[Hannah W]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have searched the internet a lot and can't find an answer.

I bought a new iMac not too long ago now, and I really love it. After a while, I got used to doing everything in a Finder window, so I thought I'd be clever and told the Finder to not put Hard Drives on my desktop (in the Finder Preferences).

I like the 'clean' desktop look. This was really good. I still put things on the desktop temporarily, but that was about it.

Last week, my desktop stopped working! The files that I know are on there (2 Word documents) aren't visible. I can't click on it either.

This is really annoying. Here's something else - when I go to remove something from the dock, I used to just drag it to the desktop and it would disappear in smoke. Now, if I drag it to the desktop, it "flings" back to the dock. To remove it, I have to drag it onto a Finder window.

So anyway, I really needed these word documents, so I did a 'Find' for them - and they are on the desktop, well sort of. They are in a folder here:

iMac - Users - hannahwilson - Desktop.

How do I make my desktop work again?? Thank you to anyone who can help!

(I can't even drag pictures from Safari onto the desktop to download them now, they fling back too!!)

[Hannah W]

Did I do something wrong when I told my iMac not to put the Hard Drives on the desktop?

(I switched to Apple so I wouldn't have these type of problems any more )

[MrNo]

Tha sounds like a permission problem. Open Disk utility from the Utilities folder and run repair permissions on your system partition.

[topcat]

Hope repairing permissions as suggested above solved your problem.

You may to be able to access your files by clicking on the "Desktop" icon (folder really) in your home directory.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Is it possible items are simply OFF SCREEN?

Try clicking on finder (in dock) to get finder window then again go through your hard disk, to home (your user name) and to DESKTOP icon ( a folder). What you see things there, you can drag into another location. Then you could re-test the desktop by dragging something onto it.


I occasionally have something weird when changing number of displays connected to my TiBook; You might want to explore using the DISPLAYS PREFERENCES to see if the system is detecting your screen as your MAIN screen (with the menu bar across top).

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by MrNo:
Open Dick utility from the Utilities folder

I didn't know such a thing was included in Panther. :-D

But to see if your problem is a system or user problem, try another user account. If you don't have one consider creating one for testing purposes.
If it works in the other user account, then you may have a corrupt preferences plist file. In which case you may try deleting the com.apple.desktop.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences folder.

[Hannah W]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me. I really appreciate it!

Mr No: I opened the disk utitility program and clicked the 'Repair Permissions' button. It took a fair bit of time!! Once it had finished I shut down and turned my computer back on (in case that helps - Windows used to make me do that after anything!) Nothing changed though.

topcat: thanks for the tip! I have put the 'desktop' in the left hand side of the Finder window so I can get to it quicker. It's a nice temporary workaround. (still frustrating though!!)

Love Calm Quiet: Thanks for the advice. The items aren't off the screen - I checked the display preferences and didn't really know what to do though! But I know they aren't because I can't even 'poof' dock items by dragging them onto the desktop (and I have never used more than one screen)

SMac Tech: That was a learning experience! Trying to create another user took me a bit of time - at least I know how to do it now! I eventually found the 'accounts' System Preference. I created an aco**** called 'Testing'. I shut down my computer, and then restarted into the 'testing' account. The desktop works there!!

I didn't really understand the second part of your message...how do I make my desktop work like the Testing one?

Thanks!!
Hannah

[Turias]

What he wants you to do next is to open up Library/Preferences in your home folder.

From there, delete com.apple.desktop.plist

Hopefully that will fix things!

[Developer]

Sounds like a permission problem.

Select the Desktop folder in the Finder, go to the menu File->Get Info and expand the owner and permissions panel. You should be the owner and have read & write privileges to the Desktop folder.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by Hannah W:

I didn't really understand the second part of your message...how do I make my desktop work like the Testing one?

Do as Turias said, login with your account, navigate to your home folder, then to Library/Preferences and delete the file mentioned.
It will not hurt anything to delete it and it will get recreated.
You can delete the Testing account without harming anything, but it is always good to have a virgin [ account ] for testing, but don't use the dick utility on it.

MrNo fixed his fau paux. It read kinda funny.

[thePurpleGiant]

Originally posted by SMacTech:
You can delete the Testing account without harming anything, but it is always good to have a virgin [ account ] for testing, but don't use the dick utility on it.

LOL

[Jim_MDP]

Dump that desktop plist file.

