Within a couple days of upgrading my computer to Catalina, a couple weird and totally useless icons appeared on my desktop. They are a couple of down arrows with the word 'Folders' underneath the arrows. They do nothing but sit there looking useless and do not respond when clicked on. Here's a screenshot of a small portion of the desktop with the two icons. Any suggestions for getting rid of them?
MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.15
Click on the Desktop to make it active, then go to View and turn off "Use Stacks".
Click on the Desktop to make it active, then go to View and turn off "Use Stacks".
trailsnet wrote:
Within a couple days of upgrading my computer to Catalina, a couple weird and totally useless icons appeared on my desktop. They are a couple of down arrows with the word 'Folders' underneath the arrows. They do nothing but sit there looking useless and do not respond when clicked on. Here's a screenshot of a small portion of the desktop with the two icons. Any suggestions for getting rid of them?
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/2f5e15f2-c81a-45f3-a9b8-b6c4e485aa89
Interesting— looks third part(?) See from the Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
From the terminal see what it will list for your Desktop, copy and paste:
ls ~/Desktop
To see the content of each, copy and Paste:
ls -R ~/Desktop
To see permissions, date of origin, etc. copy and paste:
ls -al ~/Desktop
Did you try a SafeBoot(?) https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262
Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache. You can log in and take a look at your Desktop. Reboot as normal.
Thanks Peter. Unfortunately right-clicking on them doesn't help because they are almost like ghost folders. They show up on the desktop screen but aren't actionable (if such a word exists). They can't be moved or interacted with in any way.
Thanks Luis. I did what you suggested, and it got rid of one of the two ghost icons, but the other is still there. I'm hoping I can get rid of the other one and still use stacks. I'm curious if anyone else has had these "mystery icons" show up on their screen?
Ok turn off stacks then shut down,
Boot up with shift held down throughout (into Safe mode).
Then shut down and boot up as normal.
Thank you Peter!! That took care of it. Actually just turning off stacks then doing a regular restart was all it took.
Thanks Leroy!! Problem solved. I appreciate your assistance.
Team result with luis sequeira1 and leroydouglas too
Right-click on them and check out the open and delete options if empty.
Ok turn off stacks them shut down, reboot with shift held down throughout (into Safe mode). Then shut down and reboot as normal.
Down Arrows Labeled "Folders"
