Downloads desktop Folder icon

Peter Franks said:

Still having problems with this folder that used to open all icons in it instantly and now nothing appears at all apart from this.

Is there anyone who gets this or is there a fix?
It used to appear after a minute or so but now it doesn't at all.

Anyone else get this when they click on their Downloads folder in Dock?

[url=http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3343/screenshot20130319at123.png]Image[/URL]

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I'm a little confused, but I think your problem has to do with the dock. If your downloads stack isn't showing icons, you should probably first clean up the folder so your Mac doesn't have to render so many icons. Also, restart your Mac first, just to clear up any issues. Then if the problem persists you can repair permissions or delete the dock preferences (to do this, go to your home library folder, find the preferences folder, and in that look for the file com.apple.dock.plist. Delete this file and restart your Mac... You will have to re customize the icons in your dock, but this may help.) To repair permissions, open disk utility and click on your HD and click "repair permissions".

Drew017 said:

Then if the problem persists you can repair permissions or delete the dock preferences

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Deleting the Dock plist file is a likely candidate, but it's worth pointing out that Repair Permissions does NOTHING to any file in your User account.
People tend to offer it as something to try in response to any Mac problem, but its scope and benefits are quite limited.

It might be worthwhile to boot to an installer disk or partition and use Disk Utility to Repair Disk on your startup volume.

What Mac, what OS version, and how much RAM?

Another thing to bear in mind is that having lots of files on the Desktop can massively overload the WindowServer process, (as each icon is treated as a Window). That might have some bearing on icons not showing up.

benwiggy said:

but it's worth pointing out that Repair Permissions does NOTHING to any file in your User account.
People tend to offer it as something to try in response to any Mac problem, but its scope and benefits are quite limited.

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Your right, but it still might be a good idea just to make sure there are no files dealing with the Dock that are not in the user account that need to be repaired.

Peter Franks said:

Thank you for your help....

I have nothing on the actual desktop at all, it's just the downloads blue folder in dock, far right. As the pic shows, I used to click on that and see all the pics immediately, Last couple of days, nothing will show up or download to show me them instantly or otherwise

I did clear out quite a lot but it makes no odds

SL 10.6.8
2.3 GHx Intel Core i5
Mem 4GB 1333 MHz

Have about 80GB left from a 320 HD

Thanks

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Maybe try taking the Downloads stack off the dock and replacing it? I remember having this sort of issue in OS X Leopard a long time ago… doing this seemed to help.

Peter Franks said:

You mean, take it off and replace by putting it back, the same one again?

I don't use the stack view obviously, because there are quite a few files in there. But 'stack' was same problem, and no views also

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Yep, take the folder from the dock and go into your home folder and drag it back. That might work.