Weird OS X Problem Desktop icons disappeared

Ollie Cromwell · Jul 23, 2007, 12:23 PM

Anyone come across a problem where all the desktop icons disappear? I also cannot right click on my desktop to bring up a contextual menu, my machine appears to be running faultlessly apart from that. I have run Onyx to reset permissions and have checked the disk but cannot seem to find anything wrong.

Help!!!

Running OSX 10.10 on a quad core 2.66 Mac Pro.

wrldwzrd89 · Jul 23, 2007, 12:32 PM

One thing that could cause this to happen is accidentally renaming the Desktop folder in your user folder to something other than "Desktop".

swiftaw · Jul 23, 2007, 12:33 PM

Try restarting Finder

pianoman · Jul 23, 2007, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftaw

Try restarting Finder

or the computer.

atszyman · Jul 23, 2007, 12:47 PM

Have you by chance been connected to an external monitor recently?

Had a co-worker "lose" a folder on his desktop this weekend due to it simply being off-screen. View->Arrange By->whatever brought the folder back to the screen.

Ollie Cromwell · Jul 23, 2007, 12:48 PM

I have tried all the basic stuff like resetting permissions reasing all preference files and restarting the machine.

It seems weird the desktop is locked off, I cant right click on the desktop, (I can on an application window and even on the dock, just not on the desktop itself?)

Ollie Cromwell · Jul 23, 2007, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atszyman

Have you by chance been connected to an external monitor recently?

Had a co-worker "lose" a folder on his desktop this weekend due to it simply being off-screen. View->Arrange By->whatever brought the folder back to the screen.

My Mac pro is connected to 2 external monitors, neither of them is the issue, it is not just a single folder that has disappeared, all my drive icons, folders and files have disappeared, I have a blank inaccessible desktop...

I cant go to view and sort my icons by the way as I cannot right click on my desktop. Part of the problem that I mentioned......

atszyman · Jul 23, 2007, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ollie Cromwell

My Mac pro is connected to 2 external monitors, neither of them is the issue, it is not just a single folder that has disappeared, all my drive icons, folders and files have disappeared, I have a blank inaccessible desktop...

I cant go to view and sort my icons by the way as I cannot right click on my desktop. Part of the problem that I mentioned......

Sorry about that, I think of laptops most of the time... what it should have read was additional monitors rather than external.

You don't have to right click to be able to do View->whatever, the View menu is in the menu bar and accessible by left clicks as well.

I realized it was a long-shot but thought I'd offer the idea just in case it was a similar problem to one I'd seen recently.

Ollie Cromwell · Jul 23, 2007, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atszyman

Sorry about that, I think of laptops most of the time... what it should have read was additional monitors rather than external.

You don't have to right click to be able to do View->whatever, the View menu is in the menu bar and accessible by left clicks as well.

I realized it was a long-shot but thought I'd offer the idea just in case it was a similar problem to one I'd seen recently.

What is weird is that the whole View menu is greyed out and inacessible, other menus are working but not that one? Hmmmm..

Kilamite · Jul 23, 2007, 01:25 PM

What happens when you take a screenshot? (CMD+SHIFT+4)

OSX should save the screenshot to your desktop (unless you have changed that with a 3rd party hack).

soLoredd · Jul 23, 2007, 01:33 PM

I've had this problem...very rarely...but sometimes my external HD icons will disappear but if I go into Finder I can see them. This is on a MacBook, if it makes any matter.

Ollie Cromwell · Jul 23, 2007, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kilamite

What happens when you take a screenshot? (CMD+SHIFT+4)

OSX should save the screenshot to your desktop (unless you have changed that with a 3rd party hack).

I can take a screenshot, if I open a finder window and navigate to my desktop folder it is there (along with everything else that should be on my desktop)

This is really causing me a lot of head scratching!

atszyman · Jul 23, 2007, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ollie Cromwell

I can take a screenshot, if I open a finder window and navigate to my desktop folder it is there (along with everything else that should be on my desktop)

This is really causing me a lot of head scratching!

Here's a MacFixIt Forum's Thread with some suggestions for a problem that sounds identical to yours.

Another question: Do you have any 3rd party Finder modification/navigation tools installed?

MissEss · Jul 31, 2007, 04:23 PM

I had some app icons disappear .. and then my entire profile vanished. Not sure if this is the same thing you are experiencing, but a heads up that if you haven't backed up in a while, do it now.

polycat33 · Aug 12, 2007, 05:00 AM

My hard drive icon disappeared when I took a screenshot (like the screenshot file was written to the desktop in the place where the hard drive should have been, and hard drive was gone). Restarting finder did the trick!

skyshock21 · Sep 24, 2008, 06:01 PM

Here's how you fix this. Close all open apps except for Finder. You can Command+tab to cycle through them. Use Command+q to quit each one. Once you are sitting at your desktop with Finder having focus on the top menu bar, go to View > Clean up. Voila, they should return. Apple REALLY needs to fix this problem. Any time you move your icons around on the external monitor, they seem to "stick" to that monitor and when you unplug your laptop from the external monitor, they don't automatically move back to where they were previously located on the laptop screen. It's been a problem ever since OSX came out. Apple knows about it, but apparently don't care enough to fix.

