Can I use Time Machine to restore icon positions on Desktop?

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Level 2

152 points

Can I use Time Machine to restore icon positions on Desktop?

Can I use Time Machine to restore the previous positioning of a large number of icons that we were sorting on on the desktop? If I understand correctly, that positioning information may be stored in the invisible file called .DS_Store . If I use Spotlight to locate that invisible file on the desktop and then enter time machine, can I restore the older version? Any other specific instructions that anyone can provide to accomplish this?

MacBook Pro, i5, 15 inch & iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 24-inch, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 6:16 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 21, 2012 6:17 PM in response to Bob Mayo

from what i recall it is possible. you need to restore com.apple.dock.plist and it is located in home folder>library> preferences

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Answer 2

Bob Mayo Author

Level 2

152 points

Feb 21, 2012 6:24 PM in response to boink boink

To clarify, the icons I'm looking to restore to their old positons are actual files and folders on the desktop itself, and not icons stored in the dock. Does that influence your answer, BB?

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Answer 3

ds store

Level 7

30,835 points

Feb 21, 2012 6:31 PM in response to Bob Mayo

Should work theoretically. I'm no expert on TimeMachine restores with invisible files.

If something screws up you can use OnyX to rebuild the ds_store files without all the placement of course.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/

The free TInkertool will turn on/off all invisible items, not sure if it works for TM though.

http://www.bresink.com/osx/TinkerTool.html

Good Luck. 🙂

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Answer 4

Feb 21, 2012 6:31 PM in response to Bob Mayo

i see. that's more clear.

my bad. what i suggested was totally unrelated. 😊

i'm not sure exactly what can .DS_Store do once it is restored apart from what you expect.

Maybe making hidden files show up will help, http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2008/04/show-hidden-files.html

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Answer 5

Bob Mayo Author

Level 2

152 points

Feb 21, 2012 7:41 PM in response to Bob Mayo

I took the plunge and successfully did it as follows.

-First, to be safe, I decided to "Back Up Now" in Time Machine.

-I then used the keyboard Command-F to begin a Spotlight seach

-Clicked to Search in my home folder "YourUserNameHere" ...and by File Name (as opposed to Content)

-Chose "Visibility" and "Invisible Items" as my search criteria. (I first chose "Other" to get to the "Visibility" option)

-I used the List View instead of Icon View to look at the results

-I sorted the list view by "Date Modified"

-If my search yielded more than one .DS_Store file, I selected and highlighted the .DS_Store file that resided under YourUserNameHere>Desktop.

- Next, I Entered Time Machine, and searched back for a version of the file from before I re-arranged the icons on my desktop.

-With that file selected in Time Machine, I clicked "Restore"

-TIme Machine asked me if I wanted to replace the file at that location which already has that name. I answered that yes, I did want to replace it.

- Finally, logged out of my account, then logged back in. Everything was back as I wanted it.

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