"Arrange-by" icon frustration (/w pics)

On both my iMac OS/X 10.6.8 (and oddly enough I have the SAME EXACT issue on my Macbook Pro OS/X 10.9.2 now too), I've got a quirk that I can't seem to resolve. Perhaps you guys know something I don't?

On both machines, I have two users setup. In both user acounts on each machine; I have my Mac Hard disk on my desktop. Inside the hard drive icon, I have the five main icons (Applications, System, Library, User information, and Users) that seem to arrange themselves in THIS order, and somewhat staggered. I right-click and choose "Arrange by name" and everything lines up perfectly, now listing them Applications, Library, System, User Information, and Users.

...however, whenever I log off (whatever user account I am in) and log into another user account, those 5-main icons inside the Mac Hard Drive will be staggered again and out of order as I said.

1). Inside my Mac hard drive icon when I first log into any account:


2). I right-click and choose to arrange by name:


3). Issue is (seemingly) corrected and nice-n-tidy:


...but as soon as I log out of this account and back in, I am back to step #1 with them out of order inside my Mac Hard drive (which I named "The Main Kahuna"). This is happening on both my both my iMac OS/X 10.6.8 (and oddly enough I have the SAME EXACT issue on my Macbook Pro OS/X 10.9.2 now too)

Help??!

Sorry see much difference in any of the three pics. Which wine was supposed to be different or was there a slip up loading the pics. Three in a row is maybe the default. Easier if you click on the little rows icon imho

Those images are definitely different.

I has been so long since I used a 'naked' Finder, I don't even remember how it looks like. Pretty sure, it should retain the settings though.

It would drive me mad, if I had to see a mess like that, so I completely understand you...

I'm afraid, I don't have any suggestion, other than to try TotalFinder - a great little app, that does exactly what it says on the tin, and offers a few very useful options as well.

I believe each account has its own settings. And to set defaults you need to change sort order in Preferences, in each account.

^^^ Setting the sort order is not system wide, it is per user. Setting sort order in one account will do nothing to modify those settings in another.

Thing is, whenever I set the order of the icons in the Mac Hard drive through "arrange by name", its set...until I reboot or I change to another user. When I log back in or turn back on, their miss-aligned again. It seems like a small thing to choose "arrange by name" everytime I go into my Hard drive icon, but it drives me bonkers. I just wish it'd stay!!

I'm certain this is a setting, because the icons are misplaced in the EXACT same place on BOTH user accounts on BOTH machines. When I choose to arrange by name, they straighten up...but only until I reboot or log into a new user. Then they're misplaced again.

Can anyone offer insight?

As I said, I've been using TotalFinder for so long, I don't remember, if these are Finder's own options or if they were added by TF, but you can try this:

In any folder, secondary click and select Show View Options:



Then, see if playing with two top ones I marked here will do the trick, not forgetting to click on the third marked one at the bottom:

In the example provided - as you will notice, the folders are already in alphabetical order in th 1st screen shot. Instead of using 'Arrange by Name' try the 'Clean Up' option.

That was it! It was set to none. Thank you sooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phacade said:

That was it! It was set to none. Thank you sooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

Great! Glad I could help