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Suddenly, problems dragging items onto my desktop

Working on a 2.5 year old MacBook Air running Monterey v. 12.5.1. No problems at all until this week when all of sudden I cannot grab icons and drag the doc/image/whatever onto my desktop (or anywhere). Incredibly annoying. Is there a fix?

Posted on Apr 18, 2023 10:23 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Apr 18, 2023 11:24 AM

Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...


On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.

Select a volume.

Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.

The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.


Restart normally.


Start with this if IntelMac...


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


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.

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Apr 18, 2023 11:24 AM in response to svourvoulias

Start with this of M1 or M2 Mac...


On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > Shut Down.

Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.

Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.

Select a volume.

Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.

The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.


Restart normally.


Start with this if IntelMac...


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


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.

Suddenly, problems dragging items onto my desktop

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