Q: How do keep folder icons from rearranging?

interesting observation re: All My Files view possibly having something to do with it

in my case, I only have my 1 userid. and the problem has happened ever since 10.7.0 for me. However I gave your idea a try anyhow.  my All My Files view was set to "arrange by Date Last Opened (meanwhile Home folder set to Arrange by None)

I changed view settings for All My Files to Arrange by None, logged out then logged back in again

then I tried my usual trigger for the problem, i.e. Mail, save-as an attachment to some folder.

but the problem still occurs for me. if I get a chance I'll try some other setting combinations, in case there is some kind of effect with the All My Files view...

an aside: I notice that every time my home folder gets messed up, it's the same identical icons that get moved, and they all get moved to exactly the same place. anybody else notice this too?

to clarify the problem on my end, which, incidentally, i don't think is linked to 'all my files', seemingly at random, when the mac feels like it, a given folder, when opened, reverts to another view and/or sort by order.

so, for example, let's imagine all finder windows are closed across the system. then move over to the dock and click the finder icon to open the home folder. set the view to list and sort by name.  close the window, so no finder windows are open.

some time passes, you go back to the dock and click the finder icon.  the home folder opens, only now it is in column view, not list view as it was set earlier.

this behaviour is repeated across all windows, but only the home folder when accessed via the dock finder icon, reverts to column view.  other folders are re-sorted by other fields, and all field views are reset, i.e. if i had set a folder to show the label column in list view, and sorted it by date modified, when i go back to that folder at a later time, the folder is now sorted by name and the label column is gone from view.

the set as defaults option makes all finder window views the same, and even then the problem occurs after a time.

this is a major problem that desperately needs a solution.

I thought this trouble is caused by Total Finder. I even disabled it for a week now. But... now I read here it is the OSX Lion that does it. I even updated to 10.7.1 hoping it would change antything. It did not. Always when I save as into a folder (in my case from MS Word 2011), the finder looses file and icons arrangements. I am a visual kind of person, so I've been so lucky for past 4 years since move to Mac with 10.4.11 Tiger and then with 10.6 Snow Leopard that wherever I put a file, it stays, rock solid. So I find it afterwards. Now imagine my PhD research thesis materials that were sorted in that way for 4 years... F***!!! Everything in my file order is messed up, uhm.. well okey.. set alphabetically. What the h***? Now that issue is a MAJOR problem in Lion. Please fix it soon!

Same here. I have all kinds of Finder problems (see https://discussions.apple.com/message/16094929#16094929), but the constant rearranging of files and folders is the most frustrating! Hours of organization down the drain!

Same problem here. Per Apple: let your frustration be know at www.apple.com/feedback

Thanks you Yvess. I did just that. This is a major bug and has created a lot of problems!

I did the same.  Still no relief.  My frustration level is through the roof.  I naively asked about the problem without realizing that this thread began such a very long time ago.  Good to know that Apple is right on top of this problem (NOT!)

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16111103#16111103

You would think that Apple might read this and do something about this annoying problem. I have had the same root directory since 10.1 (more or less) always organized by icons. Never had this problem before Lion. Now it happens all the time and I am on 10.7.1. PLEASE Apple, fix this rediculous error!

It is unbelievable that a new system would be released (by Apple) with an issue so glaring, unresolved!

From Microsoft I expect this, not so from Apple.

If the next iteration does not fix this, it's back to Snow Leopard for me too......

My sentiments exactly.  If the next release does not fix it, I'm reverting to Snow Leopard.  I will miss some of the newer features but, at least it worked properly.

Well said, and important to be patient until 10.7.2, which will be soon.

I think I may have found something that is a factor in my experience of this problem.  I use ClamXav Sentry to scan my Downloads folder and my Desktop automatically whenever a file changes in either folder. Well, I noticed that it was scanning the .DS_Store files, too.  It occurred to me that this might be corrupting the file or confusing the Finder. So, I configured this antivirus app to ignore .DS_Store files. This seems to have resolved part of my problem. It appears that the Finder no longer forgets the placement of the icons in these windows.

However, I still have the separate problem of certain windows not remembering the kind of view I've chosen in the "View Options" (i.e., icon, list, column, cover-flow). The finder still seems to forget this setting randomly on certain folders.

This usually involves corruption of the .DS_Store files.  Deleting only one in the folder with the problem usually won't fix the problem as it derives it's defaults from the parent folder, so if it's corrupted the issues will continue.  Best bet is to delete all you .DS_Store files, spend a few minutes readying your preferred views and be done with it.  At least that's how it used to work. No telling what Lion might have done to complicate things.

right then,

in an attempt to resolve this issue, i have taken the step of wiping every .ds_store file from the system.

apparently, there are third party apps to do this but i used terminal with the following command

sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \;

i will report back with results when i see them.

should you want to use terminal, and do what i did, you do so at your own risk.  also, you might want to turn time machine off completely before you go ahead with the above and turn it back on after.

I wish you best of luck. But I am afraid this won’t help. I have already tried deleting several .DS_Store files without positive results.

I suspect the whole thing is a more general problem, i.e. Lion does not only forget Finder settings but all kinds of preferences.

http://www.google.de/search?q=mac+os+x+lion+preferences+not+saved

So probably only a fix by Apple will help solve the problem.