Lion: 10.8.4 Problem with Drag and Drop to desktop

[Lifeisabeach]

The issue appears to be with Chrome as far as I know at this point but when I reinstall just the application nothing changes.

I venture to guess that I messed something up with the reinstallation. Does any body know how to perform the purest of reinstallations there could possibly be? Or does it matter that I reinstalled in the way that I've described?

There is no chance "something" messed up with the installation. You can't possibly even do something during installation to affect something like this. Since this seems to be a Chrome problem, eliminate that from the equation. Drag the app to the Trash, or better yet use AppCleaner to remove it and any support files. Then reboot and try again with Safari.

Hold the phone here... when I gave you instructions earlier to show a screen cap of your sorting options from right-clicking on the Desktop, you instead appear to have posted a screen cap of you accessing those options from the menubar. Did you not adjust the settings as I directed? Don't do it from the menubar. Right-click on the Desktop space directly.

EDIT: adjust the settings in both menus to match. I had differing settings in each of those two menus, but a quick test shows that changes in either one affect the Desktop icon layout, which again makes no sense. Adjusting in one menu should reflect the new setting in the other.

 

[The_Observer]

There is no chance "something" messed up with the installation. You can't possibly even do something during installation to affect something like this. Since this seems to be a Chrome problem, eliminate that from the equation. Drag the app to the Trash, or better yet use AppCleaner to remove it and any support files. Then reboot and try again with Safari.

Hold the phone here... when I gave you instructions earlier to show a screen cap of your sorting options from right-clicking on the Desktop, you instead appear to have posted a screen cap of you accessing those options from the menubar. Did you not adjust the settings as I directed? Don't do it from the menubar. Right-click on the Desktop space directly.

EDIT: adjust the settings in both menus to match. I had differing settings in each of those two menus, but a quick test shows that changes in either one affect the Desktop icon layout, which again makes no sense. Adjusting in one menu should reflect the new setting in the other.

Here's my latest update.

I reinstalled the OS X using the method where you hold COMMAND + R at startup and it switches to a list of options. I then completely erased and reestablished the HD through Disk Utilities. I then closed disk utilities. I then Reinstalled a freshly downloaded version of OS X. After download and installation I performed a setup completely fresh so as not to have any third party software on the machine nor any corrupt personal settings from my user account. I then downloaded Chrome via Safari. (I type "google chrome" in the Safari search bar and selected the top hitting option.) I googled "cats images" after installation. I selected the first image and dragged it to my desktop space. Then the image appeared according to a grid pattern to on the right side of my of the screen as it has been. There was also no audio played. When I tried from safari the issue was that no audio played but the image did appear where it was placed.

At this point I've got no leads but I have purchased a "MAC OS X for Dummies" book to see if there are any general maintenance pieces I could try. I'm not really understanding what is happening.

I've also double checked the sorting menus for the desktop by both the right click method and the menu bar method. Neither was in Snap to Grid or any other spot. I also filtered through the items to ensure that the method described previously was not a feasible fix.

Is it possible that something was damaged with the Hardware? Does anybody know how I could speak to a "mac expert" or "apple Expert" or "whatever they are called" without having to pay the 100 dollars or shipping my device off for support?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Quite frankly I'm very seriously beginning to believe that the problem is Chrome. The fact that you have normal behavior when using Safari reinforces this thought. I found another thread from last month where a Chrome user had this identical problem. We probably aren't seeing it more because most people keep their desktops tidy and sorted. I don't use Chrome myself, so I'll leave it to someone else to check for kicks.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...sktop-icons-arranging-themselves-browser.html


I just tried one other idea I had. I set my Desktop to no sorting; scattered my icons around; then dragged a shortcut from Safari to the Desktop, and it dropped where I put it. When I dragged it while holding the COMMAND key, guess what? That icon snapped to the grid. So what does this mean? Your COMMAND key may be stuck. Or you are accidentally hitting it while dragging. Or something to that effect. There may be a bug in Chrome that, when dragging/dropping, it is "enabling" the COMMAND key or acting as if it is pressed, if such a thing is possible.

So... what we need is to have the on-screen keyboard viewer activated. Open System Preferences, Keyboard, and check "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers...". Then from the menubar item, select "Show Keyboard Viewer". While touching nothing, does the viewer give any indication that a key is being pressed? How about when dragging/dropping an icon from Chrome?

