How do keep folder icons from rearranging?

nickfran wrote:

10.7.2 appears (so far) to have fixed the problem for me too.

same here, 10.7.2 seems to have solved it. (knock on wood)

The Icon issue appears fixed so far, now if I could just get my external drives (firewire and USB) to mount every time without a struggle, I'd be back to a good place!

Not perfect but finaly acceptable.

I still have some troubles sometimes, lost color back-ground or icon size...

New item arrangement options are annoying and uncoherant. Especialy under french translation who is too bad.

I hope Apple still work on the problem

10.7.2 should be the first release, we spent 3 month with a good beta, but beta anyway, I cannot be happy about this.

Seems better here, too. I used to have the rearranging icon problem upon saving an edit in QT 7. It's interesting that QT 7 now saves vids more appropriately (it now changes the mp4 file you're editing, and saves as an mp4; before it changed it to a .mov file).

Still lots of problems with the finder for me. Funky stuff. Wrong folders open when trying to use spring loaded folders to move items, Finder froze while drag copying items a couple of times, QuickLook still usually opens a big grey window until I hit the space bar again and then again to get it to reopen correctly, etc.

10.7.2 has NOT solved this problem in total. I continue to consistently get some of my desktop icons thrown over to the right side of my desktop after restarts. This problem is specific to Mac OS X 10.7. I note a partial prevention of the problem in 10.7.2 but NOT a cure.

The bug remains, if somewhat attenuated.

Upgrading to 10.7.2 fixed the problem for a couple of days, but today the Finder reverted back to its maddening new "normal" again. The only thing preventing me from putting my fist through my 30" Cinema Display is the thought of my cat hurting herself on the small pieces of broken glass.

I hate using my Mac now.

I think I covered this earlier, but .DS_Store files initially inherit their settings from the parent directory (folder). If the parent directory's .DS_Store file is also corrupt, deleting only the problem one won't permanently solve the problem. Either delete them all or delete them all the way to the root directory.

While we wait some more for a full solution, hopefully in 10.7.3, here are two workarounds:

hacintosh has previously suggested the free AppleScript app Desktop Icon Memorizer (DIM).

http://parker9.com/desktopIconManager2.0.html#d

Desktop Saver from Piero Garzotto is an alternative AppleScript app, one I now keep permanently aliased on my desktop. It is dead simple. Run it, Save your desktop. The next time Lion mangles your desktop, run it, Restore your desktop. I works perfectly.

http://usemac.altervista.org/ds.zip

This just keeps getting worse and worse. Now, when I try to change the view settings of a folder, its parent folder's view settings change simultaneously. I can literally drag the icon size adjust slider for one of the windows, and watch both windows' icons scale in tandem. In fact, I can't alter either window without one reflecting the other's changes. On top of that, somehow all of my icons for those windows are squeezed together as if I had a very tight grid spacing, even though the grid spacing slider is maxed out.

{ Insert every foul epithet you can imagine, screamed through a bullhorn, here. }

Also, with all due respect to the many thoughtful people who have posted workarounds here, saving a backup of invisible .DS_Store files and using the Terminal to restore them, or running an AppleScript to automate the process, is not a reasonable solution. If I'm going to be doing that sort of thing, I might as well be operating entirely from the command line, or running DOS. The simple fact is, Lion's Finder is very poorly programmed, and the only real solution is for better programmers to fix its many problems.

I posted the following previously and it ended up under multi-monitors. I repeat it here and have added to it:

I posted this with OSX 10.7.1

One of the reasons I hated Win XP was that this brain dead OS kept throwing my desktop icons from my second monitor on to my main monitor. Since moving to Lion, my icons periodically get tossed from my external Dell monitor to my iMac's screen. This is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. Does anyone know why this is happening and/or how to stop it? Up to now I have had a 100% satisfaction rate with Mac OS. This problem drops that rating considerably.

What about OSX 10.7.2:

Same bloody annoying problem. Have not figured out the trigger yet. Someone mentioned it was triggered by going into full screen with an app. I have avoided that at all costs but my icons still go wanding. The MOST annoying part is that the icons from the second monitor get mixed up in a seemingly random order when they are tossed to my iMac's screen. It is a big job to sift through the mess and place the wandering icons back on the second monitor.

My short term solution - put all my icons from my Dell monitor into a folder named "f#$king lion" - even that one ended up being tossed to the iMac's monitor a few days later. Now I only have to rearrange the icons on my iMacs screen every day or two. Aaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!

I think I may have found the fix for this issue.

First - I am running the latest version of Apple Operating system.

Here's what I do

- while working on my computer during the day I set the preference on desktop icons to: snap to grid

- before I shut my computer off for the evening I set the preference on the desktop icons to: none

This has worked all week for solving the rearranging desktop icon issue.

Is anyone else still having file or folder rearranging problems? I've crossgraded to Mountain Lion (wasn't an upgrade; still have same problems) and still have problems with files and folders spontaneously rearranging themselves, primarily in the downloads folders of all user accounts. Additionally, it now changes my Finder pref for the downloads folder to "show Item Info", no matter how many times I change it back. See post at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3305449?answerId=19338544022#19338544022

Q: Is anyone else still having file or folder rearranging problems?

A: Absolutely. But it is only intermittent, caused by something related to user account cache file changes. That is my current perception. The bad code, written into 10.6 that started this problem, still remains with particular triggers causing it to occur at the time of system restarts.

The problem is the Finder. The Finder in 10.7 was further SEVERELY damaged by bad coding and then almost entirely neglected in subsequent 10.7 updates.

Thankfully, after a lot of ranting from at least me, Apple has made some significant repairs to the Finder for 10.7.5 , which I am currently beta testing. Spurred by your post, I am going to do some major bashing on the 10.7.5 Finder today to see if I can reproduce this old, decrepit Finder bug. If I discover any useful information, I will be forwarding it to Apple. You'll have to wait for the 10.7.5 update release to learn if the problem has been stopped permanently.

I am also beta testing 10.8.2 and will perform the same bashing on that version of the Finder...

Derek,

Thanks for the reply! I can be very patient if I know someone is working on the problem. Appreciate your comments very much! I'm using the most recent version, 10.8.1.

CC