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I don't know how the desktop icons all became locked on right side of screen

How to unlock Icon position on Mac desktop?

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 11.2

Posted on May 9, 2021 9:27 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 9, 2021 10:46 AM

Try this. Under the Finder's View menu (with no apps selected) click on the Sort By link and then select None.

5 replies

May 24, 2021 4:50 PM in response to gjones333

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


If that doesn't help, reinstall the OS.

May 24, 2021 7:31 PM in response to BDAqua

I found another Apple support website which fixed my problem. Find a blank area on your desktop. Right click the mouse and select "Show View Options". Locate the "Sort By" option and select "None". That immediately fixed my problem. All my icons were put back in their correct positions. I don't know how that "Sort By" value got changed. Thank you Maria!

I don't know how the desktop icons all became locked on right side of screen

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