 

[The_Observer]

Quite frankly I'm very seriously beginning to believe that the problem is Chrome. The fact that you have normal behavior when using Safari reinforces this thought. I found another thread from last month where a Chrome user had this identical problem. We probably aren't seeing it more because most people keep their desktops tidy and sorted. I don't use Chrome myself, so I'll leave it to someone else to check for kicks.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/sw...sktop-icons-arranging-themselves-browser.html


I just tried one other idea I had. I set my Desktop to no sorting; scattered my icons around; then dragged a shortcut from Safari to the Desktop, and it dropped where I put it. When I dragged it while holding the COMMAND key, guess what? That icon snapped to the grid. So what does this mean? Your COMMAND key may be stuck. Or you are accidentally hitting it while dragging. Or something to that effect. There may be a bug in Chrome that, when dragging/dropping, it is "enabling" the COMMAND key or acting as if it is pressed, if such a thing is possible.

So... what we need is to have the on-screen keyboard viewer activated. Open System Preferences, Keyboard, and check "Show Keyboard & Character Viewers...". Then from the menubar item, select "Show Keyboard Viewer". While touching nothing, does the viewer give any indication that a key is being pressed? How about when dragging/dropping an icon from Chrome?

I like this idea that the issue is with Chrome. I do have the question remaining about Safari though. If I'm recalling correctly there should be an audio file played when files are dragged to a new folder. In the case of Safari, if I drag a photo/file from the browser to the desktop/other folder shouldn't I hear an audio file still?

Similar to this other post you've mentioned my drag and drop used to work. It is possible that many people aren't noticing it yet because it's so benign. For me, it's just been that this drag and drop feature is one of my favorite parts of the Mac experience.

In any case, I've looked at the keyboard viewer and the physical keyboard. The COMMAND key has not stickiness and there isn't any digital change occurring when I drag a photo. With safari, if I hold the COMMAND key and drag a photo to the desktop it simply snaps the photo to the nearest grid space as opposed to moving it entirely to the right or left side of the screen.

I've recently made a contact with someone who apparently knows lots about apple products so we are going to continue working on the subject because that's kind of the entire point of these communities. I'll be doing the read through on this book and maybe get some contact with the Google and Apple reps.

Until then, I encourage anybody who has read this thread to pursue the issue.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

In the case of Safari, if I drag a photo/file from the browser to the desktop/other folder shouldn't I hear an audio file still?

Nope.

Similar to this other post you've mentioned my drag and drop used to work. It is possible that many people aren't noticing it yet because it's so benign. For me, it's just been that this drag and drop feature is one of my favorite parts of the Mac experience.

What I experienced and what you are experiencing seem to be different things. I had a temporary glitch quickly solved by cycling through the sorting options. Yours appears to occur strictly by using Chrome.

In any case, I've looked at the keyboard viewer and the physical keyboard. The COMMAND key has not stickiness and there isn't any digital change occurring when I drag a photo. With safari, if I hold the COMMAND key and drag a photo to the desktop it simply snaps the photo to the nearest grid space as opposed to moving it entirely to the right or left side of the screen.

Yes, that's what happens here. I thought that there may be a modifier key combo that will force a "sort", but I was unsuccessful in discovering one.

I've recently made a contact with someone who apparently knows lots about apple products so we are going to continue working on the subject because that's kind of the entire point of these communities. I'll be doing the read through on this book and maybe get some contact with the Google and Apple reps.

Until then, I encourage anybody who has read this thread to pursue the issue.

Confirmed! It is a bug in the more recent versions of Chrome. You can roll back to an older version. See this discussion on Google's forums:
Dragging images onto OSX desktop - Google Groups

 

[sjf]

Dual Monitors?

I know this thread is a bit dated, but I've noticed i have a similar problem. In my case, i'm running in a dual-monitor configuration. If I drag a safari link to the right (primary) screen, the link goes into the first available 'slot' in the first available column at the right of the screen.

However, If I drag the safari link to the left (secondary) screen, it drops onto the primary screen in the same approximate position that it should have landed on the secondary screen.

Therefore it appears the icon lands one screen to the right, if that screen exists, or the first available slot if it doesn't.

So, I'm wondering if the OP's setup is dual-monitor. I am not using google chrome.

(Oh, by the way, if I mirror the screens, the link will drop where it is released by the mouse -- where it is supposed to land)

 

[MacInWin]

Does it work that way with System Preferences/Mission Control/Displays have separate Spaces checked and unchecked?

 

[sjf]

Does it work that way with System Preferences/Mission Control/Displays have separate Spaces checked and unchecked?

I haven't done anything with Mission Control, I've attached a screenshot (I hope) of the original configuration. Not sure which option you're talking about, but I unchecked all 4 options, and yes, it still behaves the same way.

By the way, I also created a new user and that user behaves the same way, too.

I'm running 10.8.5

 

[harryb2448]

Not a Chrome web browser user, but is there any chance its 32bit structure could be causing the problem? Have you tried with Safari and/or Firefox?