Desktop icons going to the top right corner when moved/created

[MultiFinder17]

Thx for the info. But I can't seem to find "com.apple.finder.plist" in Sonoma. Any guesses?

In Finder, go to Go --> Go To Folder...
Type in (without the quotes) "~/Library/Preferences". The ~ is important, it's what tells the system you'd like to head into your home folder.



In that folder there should be a file named "com.apple.finder.plist". That's the file you want to move out so it can recreate it.



Lemmie know if you have any luck or not!

 

[Gregg2]

My guess is that you're in a different Library Folder. Try this: Hold down Option and click on the Go Menu. You'll now see Library in the drop-down. Open that, and then the Preferences folder. The file you're looking for is in there.

I see that I was seconds behind, or not on the same page as post #26

 

[The_Auryn]

I had this problem too. I fixed it by way of the following. Go to View > Show View Options. Experiment with Icon Size and Grid Spacing. I find if the Grid Spacing is too small, icons will jump it to the top right side of the display. On my 27" iMac, I use Icon Size 48x48 with Grid Spacing on the 3rd marker from the left.

You might also want to try experimenting with Settings > Displays. Under Built-In Display, I have mine set between Default and More Space. Maybe changing it will help you?

 

[ColoradoChiver]

I was having this issue too on my 2019 BMP 16" once upgrading to Sequoia. I noticed too like someone above mentioned that I could have the desktop laid out fine but when a certain program was open, Final Cut in my example, then when I tried to move an icon then it would put it automatically at the top right even if there was a icon already there. Shut the program down and it would work normally again. Turns out the issue was like The_Auryn mentioned, the "show view option" under the right click on desktop menu was the issue. The icon size slider for mine needed to be set one notch under where it was. Now the issue is gone.

 

[jemjensen]

I had this issue on a new macbook with MacOS 15 Sequoia pre-installed. What I eventually discovered was that even though Stage Manager was disabled, the space where it had widgets defined couldn't also have icons. And since the default widgets covered a significant area of the upper-right corner of the screen, trying to drop an icon there would cause it to swim to the nearest spot around the invisible widget box.

The fix:

• Open Settings->Desktop & Dock
• Enable the Stage Manager toggle
• Click on the Desktop, then delete all widgets
• Click back into Settings
• Disable the Stage Manager toggle

(Guessing this was introduced when widgets were added to SM in Sonoma and remains unfixed in Sequoia, at least through 15.1.1)

 

[GhostLaboratory]

I was having this same problem under Sequoia, and here's what fixed it for me:

Go to userfolder/Library/preferences and find com.apple.finder.plist.
Drag this file out onto your desktop or somewhere.
Restart the computer.
Redo a few Finder preferences, but the icons should start going where they're meant to go!

After years of having this annoying issue this is the only thing to have helped. I am still skeptical, because it seems to pop up again after a time. But I will update if it does.