Icons won't stay where I want them

[DavidQPR]

This is not specifically about Big Sur as its been the same for several years. I prefer to have Snap to Grid on so my desktop and numerous icons looks neat. Sporadically if I move an icon it won't stay where I put it even though it is still clearly "on the grid". It doesn't just move up or down from where I want it but flies off to the edge of the screen. The only way to get it to stay where I want it is then to temporarily "arrange by none". Restarting the Mac will sometimes but not always clear the problem. Sometimes selecting the icons to the left or right and moving them over the problematic area will clear it as well.

I have had this problem with several Macs and yesterday my son, who I had given my MacBook Pro 2018 to for university use, rang me to ask why it is doing this. I have googled this problem many times but cannot find anything relevant at all.

I hope this makes sense and wondered if anyone else has this problem.

 

[DavidQPR]

No-one?

 

[Jahgon]

Press Command - Click and drag the icon and it will "snap to grid".

Click on the desktop to deselect the icon.

Repeat

 

[DavidQPR]

Thanks for the reply. Not really working as all that does is temporarily override snap to grid and allow you to place the icons where you want, same as turning off snap to grid. It’s not actually putting them and allowing them to stay “in the grid”

 

[chabig]

Snap to grid won’t let you put an icon in a space where it is too close to an existing icon. Put it farther away from its neighbor.

 

[DavidQPR]

My point was that I sometimes can’t have an icon in a space that “is” on the grid. All the other icons are perfectly in the grid but a gap in between refuses to be used and the icon flies off to the edge of the screen

 

[chabig]

Yes, because the gap is too small. Chances are your icon name requires two lines. Shorten it to one lone and see if that helps.

 

[DavidQPR]

This happens with short names like Spotify or Youtube.

 

[chabig]

The the adjacent icons probably are slightly off the grid. Select everything on your Desktop and choose View > Clean up.

 

[Jahgon]

Thanks for the reply. Not really working as all that does is temporarily override snap to grid and allow you to place the icons where you want, same as turning off snap to grid. It’s not actually putting them and allowing them to stay “in the grid”

I forgot to say "turn STACKS off", THEN press command, select and drag. The icon will stay put. Click on the DESKTOP to DESELECT the icon you've just positioned or it WILL fly off to destination unknown.

If I turn stacks ON again on my Mac, the icons automatically re-position on the right side of my screen and I have to re-position them individually as described above. (So, I.... er... don't turn stacks on again... 🙄 😊 😆 🤣

HTH 👍

 

[DavidQPR]

I forgot to say "turn STACKS off", THEN press command, select and drag. The icon will stay put. Click on the DESKTOP to DESELECT the icon you've just positioned or it WILL fly off to destination unknown.

Ive never used stacks ever!

 

[DavidQPR]

The the adjacent icons probably are slightly off the grid. Select everything on your Desktop and choose View > Clean up.

Tried that but they still fly away. I'll just leave it with snap to grid turned off as it just doesn't work for me. Just the OCD in me likes them neat! Thanks for all the replies.

 

[fisherking]

try resizing the icons, move them around, then go back to the icon size you prefer. you could also try changing screen resolution size (systmem preferences>displays), then back to what you normally use.

 

[DavidQPR]

try resizing the icons, move them around, then go back to the icon size you prefer. you could also try changing screen resolution size (systmem preferences>displays), then back to what you normally use.

Thanks but I'm giving up, more trouble than its worth. As a result of this thread Ive discovered Clean Up in the right click menu. Ive been using various Macs for several years but never actually investigated what clean up does. To be honest that will probably do

 

[fisherking]

Thanks but I'm giving up, more trouble than its worth. As a result of this thread Ive discovered Clean Up in the right click menu. Ive been using various Macs for several years but never actually investigated what clean up does. To be honest that will probably do

you're not going to try the 2 simple suggestions i made? barely more work than typing your above message...

anyway, so it goes. glad you at least have a workaround 👍

 

[Jahgon]

Oh, well... Never mind....

Just so you can see what I meant...

 

[stooovie]

Snap to grid is a joke. I'm not a noob, I'm on mac since 2005, I have written a literal ****en book on MacOS yet I don't get the behavior at all. Look at this:

It lets me place some icons at the same place but not others. Different icons FLY over the entire screen god knows where and why. Fun.

 

[rstegman]

This is not specifically about Big Sur as its been the same for several years. I prefer to have Snap to Grid on so my desktop and numerous icons looks neat. Sporadically if I move an icon it won't stay where I put it even though it is still clearly "on the grid". It doesn't just move up or down from where I want it but flies off to the edge of the screen. The only way to get it to stay where I want it is then to temporarily "arrange by none". Restarting the Mac will sometimes but not always clear the problem. Sometimes selecting the icons to the left or right and moving them over the problematic area will clear it as well.

I have had this problem with several Macs and yesterday my son, who I had given my MacBook Pro 2018 to for university use, rang me to ask why it is doing this. I have googled this problem many times but cannot find anything relevant at all.

I hope this makes sense and wondered if anyone else has this problem.

Been suffering this along with you for years and have never found a fix. If a solution presents please let me know. The best I can do is use Command to place icon where I want but there's got to be a better solution as the icon doesn't actually snap to grid.

 

[Mr. EMan]

This drives me bananas. I have my desktop set to sort by: Snap to Grid (Cmd-j). Once in a while, an icon will move a couple of pixels, and setting another icon next to it will violate its domain and kick it across the screen.

My temporary fix is to select all the icons on the screen and do View > Clean up Selection. This will snap the icons to the grid, but once in a while, there's still an icon that won't let another one near it. I have to move that offending icon someplace else. This is fine until one day it isn't.

edit: some times Clean up Selection doesn't work, so I select all and move all the icons just slightly. When I release the icons, they will snap to a grid. Again, some times it works, some times it doesn't.

Also, it happens more on my MacBook Pro than my desktop. The desktop is cleaner (fewer icons) and has slightly larger grid spacing.

What a dumb problem.

 

[roccitman]

My temporary fix is to select all the icons on the screen and do View > Clean up Selection.

Works great, never saw that little choice!