Desktop icons rearrange themselves after restart

Question

Desktop icons rearrange themselves after restart

This is my first question ever on Apple Support Communities. I have been a long time mac user and usually solve all my problems by reading discussion on Forums and searching on Google. But for the first time, nothing works to solve my problem...

Around 75% of the time, when I restart my Mac all the icons on my desktop get rearranged to the right. This might not seem like a major problem, but it is "VERY VERY VERY" annoying. It has gotten to the point where I stopped "Shutting Down" my computer and just put it to "Sleep" so I don't lose the position of my icons.

I tried everything I could find on the Web!! Nothing works 😟

- I have repaired permissions.

- I have removed the com.apple.desktop.plist and com.apple.finder.plist files.

- I have also looked at the settings under show view options in the finder and they look fine.

My setup:

- MacBook Pro (2.66 Intel Core i7) connected to an Apple LED Cinema Display (24)

- Mac OSX 10.6.7

I am not the only one with this problem. Some of my friends with Macs are having the same issue.

Apple, please fix this in an OSX update! 😮

➕ Any suggestion!??

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Apple LED Cinema Display (24)

Posted on May 5, 2011 1:33 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Skills Design

I got a possible solution, lets nuke everything deep in the system and perhaps this wll catch the little gremlin!

Download the free OnyX for your OS X version here:

http://www.titanium.free.fr/index.php

Now run all the maintence, cleaning and that sort of stuff you can find.

You can cancel the reboot to do another cleaning etc., but you must reboot at the end.

Once rebooted, see how that works.

Edit: did you Finder > View > View Options > Arange By "none"??

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Answer 2

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

May 5, 2011 2:04 PM in response to Skills Design

Most likely a mucked up .DS_Store file in the Desktop folder. Do a search for .DS_Store AND baltwo in these communities and see my previous suggested solutions.

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Answer 3

May 5, 2011 2:04 PM in response to ds store

Yes, I did... Finder > View > View Options > Arange By "none"

I will backup my computer and try OnyX.

I have always been afraid to try apps like OnyX or Cocktail (I don't like playing with system files and these are pretty powerful at it... from what I have heard).

But hey!! I am soooooo tired of losing time with this "desktop icon" problem 😟

I will try your solution 🙂

I will let you know if it works! 😉

Thanks 🙂

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Answer 4

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

May 5, 2011 2:38 PM in response to Skills Design

FWIW, I never use Onyx or Cocktail, preferring to use the Terminal commands, which those apparently use.😉

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Answer 5

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 2:50 PM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:

Most likely a mucked up .DS_Store file in the Desktop folder. Do a search for .DS_Store AND baltwo in these communities and see my previous suggested solutions.

Yea, OnyX will take care of that, if the OP enables all the options.

No need to backup, OnyX doesn't hurt the data on the machine, just cleans things out so OS X can rebuild them..

Oh what fun, I can boot Linux "PartedMagic" cd on my Mac, and i almost gave this 15" MBP away for a song, going to be my new Linux box now. 🙂

This PartedMagic is great, it loads entirely into RAM and spits out the cd so you can use the drive. Loaded with great software to recover files, undelete, edit things, repair the disk structure, poke around in EFI partition...Linux is so much fun. 🙂

I feel like a kid in a candy store.

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Answer 6

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 2:51 PM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:

FWIW, I never use Onyx or Cocktail, preferring to use the Terminal commands, which those apparently use.😉

I think the GUI of OnyX will beat your typing skills though as multiple options can be enabled at once. 🙂

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Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

May 5, 2011 3:09 PM in response to ds store

May be, but unless its options explicitly reveal what they're doing or using, I'm not too hot for using it. BTW, can it select individual .DS_Store files or does it only do them globally? rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store, followed by killall Finder, is fairly quick and very selective.😉

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Answer 8

May 5, 2011 3:12 PM in response to baltwo

Hey baltwo 🙂

I tried your solution:

baltwo wrote:

Delete the hidden .DS_Store file associated with your Desktop folder. Launch the Terminal.app (in /Applications/Utilities/), copy & paste the following command into the window that pops up, hit the return key, quit the Terminal.app, OPTION-click and hold the Dock's Finder icon, and select Relaunch:

*rm -f ~/Desktop/".DS_Store"*

Now, set the Desktop as desired, log out and back in, and the Desktop should be as it was as you last set it.

It works great! 😁

I restarted 10 times... all icons stay in place 😎

Thanks

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Answer 9

May 5, 2011 3:14 PM in response to Skills Design

That happens quite frequently, and it's caused by different-resolution displays

It's quite safe to assume that if you don't change configuration (don't open the laptop, thus setting the main display to built-in) everything keeps working fine...

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Answer 10

May 5, 2011 3:18 PM in response to ds store

Hey ds store 🙂

I was about to try OnyX, but tried Terminal and it worked.

Thank you for your help!

ds store wrote:

No need to backup, OnyX doesn't hurt the data on the machine, just cleans things out so OS X can rebuild them..

Thank you for the info about OnyX 🙂

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Answer 11

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 3:31 PM in response to baltwo

baltwo wrote:

May be, but unless its options explicitly reveal what they're doing or using, I'm not too hot for using it. BTW, can it select individual .DS_Store files or does it only do them globally? rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store, followed by killall Finder, is fairly quick and very selective.😉

You got someone not afraid of the Terminal, remember that. 🙂

OnyX also performs a lot of other functions that someone might find useful in the future.

Well back to my: sudo rm -rf / 😉

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Answer 12

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 3:34 PM in response to Skills Design

Skills Design wrote:

Hey ds store 🙂

I was about to try OnyX, but tried Terminal and it worked.

Thank you for your help!

Thank you for the info about OnyX 🙂

Your welcome, glad to help. Two approaches, same goal, a safe GUI one and a faster (and possibly risky) Terminal one.

Now you have both, award points accordingly! We feed on points (gets us free T-Shirts 😉)

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Answer 13

May 5, 2011 3:40 PM in response to ds store

onyx is not that safe in my experience, that's why I never recommend it to customers.

BTW, I wonder if Skills Design ever disconnected the external display during those recent "manipulations", I'd like to know if the problem persists (and if I'm right about the resolution issue)

PS. Skills Design: as stated by ds store, you might consider marking useful and correct answers to show your appreciation...

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Answer 14

May 5, 2011 3:48 PM in response to Enrico CHP

Don't worry! 😉

Points are coming 🙂

"Dinner time", I was away from the computer 😉

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Answer 15

ds store

Level 7

30,705 points

May 5, 2011 3:51 PM in response to Skills Design

Hurry, I'm joanzing....must feed...poi--ints.... 😮

ahhhhhh.....thank you..... 😀

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