Finder won't retain icon settings.

Question

Finder won't retain icon settings.

I have a problem with my Finder in that the main Macintosh HD window won't retain settings (such as icon type/position etc.) after a reboot.

The problem appeared after I had a bit of a clear out using Onyx, including deleting .DS_Store files.

I've gone to Show View Options and set it all up, clicked Use as Defaults, but nothing seems to work.

I've since tried deleting the .DS_Store files again, along with the com.apple.finder.plist file. I've also run a full permissions repair, but still no joy.

Not sure if it's relevant, but when I do a search for invisible .DS_Store files, quite a few come up, but there doesn't seem to be one for the Macintosh HD window.

So how do I prod the Finder to create one - always assuming that that is the problem? And if that isn't the problem, what is?

Any thoughts or advice gratefully received.

Mac OS X (10.5.8), 17" iMac PPC G4 1.25 GHz 10.5.8

Posted on Nov 4, 2015 9:57 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,189 points

Nov 4, 2015 11:39 AM in response to legolas-woodelf

Is it only the icons outside of your home folder not retaining settings?

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Answer 2

Nov 4, 2015 12:12 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not quite sure I've understood your question, but I've just tried changing the window background colour in my Macintosh HD window and my Macintosh HD > Users > Myaccount window. I then logged out and back in again. The Macintosh HD > Users > Myaccount colour background was still as I'd set it, but the Macintosh HD window had reverted back to a default white background.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,189 points

Nov 4, 2015 1:53 PM in response to legolas-woodelf

Yes, that is what I was asking, thanks. 🙂

I remember this problem, may have even solved it, but for the life of me can't quite remember the cure. 😟

Hmmm, I'm thinking that you could do a Get Ifo on the whole drive, unlock the lock & add your user to have R&W privileges.

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Answer 4

Nov 4, 2015 2:33 PM in response to BDAqua

I've just done a Get Info. Here's a grab of what's what now. I've done as you suggested and added Me (at the top) and Admin and given both Read/Write privileges. The other three I haven't touched.

Tried rebooting the whole computer but no luck. 😟

One thing - should Wheel really be Read Only? From what I've read, Wheel is some kind of super user group, which I would have thought means it should have full read/write privileges. I'm a bit wary of changing it though, as I'm already out of my depth in terms of knowledge. :/

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,189 points

Nov 4, 2015 3:52 PM in response to legolas-woodelf

On my 10.5.8 PPC there is no wheel rights at all, on my 10.8.5 IntelMac wheel is read only.

I've not been able to find the cure for that in my searches. 😟

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Answer 6

Nov 5, 2015 12:42 AM in response to BDAqua

😟

Thanks for trying.

Anyone else had any experience of this? There must be a fix because my Finder settings worked fine for about a decade.

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Answer 7

Nov 5, 2015 6:58 AM in response to legolas-woodelf

Cracked it! 😎

Using Terminal, I typed:

$ cd /
$ ls -l .DS_Store

I found that there was indeed a .DS_Store file for the Macintosh HD window, but that it was owned by wheel which, as we discussed above, is a read-only group. So using Onyx, I deleted just that one .DS_Store file, then created a new one in Terminal using the following command:

$ cd /

$ sudo install -o root -g admin -m 0664 /dev/null .DS_Store

This created the new .DS_Store file, but this time owned by admin, which of course has full read-write privileges. Result: my window/icon arrangements now survive logouts and restarts - just like they always used to. 🙂

Sincere thanks for your help BD - it was circling around the privileges issue that you mentioned that led me along the road to seek out this link which explains the whole thing. 🙂

http://stormchild.tumblr.com/post/29972089979/fix-finder-windows-that-forget-vie w-options

Thanks again.

🙂

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Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

239,189 points

Nov 5, 2015 10:18 AM in response to legolas-woodelf

Great work, thanks for the report! 🙂

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