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mello2198 Author

Level 1

12 points

why does Launchpad constantly re-order my apps?

I installed Lion several days ago but only last night took the time to configure my applications in Launchpad. I set up some folders and moved things around to be organized. To be honest, this feature is heaven for me! 🙂

But over the past 24 hours, I've encountered a strange problem. Everytime I reboot my iMac, the set order I organized all of my apps to apear in keep re-ordering and mixing up on me. I don't know how or why this is happening but it has to be a bug of sorts.

I have 24 apps/folders on my first Launchpad page, which is all of my primary apps and folders that I use regularly. The other two pages are folders and apps that I probably won't ever need to launch from there. I set all of my web browsers and internet related apps on the bottom row. Design apps on the next row up. Music and audio editing apps the next row up from there and my regularly used system utilities, calculator, app store, etc. on the top row.

Well, all of my apps maintain what row they're set to - but the bottom two rows are always re-ordering when I reboot my machine. I haven't changed, updated or added any new applications, yet by doing an experiment a moment ago, I set my apps the way I wanted to, did nothing else, rebooted my machine and went back to Launchpad. It still re-orders itself. I did this 4 times in a row and it's the same result each time. And the same way the apps are re-rdered too. It's not setting them alphabetically either so I don't have a clue as to what is happening.

Anybody else experiencing this? I guess it's not a huge deal since all of the apps are still there - but I'm a little OCD and when I set my apps to where the 8 most commonly used apps are in the center 2 rows and suddenly they're mixed up, it kind of makes this new feature almost pointless. Would rather just double click a folder on my desktop to have it open the apps/aliases I want.

iMac 27, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 26, 2011 12:03 PM

55 replies

mello2198 Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 24, 2012 12:32 AM in response to mallchin

yeah... same with me. 😟 I spoke too soon. I had not added any applications in a long time but as soon as I added one, there goes my perfect Launchpad setup. 😟

Oh well... this seems to be a lost cause. 😢 I was trying to take full advantage of this amazing/beautiful feature but I have now chosen to go back to using the dock to access all of my apps. It was never a problem before but now it's just the getting used to it again. Looks like we're gonna have to wait and see what Mountain Lion has goin' on. I haven't been following any developer's blogs/notes but I'm hoping this issue is addressed in the next OS.

rdub76

Level 1

9 points

Feb 24, 2012 4:45 AM in response to mello2198

That was my point about Apple expecting people to move on to the next new thing instead of fixing the problem as is. However, I believe I found a temporary solution that has worked even after a few installs. First I saved the terminal command (the one that clears launchpad) as a text file. I made a folder and in it I saved this file along with a copy of my customized dock*.db file. This was done after clearing the launchpad and starting from scratch. Now here's the thing that I think made the big difference; when I organized the launchpad I left the bottom row empty leaving only 3 rows per page. Now when a new app is installed It shows up in one of the empty rows and leaves everything else as is. If it's something I don't care to have in the dock, I just move it to the back and group it with other unwanted apps. Every once and a while I will copy a new dock.db file to my special folder. If things get really out of wack, I just copy and paste the terminal command in terminal, run it to clear launchpad, replace the dock*.db file with my custom one, log out then back in and everything's back to normal. I think when you have every row filled in the launchpad and install a new app, it places the app in a spot that's taken so it shuffles things around,

Mar 4, 2012 3:32 PM in response to Tim Kite

I have the same problem, and have settled on restoring my db file from a backup up reboot. I want to automate this so it can happen everytime I rebot, but I don't know how to use scripts and barely know how to use automator.

Jul 21, 2012 11:01 AM in response to Rileyx2

Several months late to the game, but I only had a few problems with launchpad reordering (after installing some new apps) until I connected an external monitor a few weeks ago. Our issues are a little different, but mine also appears to have started by connecting an external. My boot screen resolution changed to the resolution that the external had, and launchpad started permanently forgetting the order of apps. I ran the fix from geneosis, and my boot screen is now in the native resolution and the apps are staying in order. I realize it will change if/when I install something else, but at least I'll be able to find my apps for a while. Definitely hoping for a fix. It seems like a very obvious and silly bug.