Invisible desktop icons, name still visible

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Level 4

1,361 points

Invisible desktop icons, name still visible

After upgrading to Lion (10.7.3), after thorough software updates, repairing permissions several times, logging in and out, and generally using it on a regular basis for a few days, I still occasionally get some invisible desktop icons. This never happened before in Snow Leopard on back. I keep about 20 items on my desktop — hard drives, aliases of folders, aliases of files, a few textedit files. When I login, sometimes everything is fine. But sometimes two or three icons would be invisible. Their names would still be visible. It's not always the same icons. It's random and intermittent.

When invisible, I cannot select them by direct clicking, but only by surrounding it with a marquee selection (dragging a box around them). I can change their name.

Is this a known bug? Any fix?

Mac OS X (10.7.3), + 24" HD display

Posted on Mar 21, 2012 5:17 PM

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Answer 1

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Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Mar 21, 2012 8:27 PM in response to Ken2G5

You should be able to fix this by relaunching the Finder.

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Answer 2

Ken2G5 Author

Level 4

1,361 points

Mar 21, 2012 9:00 PM in response to Linc Davis

Ahh yes of course.

So it's a known quirk in Lion? I've never had to force quit Finder so many times.

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,541 points

Mar 21, 2012 9:22 PM in response to Ken2G5

I see it occasionally. It's rare.

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Answer 4

petermac87

Level 5

7,447 points

Mar 21, 2012 9:26 PM in response to Ken2G5

Ken2G5 wrote:

Ahh yes of course.

So it's a known quirk in Lion? I've never had to force quit Finder so many times.

Something I see on a rare occasion, saw it in Snow Leopard as well. Usually rights itself pretty quickly and doesn't come to the fore again for quite some time. If you are seeing it too often you may need to trash your finder .plst

Pete

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Answer 5

Ken2G5 Author

Level 4

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Mar 21, 2012 9:43 PM in response to petermac87

Trashing the "Finder .plst" sounds like a stronger fix. Remind me again where to look for that file?

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Answer 6

petermac87

Level 5

7,447 points

Mar 21, 2012 10:03 PM in response to Ken2G5

Ken2G5 wrote:

Trashing the "Finder .plst" sounds like a stronger fix. Remind me again where to look for that file?

Go up to top menu and optio click on Go. Choose Library and go to preferences. Then look for and move these two files to the trash

com.apple.finder.plist

com.apple.finder.plist.lockfile

They will be recreated on start up and if they were corrupt, you shouldn't see that behaviour any more. If you still do we'll know where to look next.

Pete

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Answer 7

Ken2G5 Author

Level 4

1,361 points

Mar 21, 2012 10:55 PM in response to petermac87

Apparently, it was some kind of custom Finder icon sizes or locations that got carried over from Snow Leopard and having trouble keepng up. Trashing those plist files (and restarting) did the trick. Now they've taken on nicer appearance! No doubt part of Lion.

Thank you for the suggestion. 🙂

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Answer 8

petermac87

Level 5

7,447 points

Mar 21, 2012 10:58 PM in response to Ken2G5

Ken2G5 wrote:

Apparently, it was some kind of custom Finder icon sizes or locations that got carried over from Snow Leopard and having trouble keepng up. Trashing those plist files (and restarting) did the trick. Now they've taken on nicer appearance! No doubt part of Lion.

Thank you for the suggestion. 🙂

Hope all stays well.

Happy Computing

Pete

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