desktop icons faded in sierra

Question

Level 1

11 points

desktop icons faded in sierra

Mac mini late 2012 running macOS 10.12.6 Sierra.

For some strange weird reason, "some" of my desktop icons are faded. Plus whenever I want to upload a picture from one of the faded icons when the save drop down window appears none of the faded icons show when I select "desktop". Please note: I learned that I can hit the "shift-command-period (key)" while "desktop" is selected and the icons will magically appear. I know that. Also, I have complete access to the faded icons: They can be opened, moved, etc.

The problem is, how in the world, out-of-the-blue, did some icons become faded while others didn't.

Really baffled. Spent hours trying to find if there's a fix. The only fix I found, without using the terminal, was the above 3-keystroke mentioned above.

Any enlightenment will be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Standing by.

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), 2.3 GHz/i7/16GB RAM

Posted on Jan 21, 2018 11:02 PM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

65,010 points

Jan 22, 2018 1:41 AM in response to NowWhat!

Run safe mode , NVRAM / PRAM , use https://etrecheck.com/

And see what is running in the system , also create a new user account How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Jan 22, 2018 1:45 AM in response to NowWhat!

Short explanation, there's nothing to fix.

By default, macOS hides critical system files and folders. These are hidden for good reason; if hidden files were visible all the time, the chances that a user might accidentally delete or change them and potentially create catastrophic system-wide problems (not to mention headaches) increases greatly.

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Answer 3

NowWhat! Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 23, 2018 7:28 PM in response to CountryGirl56

@CountryGirl56. Thank you for your reply. That's not quite the case. These files are files that I created or downloaded from a depositphotos. The files I created came from Nisus or some other software. They shouldn't be hidden because they're not system important. Really weird glitch. I can create new files and they look great. Anyhow. I appreciate your help. Thank you.

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Answer 4

NowWhat! Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 23, 2018 7:30 PM in response to tygb

@tygb, Thank you for your reply. I'll give it a try. For now I'm super busy and really okay with the faded icons. But if and when I decide to try your suggestion I will update here. Thank you again for your help.

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Answer 5

NowWhat! Author

Level 1

11 points

Jan 23, 2018 7:35 PM in response to Eric Root

@Eric Root, Thank you for your suggestion. I did give it a try, but the file kept popping back, I actually Iost all the desktop icons but got them all back with a restore. I may give this a try again later on. For now, I'm okay with the faded icons. Any new file I add is not faded. If and when I try your suggestion again, I'll update here. Kinda super busy right now. Again, appreciate your help.

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

685,257 points

Jan 22, 2018 7:52 AM in response to NowWhat!

Might be a corrupt .plist.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.

Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.

If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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