Desktop items mysteriously renaming themselves!

Question

Level 1

8 points

Desktop items mysteriously renaming themselves!

Hello,

The items on my desktop have three times (a few days apart) added 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 to the end of their file names - leaving the extension intact. what ever could be going on?

Thanks, JJ

macbook Intel 13", Mac OS X (10.6.2), 2 Ghz Intel Duo model with 2 gig RAM

Posted on Dec 21, 2009 1:07 PM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Dec 21, 2009 1:14 PM in response to Louis XV11

do you mean it happens to ALL the items on the desktop? if it only happens to one or two it could just possibly be a result of human input error. but if all of them do it then it must be some badly written program that you have installed doing this.

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Answer 2

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Dec 21, 2009 1:15 PM in response to Louis XV11

Apparently, you're adding additional copies of those items via some process, usually downloading, which automatically adds the 1 so the originals aren't overwritten. Open your user's home folder and then the Desktop folder, wherein you can delete the duplicates.

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Answer 3

Louis XV11 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 22, 2009 7:03 AM in response to Louis XV11

Yes, it happens to all the items. And again yesterday. I don't keep many items on the desktop so it's easy to rename them - but not nearly every day!

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Answer 4

Louis XV11 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 22, 2009 7:21 AM in response to baltwo

Baltwo, I am not sure if I follow you, but I used finder to open "desktop" as a sub-folder of the "home" folder. And that is the same as the desktop that I see when all windows are closed. There are no duplicate files. Just one set, with a bunch of 1s appended to each. And I do not use the desktop for downloads. I thought one or two funny things happened in my recent trial of Path Finder, so I removed it. I use Leap, if that could be the culprit. I have always used Dropbox for all my documents, and iDrive for just one subfolder and both have worked well for many months. Still puzzled. Perhaps I should move everything from the desktop and wait a few days? Thanks for your help, JJ

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Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Dec 22, 2009 7:29 AM in response to Louis XV11

Louis XV11 wrote:
Baltwo, I am not sure if I follow you, but I used finder to open "desktop" as a sub-folder of the "home" folder. And that is the same as the desktop that I see when all windows are closed. There are no duplicate files. Just one set, with a bunch of 1s appended to each.

that means that baltwo's theory is wrong. you'd have duplicates otherwise. some of your programs are doing this. i would not have any odea which though. is DropBox set to use the desktop? or does it have its own dedicated folder? (that would be the default).

And I do not use the desktop for downloads. I thought one or two funny things happened in my recent trial of Path Finder, so I removed it. I use Leap, if that could be the culprit. I have always used Dropbox for all my documents, and iDrive for just one subfolder and both have worked well for many months. Still puzzled. Perhaps I should move everything from the desktop and wait a few days? Thanks for your help, JJ

I don't use any of the of the programs you mention so can't comment on those. but you can try disabling them one by one and see if the creation of extra 1s stops.

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Answer 6

Louis XV11 Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 22, 2009 8:40 AM in response to V.K.

Thanks VK. No Dropbox only uses it's designated folder. But iDrive backs up the desktop + some more to its online service. Will remove desktop from its configuration and try. and then on the others of my recent installations. I should find the culprit. JJ

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Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,386 points

Dec 22, 2009 11:45 AM in response to Louis XV11

Thanks for the feedback. As V.K. notes, my theory was wrong and I agree with him that something you're running is causing the duplication/deletion. What, I have no idea, since I also don't use any of those things. Create a new admin account, log into it, put some things on the Desktop, and see if this abnormal behavior persists. Do this without activating of those 3rd-party thingys.

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Answer 8

Dec 22, 2009 12:53 PM in response to baltwo

Not that it's all that likely, but I came into my office the other morning to find one of my drives (I have no other icons on my desktop) named [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[.

I'm blaming the cat.

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