Disabling Snap to Grid on the Desktop

Question

Disabling Snap to Grid on the Desktop

When I drag an image from Safari (or any web browser) or for that matter any file to the desktop, it automatically goes to the far right, as if Snap to Grid were turned on. This is a problem because I'm dragging the file to a blank space I can see, but it's being placed in a spot under my window that I cannot see.

When I look at my View Options, "Snap to Grid" is NOT selected as a default (under Arrange by). The default setting is None.

How do I stop this behavior? I don't care if doing so means doing it for all windows (though that would be preferred).

Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 7, 2010 9:49 AM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,508 points

Apr 7, 2010 10:59 AM in response to Byron C. Mayes

Hello Byron,

Rather than choosing View Options from the menu bar, right click on the Desktop to get its contextual menu. Choose "Show View Options". If it's not set to that choice already, change the pull down menu next to "Arrange by:" to "None".

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Answer 2

Apr 7, 2010 11:04 AM in response to Byron C. Mayes

You need to delete the invisible .DS_Store file from the Desktop folder.

1. Launch Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities/)
2. Copy and paste the following into it:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

and press Return. This will show the invisible files.

3. Relaunch the Finder.
• Hold down the Option key, click and hold the Finder's icon in the Dock, then choose Relaunch from the menu.
4. Locate the filed called .DS_Store on the Desktop and move it to Trash.
5. Relaunch the Finder again and see if that solves your problem.
6. In the Terminal, press the Up Arrow key once to bring back the last command. Replace YES with NO and press Return.
7. Relaunch the Finder. This will hide the invisible files again.

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