Q: My desktop scrambles all folders, on start.

I don't see the problem any longer, posted what I did to fix it early on, and can't duplicate it. I've already posted the method to contact Apple and file a bug report, since moaning here in these user-to-user forums serves no useful purpose, that's all I can suggest again. Have a nice day.

I have yet to see this problem in 10.7.2 on my end. My fingers are crossed!

Thanks for your earlier help baltwo, that saved me numberous times.

Well, you're right, moaning here serves no purpose. For those of us still having the issue, it's an Apple problem, not yours. Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

Have you tried the Finder/View Menu/Show View Options

Go to the "Sort By" dropdown Menu and select "None" if you don't want Lion to mess with your arrangement, and deselect "snap to grid" if you like to keep them scattered about. Works for me.

The problem seemed to dissappear for me for a few months after upgrading to 10.7.2.  However, I'm running 10.7.3 now and having the same issue with all of my desktop icons getting rearranged and placed on the right side of the screen. 

All the selecting/deselecting "none" and "snap to grid" stuff does nothing to permanently solve this problem.

Haven't seen anything posted from Apple on this.  Am I missing something?

- Jason

The problem arose with Mac OS X 10.6.2:

Desktop items get unsorted after cold boot on Snow Leopard 10.6.2

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2335032?start=0&tstart=0

and persists with Mac OS X 10.7.x:

osx lion - desktop icons rearranged on right of screen after reboot

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3271689?start=0&tstart=0

ApMax is absolutely right, and numerous users have been affected since 10.6.2, and remain affected to this day. Various system updates (10.6.x) or upgrades (10.7+) solved NOTHING.

Since the beginning, well-meaning people like Balltwo came up with what they claimed were solutions, but to no avail. And since the beginning, various people duly filed bug reports with Apple, with the same result.

For anyone who's not aware (or hasn't read the other pertinent threads), this icon random rearrangement problem does not only affect the desktop, but other folders as well. This alone makes it obvious that alleged "solutions" (like the one from Balltwo) are no fix, as they only target the desktop (as if this were the extent of it). And for the record, creating new admin accounts or reinstalling everything from scratch after wiping the disk have all been tried already. No go.

Whoever said they suspected something is deeper than some Desktop malfunction, is spot on. This bug has something to do with the system's guts. Apple knows it (witness the various bug reports which have been submitted), and has neglected to address it for far too long. Sounds like quality control resources are only devoted to iOS these days.  

At this point, I'd bet beer that we'll still be affected under 10.8.

In addition to the threads provided by ApMax, here are even more:

Snow Leopard

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13060978?messageID=13060978#13060978?messa geID=13060978

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2379700?threadID=2379700&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/message/13061140?messageID=13061140#13061140?messa geID=13061140

Lion

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3235279?tstart=0

FWIW...

What a shame !!!

This last 3 years OSX NEVER kept my icons clean

Leopard was not bad, Snow Leopard was ugly, Lion last versions finaly became almost correct, but Mountain Lion is worst. I lost hope I will switch to windows !

When I open a drive or a folder I almost always get these horrible scrambled icons, it is just TERRIBLE

I tried everything, even very complicate cleanings cache, ressoucefork, DSStore...

Nothing can resolve the problem for more than few days, it is just pathetic.

Philippesan, do you mean that OS X 10.8 still rearranges the Desktop icons after rebooting or cold booting?

What do you mean by "Snow Leopard was ugly, Lion last versions finaly became almost correct, but Mountain Lion is worst?

Sorry I am so angry against Apple, the rearrange problem seem to be gone, may be...

My main problem is pixelated or fuzzy icons, I know it is another discussion, but it is related and started also with Snow Leopard.

Last Lion upadate was not so bad, but Mountain Lion is worst about this problem !

Even after 3 restart, deleting DS_Store, removing ressourcefork, deleting thumbnailcache... When I open a folder it is just random and almost always BAD, UGLY icons, I am really tired :-((

I recently bought a MacBook Pro Retina 15" and installed SwitchResx to manage my various display resolution preferences.  Suddenly my desktop icons started auto-rearranging any time I had 'snap to grid' selected.  Some trial and error uncovered the fact that killing the SwitchResX daemon stopped the jumping icons.  I went back and unchecked a few of the 'save icons on desktop' and similar desktop position saving options and the icons stay put now.  Something to try if you're using SwitchResX.

Thanks for the information, but no SwitchResx around here with Mac OS X 10.6.8 and the problem persists on one rebooting or cold booting out of three or so. Really frustrating!

I just had this happen on 10.8.2, non-Retina MBP. Never had a problem with this before. I've seen icons move around sometimes back on a G4 but that was years ago, and it wasn't a complete reordering to the right side.

I tried restoring the .DS_Store file from a time machine backup but that didn't work.

Just happened to me again in 10.8.3. I don't know what is causing this. It happens out of nowhere.