Desktop items spontaneously rearranged

I am used to arrange the items in my desktop in "clumps." I would go between an external 1080P display (set as main) at home and the MacBook Pro 15" display while on the go, and before Lion, nothing weird has happened to my desktop.
Recently my desktop started rearrange itself at random times. I have not been able to isolate the problem, but it seems to start occurring after I upgraded to Lion. Has anyone gotten the same problem as well?

Have you gone to your View menu in Finder and chose "Sort by" "None"?

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Xfce desktop items rearrange themselves between reboots

Hello, I am a new Arch Linux user and this is my first thread. Please pardon any possible mistakes I made on this post.
Almost every time Xfce starts the desktop icons are rearranged. After searching the wiki, I found this:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xf … themselves
So after deleting the said files, I restarted Xfce. The problem was not gone.
Then I noticed that it was more complicated: I think it's not the desktop item positions that are changing, but the desktop's margins.
Not all icons are rearranged; only those on the right and the bottom sides of the desktop, the last collumns and rows.
In /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons.screen0-1350x728.rc these files' positions change back to row=0 col=0 and cannot be placed back to their original location.
The next time I restart Xfce the inaccesible spaces on the desktop are ok once again, and I place the items there. Then the problem repeats itself.
Is there any configuration file I should have manually edited?
I'm using Xfce, xfwm with compositing enabled, and no conky or any other desktop decorations.
inxi -G output:
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GF106 [GeForce GTS 450]
Display Server: X.Org 1.15.1 driver: nvidia
Resolution: [email protected]
GLX Renderer: GeForce GTS 450/PCIe/SSE2
GLX Version: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 304.121
EDIT: This might be actually caused by removing USB flash drives while the computer is shut down. The mentioned file is not changed, ergo a mess is caused when it's read on startup. I can't confirm this, though.
EDIT #2: No, it happened again, and I had not removed any usb flash drives.
Last edited by Sudowoodo (2014-05-18 07:45:37)

Go to ~/Library/Preferences. Move the com.apple.desktop.plist file to the Trash.
Restart your Mac.
~ (Tilde) represents your Home folder.

Random unresponsive desktop items since 10.5.7

I've noticed since 10.5.7 every now a then the desktop items become completely un-clickable / un-dragable, Finder still works perfectly, the problem is only with the desktop items and folders.
A quick 'killall Finder' command fixes the problem in Terminal.
Anyone notice this?

I have had the problems for months. Ever since I upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5. I don't recall when that was now or exactly which version, but people have been reporting this ever since 10.5 came out it looks like (by the dates).
Not only is the desktop frozen, but every now & then every icon on the desktop gets rearranged and jammed all to the right side.
When fronzen, I find that all I have to do is click the Mac OS icon in the dock which opens a window, then I minimize that window (yellow dot button), and Finder re-activates.
Moderately annoying until all icons get rearranged (then its a major aggravation even if there's not much to rearrange).
Seems like plenty of people have it, and no real determination as to cause or fix.
-- gw

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of it.

When I login, all of my desktop items are gone, the "Finder" icon is bouncing and a message asking to restore windows is blinking but unresponsive. I can't exit out of it. What do I do? I've tried force quitting, and it doesn't get rid of this message. When I login to my husband's account, this message does not appear.

Hey sunnyday7!
Here is an article that can help you address this issue:
OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3411
Additional Information
OS X automatically relaunches the Finder when it is quit. If the Finder is unresponsive, use Force Quit to relaunch it. Select Finder in the Force Quit Window or Dock, then click Relaunch.
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities. Have a good one!
-Braden

Lost all my desktop items when transfered it to a folder in Mahintos HD, Plz Help

There were photographs and videos of my new born baby on desktop, I did drag and drop to move all the desktop items to a folder in Machintos HD, Then I shut down the machine, after some time when I restarted that folder is not reflecting my files and all files from my desktop are gone and i can't find files even in finder but HD volume is same as b4, so I am sure the file is not deleted, its not even there in Trash, I use imac27 osx 10.9.5, It would be very kind act of yours if you can help me retrieve my new born baby's photographs and videos, very precious to me

Restore from your Time Machine backup, assuming these photos are precious to you then you should have been backing up the computer. If you have not then the files may still be on the machine, you just need t search for them. Use a search tool such as Find Any File to help locate them.

Desktop items get unsorted after cold boot on Snow Leopard 10.6.2

The Desktop items get unsorted after cold boot on Mac OS X 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard).
I have about 25 items (mostly aliases of files or folders) on the Desktop, sorted as vertical rows on left and right side of the screen.
When the issue hits, they all get located as vertical rows on the right side of the screen, unsorted in relation to their custom relative position before the issue.
Any idea? Thanks.

