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

Same problem here. I know I should clean up my desktop, but I actually like having current files organized and accessible / visible there. If the OS keeps moving them, I can't find 'em!

Same problem here since upgrading to Lion (and now 10.7.1).

It's extremely annoying, and makes work difficult. On the desktop I have some 50 icons arranged the way I like them. It's impossible manually moving these back to where I want them every day. It also happens in some folders.

The problem exists on my iMac i7 (27" mid 2010) but NOT on my Macbook Pro (13" mid 2009).

Yup, me too. Almost looks like this is intentional feature of Lion.

Read here for a solution:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3221332

I have tried that and it doesn't work.

I have the same issue. I tried the following but it is still happening.

I logged out, logged into another account, and removed the following files via the commandline and sudo:

<user>/Desktop/.DS_Store

<user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

<user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist.lockfile

<user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

<user>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist.lockfile

I can't think of any other file that would be relevent.

This is still a problem and takes way too much time to fix every few days. I cannot beleive this was not addressed in 10.7.1.

I guess you could create an applescript to do this but that is not the time waster.... Restoring the location and knowing it will only last a few days is #!&#@

Same problem here. All desktop icons end up on the right side of the desktop. Is there a permanent fix?

Don't know why this worked for me but you can try right clicking the desktop and choosing Sort By...Snap ToGrid. Now right click again Sort By and this time choose None.

Not sure why but I regained control of icon placement after rotating through this drill.

No permanent fixes until Apple sees enough angry customers to do something about it. IMHO I will bet it has to do with the obnoxious "restore windows..." option at shut down. Something is trashing the .Ds_Store files. Not every time, but enough it is a huuuuuuge time waster.

I'll give that a try and see what happens. I only have this problem on my Mac Pro at work. My Mac Pro and iMac at home are so far unaffected -- knock wood. 🙂

I submitted a "Product Feedback" form yesterday, for what it's worth.

still no official statement from apple ....

is this a bug, or something we have to live with ...

im sure the new advertisement of windows will be on this topic !!!

mac users cant have the desktop arranged ....switch to Windowze !

Yeah, this is terrible.

While waiting for a fix from Apple I downloaded SwitchResX.

A great little utility that can save your desktop layout.

I'm sure there are other, similar ones.

Doctor Pangloss wrote:

Don't know why this worked for me but you can try right clicking the desktop and choosing Sort By...Snap ToGrid. Now right click again Sort By and this time choose None.

Not sure why but I regained control of icon placement after rotating through this drill.

I tried your suggestion Friday and the icons have remained where I put them. I shutdown each night so there have been plenty of opportunities for them to realign themselves. Let's hope that's the fix.

Thanks,