how to stop lion re-arranging my desktop upon startup?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)
It's not doing that here. How is it re-arranging things? With no other Finder windows open, look at View -> Sort By... is anything selected in that sub-menu?
I thought i un=posted this because I replied to another thread - here's the situation
I have the desktop right click-> sort by None
desktop right click clean up by -> nothing checked
desktop right click show view option -> sort by None selected
it's still re-arranging my desktop?
Dunno if this will work, but try deleting the .DS_Store file in your desktop folder. You can most easily do this in the Terminal by pasting in the following command:
rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store
just did that and re-started no luck it re-arranged my desktop again
Try this, then:
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
ah great that worked thanks and have a great day
cheers
Hi Thomas,
I have a similar issue, but not my desktop, just every folder I open, Lion re-arranges. I have it set to none and have tried almost all settings, but I can't organize any of the folders. Is there a .plist file for folder organization?
THanks,
Bryan
Not as far as I know. That's generally one thing the hidden .DS_Store file in each folder is for, but it seems unlikely that you'd have a problem with every .DS_Store file on your computer.
Not sure if this will help the desktop re-arranging issue, but it sorted out my finder re-arranging issue. If it dose not help, maybe it will point some one in the right direction. There seems to be two levels to the new "Change the item arrangement" icon, on the top of finder.
Obviously by clicking on the button, you can change how your view options are arranged. There is however sub options for Kind, Application or Label.
To get these sub options. first click on the "Change the item arrangement" button and select either Kind, Application or Label. Then hold down the "Option" key, and click on the "Change the item arrangement" button. You will be presented with a shorter list that is the sub options.
Name
Kind
Date Last opened
Date added
Date Modified
Date Created
Size
I found that the sub option was always set to "Date Last opened", which meant everything kept moving around when I was using Kind,Application or Label, and made those features unusable for me.
Below is a complete list if you viewing options.
Name
Kind
Name
Kind
Date Last opened
Date added
Date Modified
Date Created
Size
Application
Name
Kind
Date Last opened
Date added
Date Modified
Date Created
Size
Date Last opened
Date added
Date Modified
Date Created
Size
Label
Name
Kind
Date Last opened
Date added
Date Modified
Date Created
Size
None
Does any one know what or how to edit Finders default behavior so I can set the sub option from "Last opened" to something more useful", as apposed to having to reset it every time I'm in a new folder.
Nice post UnkyMoose. I keep losing icon placement on desktop, too, but not in a consistent way that I can figure out. In trying the settings you pointed out and comparing to another machine on which I am not having a problem, I discovered yet some additional settings or at least another way to access the submenus you pointed out. In Finder, select whichever choice under "FAVORITES" in left column. Then click "Action" in top menu (beside Quick Look) and the last two choices on the drop down are "Arrange by" and "Show View Options" (in all but "All My Files" which has also a "Show Search Criteria" choice.) It seems that accessing these menu items here, look very carefully, might be the right spot to lock in the choice in the particular portion of the Finder. What do you think? I just found it so have not tested, just wanted to point it out in hopes it may help.
Just getting it on the record: This is happening to me, too...and v-e-r-y frustrating!
jamesformoakland park. That seems to help me set the behavior more permanently so thanks. It also works for "Devices" and not only "Favorites".
Again not sure if this will help, as I am not having the problem, but if you right click on the desktop. Under the "sort by", you have the options that set how the icons on the desktop are arraigned. If set to "Date Modified", you might find that the new, time capsule like thing for files, that they introduces in lion, might be doing a bunch of autosaving on shutdown, hence items been rearranged on start up.
Has any one else noticed how glitchy the new finder in lion is. I.e if you are in column view, with arrainge by kind. and you press the right arrow to move into a folder you end up selecting the "Kind" label a the top. Also if you click on the "Action" button and then "Show View Options". Some times "Sort by" is gray and unusable as it should be and other times it is gray when you can actually us it. The only way you know it by tying to click on it.
Should clarify: This is not happening on my desktop but on my hard disk. I have 15 folders there, ordered as I want them to be. Every time I reopen, they are rearranged. And the content of every folder is reset in list. I want some in list, some in icon view. Sheesh! Didn't this show up in all the beta testing? What gives????
this is also happening to me
as I posted in another thread, in my case saving a file via the Save/Save-as dialog box from some apps seems to trigger the messing up of the manually sorted icons in my home folder.
also - deleting the com.apple.desktop.plist preference file didn't fix the problem in my case
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 previously suggested solutions.
how to stop lion re-arranging my desktop upon startup