Hi ApMaX
According to wikipedia the .DS_Store files on Mac OS X contain the metadata for icon position and view settings. If the file permissions for the Desktop .DS_Store file were incorrect then one could assume that the icon position and view settings aren't being saved.
First let us check the permissions on the .DS_Store file for the Desktop we can do this by running the following command in Terminal (located in the Utilities folder)
ls -ld /Users/<<UserName>>/Desktop/.DS_Store
replacing <<UserName>> with the short name of your user account (name as viewed in the finder sidebar)
On my system I get the following permissions readout
-rw-------@
Further info on .DS_Store files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store
If your permissions differ then we will look at correcting them.
J.C
Message was edited by: J.C

Every time I open a New File from the File Menu and I open it all of my desktop items are in it. What's up with that?

Every time I open a New File from the File Menu and I open it all of my desktop items are in it. What's up with that?

This is configured in Finder preferences under the General icon. You can make some changes to that behavior.

I have Thunderbird 24.5.0. When I double click the desktop item to open it up, it opens immediately, but when I'm in the main page with all the folders on the

I have Thunderbird 24.5.0. When I double click the desktop item to open it up, it opens immediately, but when I'm in the main page with all the folders on the left & the corresponding email details on the right of that same page, it seems to have problems. Before, when I would highlight a certain box / folder (whether it would b “inbox”, “sent” folder, “trash” folder, or whatever, it takes a good 5 min (minimum) to open that certain folder so I can see the emails of that folder.
Can u help me determine what is causing this? Just 3 days ago, it was fine.
Thank you

What is your anti-virus software?

Backing up Desktop items in Time Machine

Time Machine has been ignoring and not backing up my desktop items since last November. Can anyone explain why and how I can get it to back my desktop. Thanks

J G B wrote:
I just don't seem to have the "com.apple.TimeMachine.plist " file anywhere. is that possible?
Are you trying to search for it, or navigating via the Finder? (It's a system file, so won't show up with the default search.)
Open a Finder window. Select your hard drive name (probably +Macintosh HD+ ). There should be several folders at the "top" level, including Applications, Library, System, etc.
You want Library. Inside it is a Preferences folder containing com.apple.TimeMachine.plist

Skype setup UI issues with enlarged desktop item s...

The issue is with the latest automatic update.
With enlarged size of desktop items and fonts (Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization->Display->Change the size of all items) the text in the setup window overlaps with some setup options, effectively making them impossible to see and click. I'm using Windows 8.1 (Russian). Screenshot attached.
Setting desktop item size back to 100% fixes the window.
Attachments:
skype_setup2.png ‏135 KB

That's been a known issue for quite some time they have yet to address. Higher than normal DPI settings will cause that issue. The only solution is to set your DPI settings to normal temporarily or disable DPI scaling for the executable.

How to make desktop items stay in same position?

I notice that on reboot and at other times, the icons on my desktop move around. Mostly it's the disk drives - I'd like them to stay in one place on the desktop, in particular the internal disk and a few external drives to be in a vertical column on the right edge of the screen. I found some solutions for OS9 and Tiger (save/restore desktop state). But oddly none are for Panther. Does anyone know a trick in 10.3 to make things stay where I put them?!?
Mike

Click on the Desktop then select Show View Options from the Finder's View menu. Check the box labeled "Snap to Grid". If you prefer Desktop items be arranged alphabetically you can also select Name from the Arrange By drop down menu.

IMac monitor - desktop items disappear/reappear - applications pause

For about a week now, every 2 minutes all of my desktop icons will disappear and then reappear. If I have a folder open, such as the Pictures folder, it will close during this process.
If I am using Firefox or Safari or Photoshop, when the desktop items disappear, so does my mouse's ability to function on the application. I have to click on the application again for the mouse to function on it.
Today I was attempting to burn files to a DVD, but it fails because of this "refreshing" or whatever you call this symptom. Last night my computer did appear to do its weekly backup, (it said it was successful) but I wanted to copy files onto a DVD just in case.
Can someone give me some direction on how to troubleshoot this? In beginner terms? I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.
P.S. The only new things that happened recently that I can think of was that I did a software upgrade (think it was Quicktime...) and downloaded a Wordpress Theme.

