How do you refresh the desktop icons?

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Level 2

276 points

How do you refresh the desktop icons?

Hi.

Is there any way to refresh the desktop icons? I ask because while recently working in iMovie I was warned that there was only 738MB left on the start up disk, the Mac HD icon on the desktop said there was still 10.5GB, I got info on the disk and it reported back that there was roughly 9 or so GB available. The only way I'm able to get the icon to refresh is by re-starting the system (which doesn't really work for me) Is there a way to manually refresh the icons to get a more accurate measure of the available space?

Thanks

Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Apr 14, 2006 1:41 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Apr 14, 2006 8:25 PM in response to Tymon Emery1

OPTION-click the Dock's Finder icon and select "relaunch." The other thing to consider is getting an external FWHD or a bigger internal HD for swapfile usage. You should always have about 20% of your HD free for swapfile (virutal memory) use.

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Answer 2

Tymon Emery1 Author

Level 2

276 points

Apr 16, 2006 2:58 AM in response to baltwo

Thanks for the reply, I'll give it a try. Shouldn't the icons just refresh by themselves, why do I have to relaunch the Finder evertime I need a readout of the space I have left on the HD? The icons used to update automatically but now for some reason this no longer happens. I think this may have only started to happen after upgrading to 10.4.4 but I'm not sure.

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 16, 2006 3:35 AM in response to Tymon Emery1

As baltwo suggests, consider an external fw drive. VolSpace may also be helpful to you.

-mj
macjack@gmail.com

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Answer 4

Tymon Emery1 Author

Level 2

276 points

Apr 16, 2006 8:58 AM in response to macjack

Thanks for that macjack, I've tried downloading volspace but it doesn't seem to be available from macupdate or version tracker, the link you posted does not work either, any other places I could get it from?

Thanks

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Answer 5

macjack

Level 10

111,168 points

Apr 16, 2006 9:23 AM in response to Tymon Emery1

Hmm, when I use the link it goes straight to Volspace 1.1.5 on MacUpdate.
I also just went to
http://macupdate.com/
and in search typed Volspace and it took me right to it.

-mj
macjack@gmail.com

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Answer 6

Tymon Emery1 Author

Level 2

276 points

Apr 16, 2006 12:15 PM in response to macjack

Thanks again macjack, I just keep getting returned with a '404 not found page', thought it might have had something to do with popups being blocked so I tried it without blocking them but still no luck... Any other free apps that will do the same thing? Thanks for the help

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Answer 7

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Apr 16, 2006 12:47 PM in response to Tymon Emery1

IIRC, once Safari gets a "404 not found" error, the next time you go there, it'll will use the cached page instead of revisiting the link. Try this, Safari->empty cache and then try the link again.

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Answer 8

Jul 7, 2006 9:54 PM in response to Tymon Emery1

No one ever answered why the HD space stopped refreshing automatically. Mine used to update, but now it doesn't unless I restart.

Is there a preference somewhere?

This seems like such a basic thing, it should just work.

Thanks,
Aaron

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Answer 9

Jul 7, 2006 10:02 PM in response to baltwo

The link to Macupdate works. The download link does not.

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Answer 10

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 7, 2006 11:14 PM in response to Michael S. Allen

Don't know what to tell you except it appears the file's no longer available.

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Answer 11

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 7, 2006 11:17 PM in response to Aaron Roberts

Where are not seeing this? Which space are you describing? Launch the Activity Monitor, select Disk Usage or Memory on the bottom. Those will give you the current status.

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Answer 12

Jul 8, 2006 9:15 AM in response to baltwo

On the desktop it shows the hard drives size and amount free. Its right next to the name of the drive. Mine says 74.41 GB, 1.83 free. If I right click and get info, it says 9.02GB available. I know thats right, because I dropped some stuff in the trash and then emptied it.

The icon used to automatically update when I deleted things, but now it doesn't.

I know I can do a get info or I can look at the activity monitor, but I shouldn't have to if it shows on the icon properly.

Aaron

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Answer 13

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 8, 2006 12:06 PM in response to Aaron Roberts

OK. You've set Show Item Info on your icons. I've never used that option because it clutters the desktop and, IIRC, that information is a Finder function and Finder update information is slow to refresh. Once again, relaunch the Finder and see if the information updates. Your other option is to reapply the latest COMBO update and see if that fixes the problem.

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Answer 14

Jul 8, 2006 2:37 PM in response to baltwo

Relaunching finder does cause it to update. In the past, the update seemed to be fairly quick either right after deleting files or within a minute.

How do I redo a combo update? I just did the recent 10.4.7.

Thanks,
Aaron R>

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