Desktop icons don't 'land' where dropped.

This works for me and the icons can "Snap to Grid" once you click on "Clean Up" because they realign themselves in the order that you put them on. So you should always leave "Snap to Grid" disabled and every time you add a new icon, you just need to "Clean Up" and it will be aligned.

Try to move the folowing plist to the desktop:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist (this will reset your desktop icons + finder preferences)

Logout/login and see if it works after.

Click on the desktop then press Command + J this should open the Desktop view options... Change icon size slightly and grind spacing also... Sort by change it to something else then back to Snap to Grid... See how it works after and let me know.

Check if issue happens in Safe Boot, if it does create a new user and see if it happens there too. This will help us determine if this is a user related issue or system wide and move from there. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

I have the same problem: dragging a file from a folder onto the desktop, the file often does not land where I released the mouse button but at random location - sometimes in the middle of the screen, sometimes in the top right corner, etc.

Dragging a file already on the desktop works correctly - it lands where I released the mouse button.

My machine is a early 2013 iMac. OS is 10.9.1

OK I think I understand better what is happening and have a solution:

Behaviour seems to be dependent on what View is used in the folder from which the file is being dragged from. If the files in the folder are displayed as icons, dragging them onto the desktop, they land at the mouse release position. If on the other hand the files in the folder are displayed in list view, then dragging results in the random placement behavior. In this second scenario, to get the file to land at the desired position, wait a second or two at the desired placement position before releasing the mouse button. The file object you are dragging should transform into an icon. Once this occurs the mouse button can be released and the file will be placed at the desired position.

Waiting doesn't work for me, either. But it seems to me that the problem only occurs when moving files, not copying. I often drop files on the right side of the screen, and they keep landing on my second display to the right.

Click on the desktop and then press cmd+j. In the window that pops up, under "Sort by", select "None". Does it now work properly? This seems to work for me but it has the disadvantage that icons no longer "Snap to Grid".