I recently upgraded to ML from Lion and have noticed a different behavior.

I use the Downloads folder in the dock a lot and noticed now when I click on it to open it and drag a file out to drop onto the desktop, the file appears on the far right side of my screen. Previously, the file would appear wherever my cursor dropped on the desktop.

I have noticed the same behavior when copying a picture from a website and dropping it directly onto the desktop to make a copy. Instead of the file appearing where my cursor is placed, it ends up somewhere on the right side of the desktop.

I have checked to see that Snap to Grid or sorting is not selected both in Show View Options in Finder and when right-clicking on the desktop.

I called into AppleCare on another issue and asked about this behavior and was told by the first-level support person that he was seeing the behavior as it used to be. When I was passed to 2nd-level support, he had me check the Snap to Grid and Sort By options and when I told him that nothing was selected, he said, well, what you are seeing is expected behavior.

Any others seeing this or is something amiss with my installation.

Other settings that I should check?

Thanks.

I haven't used ML in a long time. I'm looking at it on ML's website, can't find sorting, Show View, or anything about drag and drop.

Here's ML's site

www.ml.com

Yup-very annoying. I want to put the damned file where I want.

Let me know if you find a solution.

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Bryan
______________________________________________________
Mac Mini 2.4 GHz/8GB ram/OS 10.8.X
MacBook Pro (Early 2008 model) 2.4 GHz, 2GB ram, 200GB hard drive/ Mac OS 10.8.X and XP SP3
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Location: Cincinnati

By any chance, do you have "Snap to Grid" checked?

Finder>View>Sort By>Snap to Grid

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testcase
By any chance, do you have "Snap to Grid" checked?

Finder>View>Sort By>Snap to Grid

Did you read the complete post by the OP?

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Mr. Curmudgeon, on Mountain Lion.

It's not "snap to grid."

But it might be one of the other "sort" options.

Do you have sorting set to "None" ...?

...

You could try this potential fix in the Terminal:
rm ~/Desktop/.DS_Store
killall Finder

...But note that after you enter those two commands, whatever arrangement you have for your icons, is gonna be gone until you re-do it.

Right-click on the desktop > Show View Options > Sort By = None
There may be other ways…

Doc beat me to it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2012 07:11PM by olnacl.

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guitarist
I haven't used ML in a long time. I'm looking at it on ML's website, can't find sorting, Show View, or anything about drag and drop.

Here's ML's site

www.ml.com

Direct link to deep knowledge base:
[www.wealthmanagement.ml.com]

---

MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Sort is set to None.

Snap to Grid is off.

I just did a fresh re-install of Mountain Lion and the behavior was gone for about 10 minutes and then returned. I hadn't even installed anything yet and went back to this behavior. Something smells screwy.

I have two the machines - both of which I have upgraded to Mountain Lion - and both behave as they should - I drop a file on the desktop and it stays where I put it.

It is surprising how much a little thing can be so frustrating.

Chakravartin,

Thanks for the Terminal suggestion but it had no change - behavior still persists.

Any other thoughts/suggestions? They are appreciated.

No, this is the real ML site. Deep knowledge base here!

[www.ml.com]

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Black

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guitarist
I haven't used ML in a long time. I'm looking at it on ML's website, can't find sorting, Show View, or anything about drag and drop.

Here's ML's site

www.ml.com

Direct link to deep knowledge base:
[www.wealthmanagement.ml.com]

Did you set to to None here?
Right-click on the desktop > Show View Options > Sort By = None

Sorry, wrong screen shot in post above

Right-click on the desktop > Show View Options > Sort By = "None"



NOTE: It appears that choosing "None" in the Desktop window has a different effect than choosing "None" from the drop-down:



At least it does on my machine. As always, YMMV

Yep, those are the settings I have selected on the machine.

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olnacl
Sorry, wrong screen shot in post above

Right-click on the desktop > Show View Options > Sort By = "None"



NOTE: It appears that choosing "None" in the Desktop window has a different effect than choosing "None" from the drop-down:



At least it does on my machine. As always, YMMV

Does it still display the same problem if you login under a different user account?

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Chakravartin
Does it still display the same problem if you login under a different user account?

Yes. I created a new account the same behavior persists.

Hmmm... Baffling.

I can't reproduce the problem here. I've tried all of the various view-options for the Downloads folder in the Dock, but when I drag anything from that folder in the Dock to the Desktop the icon for that item ends up where I dragged it.

Baffling indeed. What you are seeing is the same I see on my two other computers.

I have posted this also to the Apple Support forums and others have said they are seeing this strange behavior also but no one has been able to fix it. One person even stated they have had this issue since Snow Leopard.

Not sure what else to try at this point.

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Chakravartin
Hmmm... Baffling.

I can't reproduce the problem here. I've tried all of the various view-options for the Downloads folder in the Dock, but when I drag anything from that folder in the Dock to the Desktop the icon for that item ends up where I dragged it.

What happens if you enable an option to sort the items on the Desktop, leave it that way for awhile and then disable it?