Princessdebula

Q: Could someone tell me how to stop folders and icons from rearranging themselves

Before I updated to El Capitan I could arrange folders on my desktop or within any folder I opened in finder in whatever order I wished and they would STAY THAT WAY. Now, folders and icons within folders rearrange themselves, usually alphabetically, every time I add, remove, or move something within a folder. This is causing serious grief for me and making my workflow extremely inefficient.

 

I've managed to stop the folders on my desktop from rearranging by going into View > Show View Options > and selecting Sort: None (thank you Mac forum), and I can do this in a folder if I want to rearrange things myself, but I seem to need to do this for every single folder individually and there's no guarantee that the next time I turn on my computer it will still be in that order. Before El Capitan I could move my folders manually on my desktop and within a folder, and if things were getting a little messy, or I wanted to start over I simply selected Sort > By Name and everything would be neatly back to alphabetical, in grid form, on the right side of my screen or in a grid at the top of a folder. AND...if I wanted to manually move a folder or an icon after sorting by name, I could still do that, without having to go to Sort: None. Now, if I say Sort: None, which seems to be the only way to manually sort icons or folders, suddenly my neat grid of folders are all over my desktop or jumbled up within a folder, unlike before when they would simply stay in a grid in alphabetical order, making it a lot easier to find things when rearranging manually. In my workflow I need to be able to sort things and have them stay there, so how do I get this to work as before. Could someone please tell me if there is a simple way to have things work as they used to, when the only time my folders or icons arranged themselves was when I TOLD THEM TO, bearing in mind I am not that computer literate, so if it involves code, or going beyond preferences or settings, you've lost me.

iMac, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 24, 2016 4:14 PM

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Q: Could someone tell me how to stop folders and icons from rearranging themselves

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  • by leroydouglas,Helpful

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Sep 24, 2016 8:12 PM in response to Princessdebula
    Level 7 (23,796 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 24, 2016 8:12 PM in response to Princessdebula

    Click the Desktop,  command J >  sort by none

    pic.png

  • by Princessdebula,

    Princessdebula Princessdebula Sep 24, 2016 8:11 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 8:11 PM in response to leroydouglas

    Thanks. This seems to have solved the global problem of icons in folders snapping back, but this still does not work the same as it did in Snow Leopard. Is this a bug or was this intentional? Is there a way to tell my computer to revert to the old way? The command j obviously did something globally, but is there a way to have the icons remain in alphabetical order when I change the command to none until I move them myself, like it did in Snow Leopard? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for your help, I just want things the way they were

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Sep 24, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Princessdebula
    Level 7 (23,796 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 24, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Princessdebula

    Princessdebula wrote:

     

    Thanks. This seems to have solved the global problem

     

    like it did in Snow Leopard?

     

    Princessdebula—To be honest Snow Leopard was  6 operating Systems ago and it would be impossible for me remember the ins & outs of 10.6.8

     

    I do know it never pays to get too far behind in the technology  or the OS X. And now we are on to macOS.

  • by Princessdebula,

    Princessdebula Princessdebula Sep 24, 2016 9:23 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 24, 2016 9:23 PM in response to leroydouglas

    True, it was awhile ago, but why fix something that wasn't broken? It's not like this new automatic rearranging of folders is actually helpful. I mean just attempting to move an item into another folder is fraught with peril, because as soon as that item is dragged into the folder, the target folder you wanted to put it in moves, triggered by the name on the file you're dragging into it. I spend an inordinate amount of time now chasing down folders. How is that helpful? The previous system was a lot more intuitive and this one smacks of Microsoft by making me have to do something in 3 steps that used to take 1. I guess I was hoping that someone more computer savvy than me might know how to reverse engineer this 'upgrade'. Sigh. If it weren't for the fact that none of my other devices will sync with the old system I'd downgrade, just so I could work more efficiently. Apple...are you listening?

  • by leroydouglas,Solvedanswer

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Sep 25, 2016 3:19 PM in response to Princessdebula
    Level 7 (23,796 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 25, 2016 3:19 PM in response to Princessdebula

    Princessdebula wrote:

     

    item is dragged into the folder, the target folder you wanted to put it in moves, triggered by the name on the file you're dragging into it.

     

    This doesn't sound right.

     

    If you are anywhere near an Apple store you can get over the counter assistance.

     

    Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/

  • by Princessdebula,

    Princessdebula Princessdebula Sep 25, 2016 3:19 PM in response to leroydouglas
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 25, 2016 3:19 PM in response to leroydouglas

    Really? You think this is a bug? I would be soooo happy if it were. I'll do as you suggest and talk to an apple rep. Thanks.

  • by Princessdebula,

    Princessdebula Princessdebula Sep 28, 2016 10:13 PM in response to Princessdebula
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 28, 2016 10:13 PM in response to Princessdebula

    Dear leroydouglas...as it turns out your original fix 'command j' then sort by none does work for this problem since it will also work within the folders if I simply arrange by none, sort by none, and then go up to view and select 'clean up' by name. Now it will arrange my icons neatly in a grid alphabetically and still allow me to move them around....no snapping! Thank you. Huge help.

     

    I'm still wondering why I have to go through all this to do what happened naturally before El Capitan tho.