Desktop locked up and finder unuseable!

I tried to move an album containing 294 pictures to the desktop but it moved each picture separately and has overloaded the desktop I think! I used the export command from the iPhoto top line. I really proved to myself that I don't know what I'm doing!!
I couldn't move or delete desktop items and I couldn't use the finder and had to turn off the machine with the switch on the side. When turned back on, the desktop was crammed with icons. I went to help and tried to access system preferences but there was a message: disabled! I did get a window showing the hard drive but no files and I can't do anything with it. What now?
thanks, Haven
iMac Mac OS X (10.3.9) 700 MHz PowerPC G4

Click on the Safari icon in the Dock, and paste the following into Safari's address bar:
applescript://com.apple.scripteditor?action=new&script=do shell script "mkdir -p ~/Desktop/DesktopItems; mv ~/Desktop/*.jpg ~/Desktop/DesktopItems"
Once the Script Editor has opened, press the Run button; the Finder should then be responsive. You may need to replace jpg with jpeg or another extension in the script.
(19406)

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Help! Desktop completely blank and finder not opening

Hello
I was using iTunes last night and went away to make a cup of coffee. When I went back to it, the screen was flickering all over the place and only stopped when I closed the lid down and re-opened it. The screen returned to normal, but when I closed down iTunes and then tried to do the same with Finder, the 'spinning wheel of death' cropped up. So I went into Forced Quit to try to shut them down altogether.
The shut down didn't work and since then the desktop has been completely blank. Also, although Finder is indicated as being open on the dock, the taskbar at the top is competely blank when I close all other applications down. I can open other applications (hence being able to get online here!) but when I try to close the computer down, nothing happens.
So to summarise...
Finder is not responding and will not let me close it down
The Computer will not close down at all
I can't get into a Finder window in order to delete things to free up memory.
HELP!!! To add to misery, it's a work laptop!!!
Thanks!
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

thanks for that.
Unfortunately i have next to no memory left to be able to download this. Have been trying to delete some files and music to make some room, but cannot do this without Finder (vicious circle!!)
any more options?!!

User's Desktop locked out and root user can't fix it

check this out:
I've got a user on this machine that can't save anything to her desktop. The folder behaves like she has no write permissions, but a quick ls -al shows that the folder is owned by her, and her user has permissions to rwx . Even stranger, when I sudo su and try to issue a chmod for that folder, root is denied permission to do so. Stop me if I'm crazy, but isn't root God? Last time I checked, on a *nix based system, root can do anything it wants.
:/Users/xxxxxx root# chmod 755 Desktop/
chmod: Desktop/: Operation not permitted
yep...even though I'm root...not allowed....
even stranger
drwx------ 42 xxxxxx xxxxxx 1428 Nov 19 22:43 Desktop
and the user xxxxxx can't even write to the folder even though the
user has permission to....

yes, it was nailed for gutbunny, but this did not nail it for me. situation: new 32 GB USB flash drive that was allowed to go to sleep with mac book pro 15" 2.33 using mac os 10.4.11. it woke up with no permissions to write to owner or admin user or root. did the following:
GeoG5-2:/Volumes/DiskGO george$ sudo chflags nouchg .
chflags: .: Read-only file system
chflags: .: Read-only file system
GeoG5-2:/Volumes/DiskGO george$ pwd
/Volumes/DiskGO
GeoG5-2:/Volumes/DiskGO george$ ls -l
total 128
drwxrwxrwx 1 george george 16384 Feb 14 21:43 !DrawingLT
drwxrwxrwx 1 george george 16384 Feb 14 19:14 !TeachingLT
drwxrwxrwx 1 george george 16384 Jan 19 08:54 !Words(new)
drwxrwxrwx 1 george george 16384 Feb 15 08:26 DiskGO stuff
short answer is that neither admin george nor root can unlock this thumb drive. and i've tried this with lock/unlock in both positions. should i send it back to the mfgr for replacement?
thanks
george

I recently thought I was updating my Safari browser. When completed, I put all those little files that were on the desktop into the trash. Now my trash is saying it can't be emptied because there are locked files and I don't know how to unlock them

I recently thought I was updating my Safari browser. When completed, I put all those little files that were on the desktop into the trash. Now my trash is saying it can't be emptied because there are locked files and I don't know how to unlock them or get them out of my trash and they keep multiplying. And to make matters worse, I tried renaming them as pdf files thinking that might do the trick.

