with upgraded ram and ssd that works really well. I mostly use it for coding and I did not updated / installed any new apps lately. 

Since 24hours ago:


finder seems to be broken (cannot launch it)
cannot access the cmd+space finder
all files in desktop disappeared


Everything else seems to be working. The computer seems to be fine except that. I have access to chrome, spotify, terminal etc through the shortcuts clicking on the bottom menu bar.

Following some instructions, I have tried to locate ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and there is nothing.

I would like to understand what is happening and fix it. I have run:

sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop


Here is the result https://pastebin.com/ehp52jBR
Massive thanks to @Tetsujin. It worked. 

Just a small tip if you experience the same issue, the re-install seemed to be stuck at '1 minute remaining'. I dug a little bit and the system was copying everything from a temp folder to the final destination. 

You can activate the logs by pressing Cmd/L or just wait until it finishes (it can take several hours/days).