ubuntu 16.04
 

over a year ago I lost the contents of the two dozen or more folders I had on my wallpaper. Around the same time I lost my drop and drag of bookmarks. I find
some reference to that concerning 18.04 and newer doesn't help with me. I am at
a loss for my next step. Some of the bookmarks I want are 2 or 3 hours long so
I can't put them on a disc. But later for that. I've tried the software library
but not had any sucsess there yet. Anybody out there have any ideas?

Your request is a bit vague. You lost folders of your wallpaper and bookmarks, which I take to mean you had folders on your desktop as well as bookmarks. Is that correct?

Sorry..I'm not too adept at computer language. I've bookmarked videos, photos, etc. and put them into folders and "stored"
them on the screen. Any time I want to watch one I just click on it and watch. About a year (or more) ago I clicked on one and a weird message came up. Clicked on another, same message. ALL folders same thing. Folders were empty. Previously I've had success in restarting so I did. Now even the folder icons were gone. I had then (and since) bookmarked numerous videos which I
intended to burn to disc and catalogue. Making new folders still works. Also now I can't drag a bookmark. I can, however drag from a folder. To k3b which will open a folder automatically and burn. A nice feature. I've not gotten used to cut and paste but I did try and it wasn't on the drop down menu where I usually see it. I see where some are having drag problems with 18.04 and newer but I can't imagine my problem as the same thing. I also haven't seen where they have found the fix, either. Makes me hesitate about upgrading, too. I've gone to some meet-up meetings but no one is using plain old Ubuntu. Strange. I hope this
explains something. Thanks.

Thanks for the clarification.
Straight Ubuntu uses the Gnome desktop environment, which may help narrow down searches. Normally when you place items or make a folder on the desktop it is really in the Desktop folder in your home directory. Do you see anything if you use the filemanger to look?

Doing a search for "gnome lost desktop folders" got me this link which looks like your problem and has a solution. https://askubuntu.com/questions/3276...op-disappeared ,the last post looks like it should fix you.

Not 16.04, which is in the subject, it was stll using Unity
I think it was 18.04 (LTS) that switched back to gnome.

gnome? unity? I don't know one from the other. It must be what they(whoever they are)gave me when I installed my 16,04 from
12.04. Am I supposed to be able to choose? Does one benefit more than the other? Should I know that before I upgrade? I've seen those and other names but never seen any explanation, just accept whatever is there. Don't they all do the same thing? I have tried 18.04 and now 20.04 in my other computer but wasn't comfortable with them and went back to 16.04 knowing I only have a year
left on my LTS. Should that make a difference?

gnome and unity are display managers (amongst others). They will determine the "look and feel" of your display. You can use whatever you like/prefer. They are different [obviously], but they all do the same thing: give you a visual presentation.

O.K. I think I can live with that but I still haven't solved the issue with dragging bookmarks. I can click on and watch bookmarks but that's all I can do. There must be some way to make a hard copy. I could before...why not now?

16.04
 

I still haven't found my drag problem but now something new has come up. When I have a video to watch I would have a green
download button under the screen which is how I would download. Now the green download button says "DOWNLOAD AS" with an arrow pointing down. clicking gets me a dropdown menu with mp4 360p and mp4 720p and some others. 360p I think is picture quality,
no?. It didn't do anything. Trying a 20 minute video I clicked and waited 20 or more minutes and checked downloads. Nothing.
Now I'm really confused. Did the developers change the green button or has my machine taken a dislike to me?

I think there might be a terminology issue here.

"Bookmark" common refers to a link that directs to a particular file or website in a different location. As I read this, it seems to me that OP is describing directories (folders) that contain files on his desktop.

I'm going out on a limb and suggest that OP open a file manager and navigate to his "Desktop" directory and take a look at its contents. If my guess is correct, he should see the directories and files on the Desktop. He can then copy them to the target of his choice.

Just a shot in the dark.

still on drag problem which morphed into download button issue which was driving me crazy(er) so in wondering if it came from the source I installed from a disc 12.04 into my other computer just to see. With that I don't get a green download button at
all. I've always been told that changes, corrections. modifications etc. always came with the.1 version. Or the next .04 one.
This is happening in a 4 yr old one. Can/do the powers that be do things like that? Or is there something in the software
center that I've never found? Every time I pat myself on the back this thing puts me in my place.

Drag-n-drop issue probably unrelated to the missing Bookmarks unless the bookmarks got dragged and dropped somewhere else accidentally. Have you tried the Search function?
I've never used Bookmarks in Unity like you describe. Its not a right-click option on files or folders, but is in the file manager menu "x - [] File Edit View Go Bookmarks Help".
Selecting Bookmarks from the menu shows that Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Downloads can be bookmarked but I fail to understand the usefulness of bookmarking those directories.
The drag-n-drop issue sounds like Preferences may have been altered trying to solve the first problem? or maybe a corrupted ~/.config.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is still supported, just did an update a few minutes ago. Are you doing the 16.04 updates?

To WFV....I'm not very adept with computers but have started with 10.04 when I bought a larger hard drive and they put 10.04
on it. Learning by trial and error I've gotten familiar(?) with downloading (and removing) software for almost anything I could
think of. That's how I was using "bookmark this page" and could watch the progress bar in the downloads. Then I could click on
and watch the video (I still can) or drag it to K3B or Brasero or a folder and from there I could burn it to a disc. I have bookmarked many videos with the intent of building myself a sort of library. K3b is great as I could drag the bookmark to K3B's page and drop it there and it would open it and record the video only. A year or more ago the drag feature stopped working but I could still drag from a folder. I couldn't move bookmarks at all. This was with all softwares up into 16.04. 17.04 through 20.04
I've gone back to 16.04 each time as I wasn't comfortable with the others. Now just recently the green download button under
the videos changed. It became download as with an arrow pointing down. Clicking it a drop down menu shows mp4 360p and others.
In the top task bar clicking "tools" is where I would find my downloads. Clicking download shows a list of the videos I've
watched, each one saying "file moved or missing". Now I'm really at a loss. It seems I can't download anything now. I guess you
can see the list of exchanges I've been doing others have offered suggestions, too. Maybe I can't see the forest for the trees
but I keep thinking did "they" do something or is it my computer? It is said computers are dumb, you have to tell it what to do.
But now I'm wondering if that's true. Thanks

which web browser are you using?

my browser is Firefox 77.0.1. 64bit. I don't think Ubuntu has anything other than .04 and .1, which we all know about that.