Hannah� the first thing I thought of, and got a laugh out of, is your description reminded me of the old Windows trick of placing a screenshot of someones desktop on their machine so they couldn't click on any of the icons.

I know that's not the case here� just a funny memory.

[Hannah W]

Okay I found the file in my preferences folder to delete. It sounded much harder than it really was1 (They should call it 'Desktop settings' not com.apple.something.something)

Nothing seemed to happen, so I turned my computer off, then turned it back on. Still the same

Developer: I did what you said and it says the owner is hannahwilson (me!) and that I have read and write access.

Here's another thing: You know how on a 'normal' desktop, how you can like click and drag the mouse to select lots of thigns at the same time? Well I can't even do that! If I click on the desktop it just beeps at me. I can't even begin to drag the box open because I can't click on it.

If I have one Finder window open, and I click on the desktop, it doesn't make that window go grey like it used to, the desktop just beeps, and the Finder window remains kind of useable (like I didn't click on the desktop at all!)

Please help me. Please.

[d4nth3m4n]

you still have the install disks that came with the os?

ill assume that you either have panther or jag.

boot up with the install disk (restart the comp holding the "c" key, or go in the cds window in the finder and double click the "install os x" icon. or you can go to the "startup disk" preference pane, and select the cd in there. these are three options to do the same exact thing.)

once youre booted in the installer, go in the installer menu, this is the second one from the left, next to the apple. in this menu should be an item called "disk utility" open that.

in there select your HD, like youre going to repair permissions, but instead click on the "repair disk" button, this is on the right under the console looking field there.

after you repair the disk, quit disk utility, go back to the installer, go back up to the "installer" menu, select "startup disk, select your HD, and then restart and tell us all what happened.

[Spheric Harlot]

Hannah: You did nothing wrong.

It is not a permission problem. It actually happened fairly frequently under Jaguar; I haven't heard of it happening in Panther yet, but you never know.

THE FIX (as per forum search; this helped me back when I had the same problem a while ago):

Delete the following files:
/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore

Specifically for the no-dragging problem, delete:
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist

Reboot after deleting the files.

Report back.



-s*

[Hannah W]

d4n: I do have the disks that came with my computer - I did as you said, but the result was no different. Desktop stil not work

s*: Your post made me quite excited that someone else has had this problem, and fixed it! But alas, doing what you said didn't work either. I deleted all three files that you mentioned then shut down my computer. When I turned it back on it was still no different.

It's really annoying how it worked fine when I made another user, but it doesn't work with my own one.

Is there anything else I can do or is my computer broken? Does that mean I have to take it to my local computer fixing shop? (they look a bit sketchy to me!)

[Ratm]

open terminal

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

always fixes the little problems for me. If all else fails preform an archive install.

[Jim_MDP]

Originally posted by Hannah W:

It's really annoying how it worked fine when I made another user, but it doesn't work with my own one.

Is there anything else I can do or is my computer broken? Does that mean I have to take it to my local computer fixing shop? (they look a bit sketchy to me!)

Quite the opposite� it means the problem is in the software. The worst that might be required is a clean install of the system software, after you back up anything important of course.

The down side, if it comes to that extreme, is the effort in backing up and the hour or so for the re-install.

Cheer up, this isn't that bad.

Starting with the obvious� what software/shareware might you have installed just before your life went to hell?

And I really thought s* had it too (might end up doing it again anyway, just in case).

Do the 'sudo' command and we'll where we go from there.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Hannah W:
s*: Your post made me quite excited that someone else has had this problem, and fixed it! But alas, doing what you said didn't work either. I deleted all three files that you mentioned then shut down my computer. When I turned it back on it was still no different.

I'm sorry to hear that.

It did work for me when I last had a similar problem.

Good luck!

-s*

[Developer]

Nobody ever had this problem afaik.

Does it affect other users (create a test user if you don't have an other user)?

If so I suggest you do Archive & Install.

[SMacTech]

Originally posted by Hannah W:


Is there anything else I can do or is my computer broken? Does that mean I have to take it to my local computer fixing shop? (they look a bit sketchy to me!)

You can drag your Preferences folder out of the Library folder or rename it. Log out and back in. Test to see that problem has gone away. If not, rename or drag your Preferences back to Library.
If it works now, slowly add preference files back in, as needed, such as mail.
The files have com.apple as the starting prefix to pfiles, so all of apples are together in the list when sorted by name.
Also two companies can share similar plist names but prefix with a different com.company name
ie :
com.apple.desktop.plist
com.macposx.desktop.plist