Welcome to Apple - think different. YAY!

phenotypical · May 27, 2009, 05:05 AM

I had this problem too - running 10.5.7

Clears up by logging out and back in.

But this solution from Apple support seems to have fixed it: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1916

"Make sure the computer name in Sharing preferences is not blank. Also, make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set:
0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"

phenotypical · Jun 5, 2009, 07:35 AM

Eh, thought that fixed it. Went over a week without seeing it, but it happened again this morning. Weird. Logging out and back in always fixes it - but would be nice to see resolved.

bradc6 · Jun 29, 2009, 08:46 AM

MacBook Pro 2.33, ghz 3 gb ram
connects to an Xserve
system 10.5.7

run Entourage, Mail, Photshop, QXpress, Irritator, typical design crud. Methinks it is an OS issue.

mab75 · Jul 1, 2009, 04:12 PM

This just happened to me after a restart. Weird. I just upgraded iphoto, but i doubt that has something to do with it. M$ entourage is doing som kind of update as well, i put the blame that way.

bordenkecher · Jul 10, 2009, 09:11 PM

I had this problem twice now. The first time I restarted and everything appeared again as it should but re-aligned to the right, not in my customized pattern.

They disappeared again, this time I relaunched Finder and everything came back as they should in their customized places.

I went back and renamed my computer in the shared section underneath system preferences. I had a "." in my name, so I am hoping this doesn't happen again after the renaming. If it does I'll let you all know.

I'm currently running 10.5.7 on a MBP

muffinman · Jul 10, 2009, 09:14 PM

Yeah, restart and shutdown. My computer acts funny if I don't shut it down once in a while

Joseph Meltzer · Jul 28, 2009, 07:51 PM

Try going into

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/

open up

com.apple.Finder.plist in textedit.

look for the "CreateDesktop" entry and change "false" to "true".

Hope this worked

pdigz · 01:52 AM

Had this problem----desktop unresponsive, no context menus, icons disappeared, etc ----to be completely honest this happened hours after installing Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro AND , I'm sure not coincidentally, uninstalling Path Finder. I tried everything on this and other forums and nothing worked.
Tried editing Finder Plists, nothing worked, but...
This did:

1. Go to user/library/preferences/ and
2. Remove (move/delete/whatever--I originally just moved them but they are not needed so ended up deleting) these two files:
com.apple.finder.plist
and
com.apple.FolderActions.plist

3. Force quit to relaunch Finder.

Everything back to normal (in my case).

Good luck, hope it works for you, this was driving me crazy.

nhawk · Sep 9, 2009, 08:05 AM

Start Terminal from Spotlight (Apple+Space). In Terminal type "killall Finder." This will restart all instances of Finder. The icons came back on the desktop for me.

Jul 23, 2007, 12:23 PM	#1
Ollie Cromwell macrumors member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London	Weird OS X Problem Desktop icons disappeared Anyone come across a problem where all the desktop icons disappear? I also cannot right click on my desktop to bring up a contextual menu, my machine appears to be running faultlessly apart from that. I have run Onyx to reset permissions and have checked the disk but cannot seem to find anything wrong. Help!!! Running OSX 10.10 on a quad core 2.66 Mac Pro. __________________ MBP C2D 2.33/15""/2gb Mac Pro Quad 2.66 "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 12:32 PM	#2
wrldwzrd89 macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Solon, OH	One thing that could cause this to happen is accidentally renaming the Desktop folder in your user folder to something other than "Desktop". __________________ iMac Intel (Rev H, 27"), 1TB HDD, 16GB RAM, 10.8.4
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 12:47 PM	#5
atszyman macrumors 68020 Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: The Dallas 'burbs	Have you by chance been connected to an external monitor recently? Had a co-worker "lose" a folder on his desktop this weekend due to it simply being off-screen. View->Arrange By->whatever brought the folder back to the screen. __________________ "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." - Paul Erdös Every little bit helps, put your spare CPU cycles to good use, join the MacRumors Folding@Home team! Get the widget
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 12:48 PM	#6
Ollie Cromwell Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London	I have tried all the basic stuff like resetting permissions reasing all preference files and restarting the machine. It seems weird the desktop is locked off, I cant right click on the desktop, (I can on an application window and even on the dock, just not on the desktop itself?) __________________ MBP C2D 2.33/15""/2gb Mac Pro Quad 2.66 "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 01:25 PM	#10
Kilamite macrumors G3 Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland	What happens when you take a screenshot? (CMD+SHIFT+4) OSX should save the screenshot to your desktop (unless you have changed that with a 3rd party hack). __________________ 15" MacBook Pro 2GHz i7 4GB 750GB \| Mac mini 2.3GHz i7 16GB 1TB Fusion \| OS X 10.8.3 iPhone 5 64GB \| Apple TV 3 1080p \| iOS 6.1.4
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 12:33 PM	#3
swiftaw macrumors 603 Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Omaha, NE, USA	Try restarting Finder
	0

