desktop icons, were arranged suddenly automatically one day

[zoran]

I thought that sudden -without me causing it- icon arrangement in my desktop files was an issue that would only happen on my home iMac that uses SnowLeopard, but no, today it happened at my works iMac that uses Yosemite. What the heck is going on, i had everything arranged manually and i was working that way till one day, i open my iMac and boom, all the files in my desktop were arranged without me causing it! Everything is in order now, one file/folfer next to the other as if i had used the "Arranged By" command.
has this ever happened to anyone, and if so, what did he do to avoid this ever happening again. I like to have many icons/folders scattered on my desktop all over the place, in a way i want them to, i do not want them to be arranged byt name or date or whatever!
Help

 

[DeltaMac]

Most often I have had that happen when someone else that uses my Mac decides they want to "help" me keep the desktop neat.
If, on the contrary, you are the ONLY user, always, of your work Mac, then, that can happen for a variety of causes.
Click anywhere on the Desktop. Go to the View menu. Sort By should be "None" (if that's what you want)
Notice in that Sort By menu that there are keyboard shortcuts for different sorts, which will sort your desktop icons if you press that shortcut accidentally.
The "Clean Up By" section also has more, similar keyboard shortcuts. Clean Up will do the same rearranging of everything your desktop.
Just saying that is an easy accidental result, when doing keyboard shortcuts for other purposes.
All the better reason, if your icon arrangement is important to you, then keep your arrangement in a folder on the desktop. Keeps you sane, the desktop will be much neater when you don't need to have your setup in view (just close the folder, eh?), and if the folder is closed, other users would be less likely to mess with that one.

 

[zoran]

Hmm keyboard shortcuts you say huh? What keyboard shortcuts are they, i can't find them! Can i deactivate them?

 

[DeltaMac]

All those shortcuts are listed next to each relevant command in the sub-menus in the finder's View menu (in Sort By, and Clean Up By menus)
Same shortcuts since at least Lion, and same in El Capitan...
You may be able to "deactivate", but never looked into doing that. Easier to just be aware when doing shortcuts.

 

[zoran]

I never remember pressing Command and a number though, its not an easy combination! And also the sorting/arrangement always happens when i boot!

 

[DeltaMac]

If it happens often for you, then likely some minor corruption of a .plist somewhere - likely com.apple.finder.plist.
You can try deleting that file from your user Library/Preferences folder. logout, then log back in, or just restart your Mac.
I would also suggest that you make sure that you own all files in your user folder.
I run this command in the terminal
(example)

sudo chown -R zoran /Users/zoran/

replace both zoran in that example with your actual user name (that will be the name of your home folder)
Be careful of the spaces, and the -R must be an upper case R
run the command, enter your password when asked. The terminal never displays the password as you enter it (it's a security feature) so just type it correctly. Press enter again. Wait for the prompt. I like restarting my Mac after running that command. It assures that you have ownership of everything in your user folder, and can fix an occasional weirdness in the system.

 

[zoran]

Thanx Delta, let me ask though, suppose i do delete the com.apple.finder.plist file, what changes will be made to my computer, or files?

 

[DeltaMac]

That's your Finder preferences file. It's just a place to start, when trying to decide if there is some issue with your user settings.
After deleting that file, the .plist will be recreated when you restart - which I would do after deleting that file.

No change at all to your files.

Some Finder settings will be reset to user defaults. As the Desktop is a special use folder in OS X, the Finder preferences affect how the desktop is viewed. You can then change your settings (if you need to make changes).
The theory is that you can then expect your settings to stay as you set them.

 

[zoran]

Ok i deleted the finder plist file, we'll see how it goes, i'll keep you posted!