macOS Sonoma desktop items won't move from top right corner

I think I figured out the reason this was happening. I had desktop widgets turned on, when I turned them off the overlapping behavior completely stopped and dropped/created icons behaved like they did on my pre-Sonoma desktop.

In Setting - > Desktop & Dock, uncheck 'On Desktop' under the Widgets sections:

UPDATE: I just updated my OS to Version 14.2 (23C64). NOPE. STILL does NOT work. Reverts back to problem after a short time no matter whose fix I try. You'd think that Apple would have fixed this by now (two OS updates later) given it's the actual desktop malfunctioning.

Possibly Solved?—(edit…nope)

I’ve been having the identical issue with several files. After reading this post I turned off “Snap to Grid” (I don’t use Stacks). After closing that Preference window the offending file still wouldn’t move out of the top right (directly over where I’ve always kept my hard drive icon).

I tried it again, turning it on and off, still no luck. Finally, I turned Snap to Grid back on and then gave a slight “wiggle” to “Grid Spacing”, just kind of shifting my desktop file spacing back and forth a tiny bit. Dunno if I’m actually even on a slightly different spacing than I was before, but it WORKED! I was immediately able to drag the offending file away and place it anywhere on the desktop. I also used “Clean Up” and everything spaced out normally. Shut down, restarted, but so far it’s still working fine. I’ve been trying to replicate the issue now but cannot and all those tools are working normally (Snap to Grid, Grid Spacing, Icon Size, etc). Try "wiggling" and report back?

PS—another thing about when the issue was happening—if the file was moved anywhere else on the desktop it kept snapping back to the top right. However, it WOULD let me place the item into a folder, any folder. But, the moment I removed it from that folder no matter where I placed it, it once again snapped to the top right. Just something for all of us with this issue to also try to help narrow down the bug.

Sorry—I re-read the OP’s post and it looks like they tried some of this too. Dunno; maybe it will start with me again. Wiggle EVERYTHING in View Options and see what happens.

I encountered this problem earlier tonight, where all of a sudden everything on the desktop jumped up and flew off to the upper right area of the screen and snapped to some kind of grid. Anything I tried to move just ignored me and snapped back to its new position. Kind of annoying and I had no clue what was causing it.

Well, for what it's worth, a couple minutes ago I right clicked in the MacBook Pro desktop area and noticed in the menu that appeared was an item, "Use Stacks" with a check mark next to it. Not knowing what "Use Stacks" even means, I un-checked it and by sheer dumb luck, my desktop immediately re-oriented back to what I was familiar with and was apparently functioning "normally" again. I say, "for what it's worth" because I noticed comments from other people saying that un-checking "Use Stacks" had NOT worked for them. Why it worked for me is a mystery.

Oh, I should also mention (in case it has some bearing on things) that before solving the problem by un-checking "Use Stacks" as described above, I first tried advice from someone called jskoizumi, who said go to settings/ Desktop and Dock, scroll down to the Widgets section and uncheck the box next to "On Desktop". That had worked, apparently, and it must have also worked for others because jskoizumi's post is now in position 2 of the thread (isn't that an idicator of the most popular answer?).

Anyway, I tried that first but got no discernible result. Still, perhaps it somehow played a part a few minutes later when I had success with a method that hadn't worked for some other folks. Again, it's a mystery.

UPDATE: Still a problem. Just reverts back after a few minutes of use. Apple needs to fix this. The Terminal hacks don't solve it. At least not for me.

Solution so far.

Pasting;

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true; killall Finder

Into terminal is working so far.

Will update if it glitches again.

Still happening after updating to 14.2 (23C64)

This is driving me crazy and slowing down my work!

PLEASE FIX IT

It's crazy that this issue keeps happening since MONTHS

APPLE, STOP IGNORING US AND FIX IT

Why do we have to discover solutions on our own? Do Apple developers ever consider their users and how much time, money, and frustration these "updates" create? Do they actually think that piling all of those files together in the upper right corner was helpful? I think not. What this user wants: each time an update occurs a thorough printed description of what the update will do to my Mac and how to use that update efficiently should be provided. Enough time to acclimate and practice the updates before being slapped with a new one would also be helpful.

Which solution worked? Not helpful to just post 'this worked!'.

Same here. I've tried nearly everything I can think of. Just resorting to having it sort my files by "Date Added" which I don't like because it's backwords (to me) but at least it's not treating my desktop like it's full and just piling everything up in one corner. Come on Mac!

I just want everyone to know who is trying to troubleshoot this that I recently reformatted my disk and did a clean install of Sonoma from a bootable drive. I did not restore from a previous install, I'm starting from scratch!

The issue happens right out of the box.

I'm hopeful jskoizumi's solution to "uncheck 'On Desktop' under the Widgets section" is the answer, as this was on by default.

Very disappointed this is not on Apple's radar, or addressed in any of the updates since release.

aliakhavan89 wrote:

From time to time, the any items added to desktop are automatically moved to the top right corner and they are stacked on top of each other. I cannot move any of the items. I couldn't solve this issue by relaunching the Finder, killing all Dock, or even rebooting in Safe Mode. Some random actions such as changing the icon size or grid or changing the file sort settings would temporarily resolve the issue, but sometimes when a file is created and saved on the desktop (or copied to the desktop, for example from the photo app) the issue comes back again. Do you have any recommendations on how to fix that?

Control click on the Desktop.... turn off Stacks (?) make some changes

sort by(?)

cleanup by(?)

ref: Use desktop stacks on Mac

ref: new features Organize your Mac desktop with Stage Manager

I've been encountering this issue as well, it is not the same behaviour as previous mac OS versions. I have Snap to Grid on, with stacks off, and newly created files or files dragged are still all placed on top of each other in the top right corner.

A temporary fix for you to spread them out:

1. Enable Snap to Grid
2. On the desktop, click and drag a box around the icons in the top right corner to select them all.
3. Once the top right corner items sleected, drag and release them away from the corner of the desktop, they will automatically snap to grid and are no longer overlapping.

The issue keeps coming back, It has something to do with Snap To Grid for sure. I found these instructions to just completely reset desktop item settings which fixes the problem for a while, but i have to rearrange my desktop icons everytime and resize them again:

Try resetting the desktop view settings:

1. 1. 1. Open Terminal.
      2. Paste the following, and then press return:
      3. rm -f "${HOME}/Desktop/.DS_Store" && defaults delete com.apple.finder DesktopViewSettings && killall Finder
      4. Choose Log out <Name> from the Apple menu, and then click on Log out.
      5. Log back in.