Jul 23, 2007, 01:33 PM	#11
soLoredd macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: California	I've had this problem...very rarely...but sometimes my external HD icons will disappear but if I go into Finder I can see them. This is on a MacBook, if it makes any matter.
	0

Jul 31, 2007, 04:23 PM	#14
MissEss macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2007	Similar issue I had some app icons disappear .. and then my entire profile vanished. Not sure if this is the same thing you are experiencing, but a heads up that if you haven't backed up in a while, do it now.
	0

Aug 12, 2007, 05:00 AM	#15
polycat33 macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jul 2007	My hard drive icon disappeared when I took a screenshot (like the screenshot file was written to the desktop in the place where the hard drive should have been, and hard drive was gone). Restarting finder did the trick!
	0

Sep 24, 2008, 06:01 PM	#16
skyshock21 macrumors newbie Join Date: Sep 2008	Here's how you fix this. Close all open apps except for Finder. You can Command+tab to cycle through them. Use Command+q to quit each one. Once you are sitting at your desktop with Finder having focus on the top menu bar, go to View > Clean up. Voila, they should return. Apple REALLY needs to fix this problem. Any time you move your icons around on the external monitor, they seem to "stick" to that monitor and when you unplug your laptop from the external monitor, they don't automatically move back to where they were previously located on the laptop screen. It's been a problem ever since OSX came out. Apple knows about it, but apparently don't care enough to fix. Welcome to Apple - think different. YAY!
	0

May 27, 2009, 05:05 AM	#17
phenotypical macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2009	official fix I had this problem too - running 10.5.7 Clears up by logging out and back in. But this solution from Apple support seems to have fixed it: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1916 "Make sure the computer name in Sharing preferences is not blank. Also, make sure the computer name only includes ASCII characters from following set: 0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
	0

Jun 5, 2009, 07:35 AM	#18
phenotypical macrumors newbie Join Date: May 2009	official fix not Eh, thought that fixed it. Went over a week without seeing it, but it happened again this morning. Weird. Logging out and back in always fixes it - but would be nice to see resolved.
	0

Jun 29, 2009, 08:46 AM	#19
bradc6 macrumors newbie Join Date: Jun 2009	Same problem here MacBook Pro 2.33, ghz 3 gb ram connects to an Xserve system 10.5.7 run Entourage, Mail, Photshop, QXpress, Irritator, typical design crud. Methinks it is an OS issue.
	0

Jul 1, 2009, 04:12 PM	#20
mab75 macrumors newbie Join Date: Mar 2008	me too This just happened to me after a restart. Weird. I just upgraded iphoto, but i doubt that has something to do with it. M$ entourage is doing som kind of update as well, i put the blame that way.
	0

Jul 10, 2009, 09:11 PM	#21
bordenkecher macrumors member Join Date: Mar 2006	me too I had this problem twice now. The first time I restarted and everything appeared again as it should but re-aligned to the right, not in my customized pattern. They disappeared again, this time I relaunched Finder and everything came back as they should in their customized places. I went back and renamed my computer in the shared section underneath system preferences. I had a "." in my name, so I am hoping this doesn't happen again after the renaming. If it does I'll let you all know. I'm currently running 10.5.7 on a MBP
	0

Jul 10, 2009, 09:14 PM	#22
muffinman macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: San Diego, California	Yeah, restart and shutdown. My computer acts funny if I don't shut it down once in a while
	0

Jul 28, 2009, 07:51 PM	#23
Joseph Meltzer macrumors newbie Join Date: Jan 2008	Solution Try going into /Users/username/Library/Preferences/ open up com.apple.Finder.plist in textedit. look for the "CreateDesktop" entry and change "false" to "true". Hope this worked
	0

Aug 31, 2009, 01:46 AM	#24
pdigz macrumors newbie Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Los Angeles	This worked for me... Had this problem----desktop unresponsive, no context menus, icons disappeared, etc ----to be completely honest this happened hours after installing Snow Leopard on my Macbook Pro AND , I'm sure not coincidentally, uninstalling Path Finder. I tried everything on this and other forums and nothing worked. Tried editing Finder Plists, nothing worked, but... This did: 1. Go to user/library/preferences/ and 2. Remove (move/delete/whatever--I originally just moved them but they are not needed so ended up deleting) these two files: com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.FolderActions.plist 3. Force quit to relaunch Finder. Everything back to normal (in my case). Good luck, hope it works for you, this was driving me crazy. Last edited by pdigz; Aug 31, 2009 at 01:52 AM.
	0

Sep 9, 2009, 08:05 AM	#25
nhawk macrumors newbie Join Date: Sep 2009	Try this... Start Terminal from Spotlight (Apple+Space). In Terminal type "killall Finder." This will restart all instances of Finder. The icons came back on the desktop for me.
	0

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