System making files with duplicate names and stacking them on random files on desktop

My Mac creates files and folders with duplicate names and drops them on top of random files and folders when I paste or save anything to my desktop. The duplicates cannot be moved, opened, or deleted. It's making my desktop an unusable mess. How do I stop this? Monterey 12.0.1 - Mac Mini 2018

Mac mini, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 8, 2022 4:29 AM

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Feb 9, 2022 6:58 AM in response to Pguncheon

Thanks for participating in the Apple Support Communities, Pguncheon.


We understand that duplicate files and folders are being saved over existing ones, and are unusable. We'd like to see how we can help. Let's start by testing in safe mode. This will start up your Mac so it performs certain checks and prevents some software from automatically loading or opening, which could help narrow down the cause of issue. Here's how to test in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac. If you don't notice the behavior in safe mode, restart normally then test your Mac.


To further isolate the behavior, test in a new administrator account. This will let you know if the issue is specific to one user account: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.


Best regards.

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System making files with duplicate names and stacking them on random files on desktop

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