Finder files random order

Ever since I moved to Lion my files and folders organized by me in icon view inside Hard drives and folders have been constantly messed up by the system. Every time the computer restarts all the files and folders icons get mixed into a strange order and position (sometimes overlapping). I tried to re-arrange them several times, and after restart they allways get back to that strange default icon layout, with no understandable sorting order. Anybody found a fix to this?

Posted on Aug 28, 2011 12:05 PM

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7 replies

Aug 29, 2011 4:21 AM in response to romeup

My desktop has 6 icons on it. I have arranged them as I wish them arranged. The only sort by I have sellected is Snap to Grid. Given that this works for me, unless others can confirm there is a bug in Lion, I can only think of one reason why you are having this problem: your Finder prefs file is munged.

Aug 29, 2011 2:40 AM in response to dwb

No I haven't. Both Sort By and Arrange By are set to None. And the way the system places the icons of files and folders in the window does not appear to follow any of the sort patterns available in the Sort drop-down menu. One thing I have to admit, that messed-up order the system insists on is always the same. Every time I try to arrange the icons position on the window, the way I want them to be (in my project folders I place editable files on top, sub-folders on the right and other resource files on the bottom) it always reverts, after a reboot, to the same messed layout, sometimes overlapping files. I have given up trying to fight it. If this were happening inside some other software, I would have tried to fix it by deleting all its preferences, but this is the Finder. Messing with the finder preferences doesn't look like a good idea..

Aug 29, 2011 3:24 AM in response to Lexiepex

LexSchellings: I don't want any of the apple defined sort patterns. I want my sort pattern. I want to arrange the file display location in a folder or drive window as I choose. This has been possible since the the early classic OSes. I want to decide which files get on top, and which get on the bottom. That as always been possible, until now with Lion.


Aug 29, 2011 5:21 AM in response to dwb

Strangely, my desktop is the only place were this is not happening. I have a lot of files and folders on my desktop and they always keep their position. This only happens in drives and folders Finder windows.


btw. I found another discussion with users complaining about this problem. I'm sorry I didn't find it before I posted this question. There seems to be no fix to this problem yet, but it's definitely a Lion issue.

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Finder files random order

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