Desktop icons align horizontally

[pja2536]

Earlier today my M1 Mac Mini stopped responding. I had to manually shut it down and then restart it. After the restart the three desktop icons I have for the Mac's SSD, The TimeMachine SSD and a Flash Drive I use for GetBackUp Pro were aligned horizontally (not vertically).

ScreenShot 01

If I change the Desktop settings to:

Use Stacks: OFF
Sort By: None

The drive icons resort and sit on top of each other.

ScreenShot 02

I have run the Onyx utility but that has not resolved the issue. I wonder if the is a Plist or something that has become scrambled.

I have searched for several hours to find a solution but can't find anything that helps. I have tried all the options/permutations when I [control] + [Mouse Click] on the screen.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Regards,
Peter

 

[DigiH]

Hi,

Have you tried Command - J (View Options) to widen the grid spacing, and Sort By: Snap to Grid?

 

[pja2536]

Hi,

Have you tried Command - J (View Options) to widen the grid spacing, and Sort By: Snap to Grid?

Yes! Many times. But that doesn't work. I think there must be a corrupted setting file somewhere, but I have no idea where.

Regards,
Peter

 

[DigiH]

At least these view settings mentioned above seem to be stored in the User > Library > Preferences > com.apple.finder.plist amongst other Finder preferences.

 

[pja2536]

…settings mentioned above seem to be stored in the User > Library > Preferences > com.apple.finder.plist

Thanks for your reply.

I've looked at the plist file and part of it seems to be where the desktop icon settings are. I don't have the faintest idea what settings to change but I have attached the part of the plist I think is appropriate. Are you able to offer any advice?

Regards,
Peter

 

[MBAir2010]

Earlier today my M1 Mac Mini stopped responding. I had to manually shut it down and then restart it. After the restart the three desktop icons I have for the Mac's SSD, The TimeMachine SSD and a Flash Drive I use for GetBackUp Pro were aligned horizontally (not vertically).

View attachment 2486384

ScreenShot 01

If I change the Desktop settings to:

Use Stacks: OFF
Sort By: None

The drive icons resort and sit on top of each other.

View attachment 2486385
ScreenShot 02

I have run the Onyx utility but that has not resolved the issue. I wonder if the is a Plist or something that has become scrambled.

I have searched for several hours to find a solution but can't find anything that helps. I have tried all the options/permutations when I [control] + [Mouse Click] on the screen.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Regards,
Peter

ouch!
mine- screen saver- get icons, ssd drives and H8 mail jumbled about every launch
then that foggy tall wood scene appears instead of my cat on the screen saver,
as fears of spotted ticks, hungry malnourished grizzly bears and pompous snooty hikers (oh my!)
scare me so I want to revert to Monterey which is more coastal.

is there a way to cement an exact photo as a screen saver,
I understand I am honored and humbled to borrow this Mac m1
that I paid in full for....
but if I can only have my cat as a screen saver,
Tim...
I would be so grateful!

whadda say Tim?

 

[BigBlur]

Thanks for your reply.

I've looked at the plist file and part of it seems to be where the desktop icon settings are. I don't have the faintest idea what settings to change but I have attached the part of the plist I think is appropriate. Are you able to offer any advice?

Regards,
Peter

You could just delete that file, macOS will rebuild it. Copy the file to another location first, just in case you need to restore it.

is there a way to cement an exact photo as a screen saver,
I understand I am honored and humbled to borrow this Mac m1
that I paid in full for....
but if I can only have my cat as a screen saver,
Tim...
I would be so grateful!

Put cat photo in a folder. Set that folder as your screensaver.

 

[MBAir2010]

You could just delete that file, macOS will rebuild it. Copy the file to another location first, just in case you need to restore it.


Put cat photo in a folder. Set that folder as your screensaver.

since Panther, Snow Leopard Mt Lion Monterey I never had this problem,
I will tweek that out some now.....

 

[chabig]

Desktop icons remember their positions. Have you tried just dragging the icons to where you want them?

 

[DigiH]

You could just delete that file, macOS will rebuild it. Copy the file to another location first, just in case you need to restore it.

That's exactly what I would also suggest and do. See how everything looks once the defaults have been restored to the plist.

Copy it to somewhere, delete it, and restart …

 

[pja2536]

You could just delete that file, macOS will rebuild it. Copy the file to another location first, just in case you need to restore it.

Tried that and it had no effect.

Somebody suggested some terminal commands to clear caches and then delete the file from the terminal. I'll try that when I'm feeling braver 😵‍💫🤔🫢😬

 

[pja2536]

Desktop icons remember their positions. Have you tried just dragging the icons to where you want them?

🤔😑🤐

 

[pja2536]

My latest effort has been editing the Finder plist file and manually changing the icon location values. When I re-booted the changes were not applied, the icons were in a horizontal row.

So, I am giving up (it’s not a major issue). Instead I have removed all the icons from the Desktop; I only needed “Macintosh HD” (I like two-pane file managers and I used the “Macintosh HD” icon to open a second instance of Finder. I can achieve the same by using [command]+[n]. I can also get a proper two-pane file manager like Forklift and just use it (probably the most efficient option).

Once again, thank you for your help.

Regards,
Peter

 

[PotentPeas]

One thing I'd suggest.
The folder icon positions are actually stored in the hidden ".DS_Store" file which is in every folder that you touch with the macOS Finder.

Open a terminal and type:
rm Desktop/.DS_Store

Then log out of macOS and log back in.

This should "reset" your desktop icon positions to default. Maybe it will fix whatever issue this is.

 

[pja2536]

One thing I'd suggest.
The folder icon positions are actually stored in the hidden ".DS_Store" file which is in every folder that you touch with the macOS Finder.

Open a terminal and type:
rm Desktop/.DS_Store

Then log out of macOS and log back in.

This should "reset" your desktop icon positions to default. Maybe it will fix whatever issue this is.

Thanks! But that didn't work.

I have a rather neat alternative solution (actually two alternative solutions).

First off, I've removed all the drive icons from my desktop.

1. I have a really cheap app called FreeSpace (from the Mac Store) which sits in the menu bar next to the Control Centre (so near where the Macintosh HD icon would normally be. FreeSpace shows all drives and clicking on any drive brings up a Finder window of that drive.

2. From an open Finder window just press [command]+[n] and you get a second Finder window.

Either/both will do me. Maybe the next release of macOS might fix the problem but by then I will probably have forgotten about the issue.

Thanks to everybody who tried to help.

Regards,
Peter