oh boy ! I'd ask you if you knew what kind of files they were or where they came from, but I don't think you could help me a bunch. Try going to the Utilities folder and running Disk Utilities. If you want to empty the Trash and it won't empty, go to the finder and choose "secure Empty trash". Worse case scenario-you may have to reinstall Snow Leopard, but I don't know what else to suggest. If you have a DVD of Snow Leopard, boot up from that, and reinstall the OS. This will not touch the stuff you have on your Hard Drive, then you can update from 10.6 to 10.6.8, otherwise Onyx? Maybe those files are part of the OS which needs them to keep running. if you hold down the Shift key on reboot, you can reboot in Safe mode and maybe you can take the files out of the trash that way
good luck
John B

Hi, I have 5 locked fonts on my desktop, G5 PPC, and cannot move to trash and delete. Anyone know how to delete these font icons? Thanks for helping.

Hi, I have 5 locked fonts on my desktop, G5 PPC, and cannot move to trash and delete. Anyone know how to delete these font icons? Thanks for helping.

Select them in the Finder, choose Get Info from the File menu, and clear the Locked box.
(59958)

I am using a Photoshop cs2, and I wonder if it is possible to keep the settings of the guidelines when closing an image, with the actual document ? It would be nice to have the guidelines locked down, I find it than when opening the same or another image,

I am using a Photoshop cs2, and I wonder if it is possible to keep the settings of the guidelines when closing an image, with the actual document ? It would be nice to have the guidelines locked down, I find it than when opening the same or another image, the guidelines are not locked, it is annoying to have to lock them down again. and it would actually be nice, to ba able to give specific directions when placing the guidelines. Thanks

Then why are the guides unlocked when I reopen a document that I saved with the guides locked ?
Thanks.

What to do if your iphone is stolen and find my iphone is disabled in your phone. Is there a possible chance to lock my iphone? How? Thanks.

What to do if your iphone is stolen and find my iphone is disabled in your phone. Is there a possible chance to lock my iphone? How? Thanks.
Uhm Good day i have a problem because my iphone 5s is stolen Can you give me possible ways to lock my iphone? because find my iphone is disabled in my iphone, my friends keep telling me that i should icloud locked it how could i do that? Thanks
By the way i have my serial number with me incase you can trace it and locate where my iphone is it could be a great help.
Thanks

https://www.apple.com/icloud/find-my-iphone.html
iCloud: Locate your device
iCloud: Find My iPhone overview
If you don't have Find My iPhone on, you can't lock it. You should report it to your carrier and your carrier might blacklist the phone from use.

I've lost my iphone with passcode lock and find my iphone lock on but the wifi n cellular data was turned off so no way i can trace it so the only question remains is will the person who finds it be able to unlock it and use it as his own ?

i've lost my iphone with passcode lock and find my iphone lock on but the wifi n cellular data was turned off so no way i can trace it so the only question remains is will the person who finds it be able to unlock it and use it as his own ?
is it possible to change imei number?
i've tried for so many times n still the phone is offline so i've set it to offline mode with my message but it never shows the last location why?

If the device is found, nobody can use it without knowing your Apple ID and password.
The phone will only show it's location if it is connected to cellular network or Wi-Fi. If those options are switched off, you can't locate the phone.
With iOS 7, Find My iPhone includes a new feature called Activation Lock, which is designed to prevent anyone else from using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch if you ever lose it. It starts working the moment you turn on Find My iPhone in iOS 7. With Activation Lock, your Apple ID and password will be required before anyone can:
Turn off Find My iPhone on your device
Erase your device
Reactivate and use your device
This can help you keep your device secure, even if it is in the wrong hands, and can improve your chances of recovering it. Even if you erase your device remotely, Activation Lock can continue to deter anyone from reactivating your device without your permission. All you need to do is keep Find My iPhone turned on, andremember your Apple ID and password.
What steps should I take if I misplace my device?
If you ever misplace your device—whether it’s just lost or you think it may have been stolen—you should put it into Lost Mode immediately using Find My iPhone.
Lost Mode locks your screen with a four-digit passcode and lets you display a custom message with your phone number to help you get it back. You can also remotely erase your device if needed, and your custom message will continue to display even after the device is erased.
While Activation Lock works in the background to make it more difficult for someone to use or sell your missing device, Lost Mode clearly indicates to anyone who finds your device that it still belongs to you and can’t be reactivated without your password.
To put a device into Lost Mode, sign in to icloud.com/find from a Mac or PC or use the Find My iPhone iOS app.
For more information, read what to do if your device is lost or stolen.
copied from iCloud: Find My iPhone Activation Lock in iOS 7

