Finder File Flinging

[Lundberg02]

2011 Mini i7, 8 gB RAM, 750 HD, OS 10.8.1.
At random, files moved from a folder on the desktop will be thrown to the upper left corner of the screen and barely visible. i moved a group of files the other day and not only did this happen but the files were all piled on top of each other and had to be sorted out after moving them back onto an open area of the screen. Has anyone else had this experience. I believe it actually started some time after installing Mountain Lion.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

What happens if you right-click on your Desktop and choose Keep Arranged By -Name, Kind, etc. as opposed to moving things around with your mouse? Do they stay that way or get messed up again when rebooted?

 

[Lundberg02]

I'm not going to screw around with my Desktop as an experiment. It's the way I want it and why would I reboot?
I've rebooted several times since this started happening.

 

[Gregg2]

In Finder, click View > Show View Options

I suspect that Arrange By is set to None. Am I right?

The behavior you describe is what I would expect if the above is true.

How many icons are you permanently storing on your Desktop? If it's a lot, I understand your reluctance to "experiment" with icon arrangement. But, I think you're going to have to play with that setting to get a different result. You won't know which one you like without a little experimentation.

 

[Lundberg02]

Wow! There is no Arrange By in Mountain Lion, but Sort By is set to None. I have about 100 icons on my Desktop and do not want go through the trauma of putting them back where they were if I change it, but thank you for explaining that. I have never seen this behavior before in a Mac over 21 years.

 

[Gregg2]

If you change that to Snap to Grid, that shouldn't disrupt your arrangement much. It will probably change the spacing though. Then that can be adjusted. With that setting, I would not expect icons to copy to the Desktop overlapping each other, but they could overlap icons that are already present.