Sometimes, starting up in SafeBoot (shift key held after start tone, login window appears
and semi-normal desktop Finder appears; but this is in a reduced function mode) and a
'repair disk permissions' in Disk Utility of the computer's volume on the Mac HD may help.
And after that, or any other minor repairs done in SafeBoot, the computer gets a normal
restart so the rest of the OS will be up and running. If that does not help, there are other
things one may try and do to help it. The matter involves some troubleshooting and a
cause and effect approach is sometimes taken; or on other occasions, a user may try a
long laundry-list of things and hope some issue just goes away; if one or another thing
happens to work. In this instance, learning of a specific issue's cure may not result.
Some items causing a problem, such as those cited above, may be dealt with while
the computer is started up in SafeBoot mode; since extensions and other parts of
such things may be turned off. So, some items like Stuffit can be removed when
they are disabled in SafeBoot. Be sure to run 'repair disk permissions' before and
after software updates, since for some reason this appears to help the system.
Sometimes, just basic system maintenance such as repair disk permissions, running
time/date cron-like routines (see AppleJack download, or OnyX in automation) can
resolve issues that may otherwise involve knowing more about how the system works.
These kinds of tools, free to download and try, can save a bit of trouble; some of that
is preventive in that the routines can be done per schedule to keep the system well.
The bootable installer system disc can be helpful, since there are optional tools in the
Disk Utility on that disc's boot volume; ahead of actually running the Installer itself. A
menu bar appears in the first full Installer window with drop down menus in it, and of
these a few options appear. And in the Disk Utility, chosen from the Installer menu,
there are a variety of tools which can totally obliterate or attempt a repair to the HDD.
An 'archive & install' and then update the resulting new system to the latest version
of OS X including security update, java, quicktime, safari, and other parts would follow;
in some cases, perhaps extreme, this is one way to resolve system software issue.
There are others, but this is among the last but not least. Further study is recommended
before going the A&I plus update the new system folder route; depending on what else
is going on in the system as it exists now. If this archive & install is performed, be sure
the checkbox to save user account info is marked, so the new system will retain this...
In any event...
Good Luck & happy computing!

Desktop items gone...or hidden..?

After some attempts to run DiskWarrior from one HD to another I was asked for privileges and I must have done something wrong.
My desktops items are not there (don't appear on desktop) and I can't find them anywhere on my HDs.
But... tried to copy 2 older items which used to be on desktop from an external HD. It told me, those items are already there - on desktop (can't see them).
Is there a trick to make them visible..?
All those privileges...
Thanks
bafomet

A quick check can be done from the terminal. Open up the terminal (/Applications/Utility/Terminal) and the type in the following (you can copy and paste if you'd like):
ls -a ~/Desktop
That will show you all the files, hidden and non-hidden, on your Desktop. HTH.
-NifflerX

Desktop items only appearing in finder

I recently upgraded the hardrive on a Macbook 2008. All was fine after inital boot up. I was attempting to recover lost files and somehow all of the desktop items disappeared. They are only appearing in Finder and I can't drag them to the des

Also, I can click on desktop and the items will appear, but when I restart the computer they are not there. I've looked at the Finder preferences and every thing is checked.

Finder not responding/desktop items not visible

Help!! Two nights ago the power flickered off and back on while I was using my Mac; I was playing a trial version of a game downloaded from Big Fish Games (large file) when the power went off. There was a huge storm coming through, so as soon as the power came back on (and the mac) I forced shut down.
since then at startup I cannot get finder to work or my desktop items to display. I can access most programs that are in my dock (iPhoto, Safari, Pages, etc) but not some (such as Photoshop Elements).
I've safe booted, but no change.
All possible solutions I've read about online require accessing the applications folder. I'm far from Mac savvy, and the only way I know of getting to my apps folder is through Finder; since it's hung up I can't get there. Also all references I've seen to run Terminal also start through the finder.
I have everything backed up on an external hard drive which is currently disconnected from the Mac (I can't get the Mac to recognize it now when I reconnect the cable).
Any thoughts?? Could finder be hung up on that big game file? If so, any ideas how to access it to remove it (without using Finder)?
I really appreciate anyone's help with this!

To have used a utility such as AppZapper to remove the newer QuickTime version
and its new parts, including install package receipt, it may have been possible to
reinstall the earlier version of QuickTime that was not problematic.
When one knows where the exact parts reside in the system, reverting to an older
version of installed software is a little easier. As with iTunes, reverting does require
one to find several parts and sometimes odd bits, and remove them to do the task.
(In that instance, I save .dmg files of installers for use if needed, to reinstall offline
and this also is handy for when a specific version is no longer available online.)
But, given other possibilities, that may not have solved an issue which could have
been caused by some conflict in software including user-added third-party apps.
Sounds like you resolved the issue adequately, at least until the next system update.
When going from OS X 10.4.x to OS X 10.5, sometimes old system parts remain in
the active system folder and they can make things run amok and act odd. Same in
the older upgrade path from Panther to Tiger; a careful look through the resulting
upgraded system is recommended before running the software update & adding more.
Good luck & happy computing!

Desktop items spontaneously rearranged

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