What is the name of the folders which are your backup of Itunes library? I am recovering from a virus, have no workable desktop in Win XP, but can search and find files and folders. I would like to move these backup files to a new computer

what is the name of the folders which are the backup of Itunes library? I am recovering from a virus, have no workable desktop in Win XP, but can search and find files and folders. I would like to move these backup files to a new computer, authorize it and sync with Iphone 3Gs and Ipod 5th gen.
I

I second the whole iTunes folder approach.
If for some reason you have split the media folder from the library files then the media folder needs to restored to the same path it used to have while the library files can be copied into the music folder of your new profile.
If in dobut, backup up the entire Documents and Settings folder before wiping the infected drive, but be selective about what you restore as many viruses drop active components capable of reinfecting the compuer in the temp folders and internet caches. It is much easier to backup more than you need than to discover after the fact that you no longer have access to some vital project you'd been storing in a folder on the desktop.
tt2

I forgot my ipad lock code and when i tried to restore it from yhe itunes it keeps requiring to switch off my ipad finder, i need yo open it whatever is the way

I forgot my ipad lock code and when i tried to restore it from yhe itunes it keeps requiring to switch off my ipad finder, i need yo open it whatever is the way

You can turn Find My iPad 'off' by going to http://icloud.com and logging into your account, select the iPad from the device list in the 'Find My iPhone' section on that site, and 'remove from account'

Desktop and finder window icons missing

Some of the icons on the top of my desktop suddenly went blank. they are there since I can click where they were and still use them. The same has happened to the top of the finder window as well. Here are some screen shots. Any one have an idea how to fix this? I ran MainMenu Pro disk permissions repair, cleaned the cache, did all maintenance and restarted with the no result.

Do a backup.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist and com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by restarting and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

When I connect an external hard drive to macbook pro it is very slow to appear on the desktop and Finder window, sometimes 20 mins or more, even with auto backup switched off . any clues?

when I connect an external hard drive to macbook pro it is very slow to appear on the desktop and Finder window, sometimes 20 mins or more, even with auto backup switched off . any clues?

Hi robfromkinglake west,
Try and isolate the issue. Check if it's only with this drive.
Check the drive with Disk Utility
Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1782
I've never seen a drive take 20 minutes to mount.
Nubz

My External Hard Drive and Pen Drives doesn't show up in desktop but shows in finder.

Hi, I've been wondering why my Pen Drives and Hard Drives won't show up in desktop when I plug it in.
Its showing up in finder but I cant seem to solve this problem. help!

No problem.
(1) Click on the Finder icon in the Dock. If your dock is on the bottom of the screen, it is the icon on the far left.
(2) Now, look at the menu called Finder at the top left of your screen and find "Preferences there". Or, you can just press command-, (command-comma).
(3) Anyway, once the Preference window opens select the category "General" from the choices there. You will see a list of things which you can choose to have displayed on the Desktop. Make your selections and close the window.
charlie

I have been using airplay speakers for about 18 months successfully and I now find that it has a locked symbol and not always obtainable

I have been using airplay speakers for about 18 months sucessfully and now find it has a locked symbol and isn't always available

I have been using airplay speakers for about 18 months sucessfully and now find it has a locked symbol and isn't always available

There was a change in my desktop drag and drop post Lion update! Cannot drag or download to the desktop per se. It has to go into the desktop window in the finder now?

It is odd: pre update (the latest) I could download to my literal desktop, or drag and drop a photo from iPhoto, an mp3 to mail later from iTunes.....Now I can only do that from within the finder in the "desktop" window. In other words: If I download (I prefer to download onto my desktop rather than the download folder-window. I want to have control over ny desktop again (rather than the folder-window entitled "desktop"....Gratefully, Dennis

Rereading this question which I wrote after a long night makes me dizzy....But I don't know how to express it differently...I have lost my contol of the desktop you see on my iMac screen with all desktop responsibilities now only available via the finder window entitled "desktop".

Desktop locked up and finder unuseable!

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