[Deimos]

I tried searching for this problem I'm having, but no joy so far.

In the last few days, icons in Panther keep changing to other icons, such as Address book becoming Omniweb, etc. Also, a number of icons are messed up, just garbage where the icon was, some even disappear completely.

While all of this is happening, another problem crops up, I can't drag files on the desktop to folder alias' I have there, doesn't work.

I've deleted caches, finder prefs. etc. but the issue still keeps coming back after a few hours.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Have you logged out or restared? When icons have began acting strange (like changing into something that they're not supposed to be) logging out and in has always fixed that. This is a rare problem for me but I've seen it a handful of times. Unfortunately I'm not tech-savvy enough to know what is causing this.

Also check the permissions for the Desktop if you can't copy files there.

[Deimos]

Yeah, rebooted a few times, repaired permissions.

Quite puzzling, since it's happening daily now, whereas before I probably encountered it once or twice.

At the moment my pdf icons are iTunes ones.

Thanks.

[Dr. Smoke]

One of more of the files involved in associating files with default applications may have become corrupted. Try the following:

(1) Quit all running applications.

(2) Trash the com.apple.LaunchServices.plist file in your Home > Library > Preferences folder.

(3) Empty the Trash.

(4) If you are using Jaguar, skip to step (5). Otherwise, if you are running Panther:

(4.1) Trash the com.apple.LaunchServices.6B.csstore file in your Computer > Macintosh HD > Library > Caches folder.

(4.2) Type your Admin password when prompted to authenticate the operation performed in step (4.1).

(4.3) Empty the Trash.

(4.4) Skip to step (6).

(5) If you are using Panther, skip to step (6). Otherwise, if you are running Jaguar:

(5.1) Open Terminal and type the following command exactly as written:

sudo rm ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore

then press Return.

(5.2) Type exit and then press Return.

(5.3) Quit (Command-Q) Terminal.

(6) Log Out then Log In, or Restart.

Note: Step (2) will reset all associations you have set between specific file types and applications back to their defaults. For example, if you set PDFs to open in Acrobat instead of Preview, they would now open in Preview again and the association to Acrobat would need to be reset. However, it may resolve the specific problem you're having.

If the steps above do not solve the problem, there may be wider disk, permission, or cache corruption involved. I would then suggest using the process specified in my Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption FAQ. Perform the steps therein in the order specified.