My Mac's desktop won't work. I can't right click on it, drag to highlight things, or move folders to the desktop. Please help

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My Mac's desktop won't work. I can't right click on it, drag to highlight things, or move folders to the desktop. Please help

Well so one day, I just started up my computer. I usually do that thing where you drag the cursor on the desktop and it makes the white box thing. This time it didn't do it. This discussion, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5534837 was no help. I use this computer for school and work, and it would be a big help to get this solved. Thank you

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), MacBook Pro 13-inch mid 2012

Posted on Feb 27, 2014 2:53 AM

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Answer 1

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norm123

Community Specialist

Mar 1, 2014 1:51 PM in response to saxon198

Hello saxon198

If you are having issues that are not being resolved from your previous troubleshooting steps, try the troubleshooting article for determining if it is a software issue. If that does not work or get a resolution then you may need to reinstall OS X Mavericks.

Mac OS X: How to troubleshoot a software issue

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1199

OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13871

Regards,

-Norm G.

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Answer 2

saxon198 Author

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Mar 2, 2014 1:08 AM in response to norm123

Thank you Norm

A quick question about the reinstallation of Mavericks. Do I have to do the cmd R thing to go into recovery mode and redownload mavericks? Or can i just you the mavericks installer I already have on my computer?

Thank you for your help

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Answer 3

saxon198 Author

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Mar 6, 2014 4:30 AM in response to norm123

Norm-

I reinstalled Mavericks and still no luck with my desktop. The desktop works fine in all other accounts on my computer. Again, my desktop issue is: can't right click, can't highlight, and can't move things to the dekstop. If you know any thing on how to fix or someone who can fix it, that would be amazing.

Thank you,

Saxon 198

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Answer 4

norm123

Community Specialist

Mar 11, 2014 2:10 PM in response to saxon198

Hey saxon198

If it is just the one user account, then the next step would be to migrate the data that you have to a new user. The best method is to copy your Home Folder to an external hard drive. The next step after that is complete is to delete the user that is causing the issue. Then all you have to do is to copy your data back over. Just copy the contents of the documents folder into the new documents folder instead of replacing it. Now things that probably will not make the move unless you have iCloud or another syncing service is Contacts, Calendars and Notes. You can export those if needed. If it seems confusing or to daunting, then the next step would be to contact Apple Support for further help. I have provided a link to do so with multiple different options for you.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4053

OS X: Manually migrating data from another Mac

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6101

Contact Apple Support

https://www.apple.com/support/contact/

Regards,

-Norm G.

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