All icons and programs have changed their "position"

Hi everyone,
sorry for my bad english, I am from Italy and a pretty new user of MAC. I am really enjoying my mac, but recently after a very long video I was editing on FCP, my mac went crazy. I guess It was because the files were heavy and the program was running for 5/6 hours. Anyway everything went back and the mac is working fine, but oddly all my icons and programs are placed like simmetrically then before. I don't how to explain this, but all the icons that were on the left are now on the right of the screen and all the programs are in a reversed order. I know it's a silly problem maybe, but at the same time I would like to understand why. Hope I've explained myself well and that you can help me to restore or at least to understand what happened. Thanks and have a nice day,


Rescape.

No, I can't say what happened. I don't really understand exactly what "programs are in a reversed order" means in terms of where they are on your screen and where they were before this event.

I can tell you that the default position for your internal hard drive icon, any external device (hard drive, flash drive, etc.) is on the right side of the screen. I don't think it's possible to change that.

Rescape said:

...oddly all my icons and programs are placed like simmetrically then before. I don't how to explain this, but all the icons that were on the left are now on the right of the screen and all the programs are in a reversed order. I know it's a silly problem maybe...

Click to expand...

This is mostly a cosmetic issue. If you wanted to…you can click & drag the icons back into the positions they were in.

As to why this happened. Sometimes this happens when the display resolution is changed, or something has happened to the desktop file (file corruption, file rebuilding, etc.).

HTH,

- Nick

Thank you so much. I'm sorry if the question was silly, but i thought it was strange since even my applications have changed their positions.

Rescape said:

I'm sorry if the question was silly, but i thought it was strange since even my applications have changed their positions.

Click to expand...

Not a silly question. I have had it happen to me many times…thus I don't worry about it anymore (I just rearrange my icons by clicking & dragging them back to where I want them to be). But if this is the first time it has happened to you…you of course want to make sure it is not a sign of a serious problem.

Just to be sure. Are you saying these icons are rearranging themselves on the desktop area?

- Nick

If you right click on the desktop a menu will open with "Sort By" options for the Desktop. If you want the icons sorted differently, pick what you want. You may have had "None" and now something is selected. You an try "None" to see if they go back to the original locations.

pigoo3 said:

Not a silly question. I have had it happen to me many times…thus I don't worry about it anymore (I just rearrange my icons by clicking & dragging them back to where I want them to be). But if this is the first time it has happened to you…you of course want to make sure it is not a sign of a serious problem.

Just to be sure. Are you saying these icons are rearranging themselves on the desktop area?

- Nick

Click to expand...

Icons have rearranged them on the desktop area and applications in the application window (I don't know how to call it). Applications are placed in a very annoying way, like if the last panel is a the first place and the first panel at last. The annoying thing is that in the first panel I have like 3 applications (like it is the end of the applications) and a full empty panel and then the other panels are full.

Thanks for the answer, I have tried but they didn't go back at their place.

Rescape said:

Icons have rearranged them on the desktop area and applications in the application window (I don't know how to call it). Applications are placed in a very annoying way, like if the last panel is a the first place and the first panel at last. The annoying thing is that in the first panel I have like 3 applications (like it is the end of the applications) and a full empty panel and then the other panels are full.

Click to expand...

Hi Rescape,

It would be great if you could post a screenshot of the layout of your Applications because I am having difficulty trying to imagine what your problem looks like. Not your fault at all. Seeing things as they are to you makes it that much easier to help.

Ian