I am having a very weird Finder problem. The alphabetically last file
in the Desktop directory doesn't show up on the actual desktop.

This problem is showing up on only one of two accounts on only one of
four macs that I have. All four are running the same version of the OS
(10.3.9) so I'm guessing it's some weird configuration problem, but I'm
stumped. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any help would be
much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ron

Ron Garret <rNOSPAMon@flownet.com> writes:
>
> I am having a very weird Finder problem. The alphabetically last file
> in the Desktop directory doesn't show up on the actual desktop.
>
> This problem is showing up on only one of two accounts on only one of
> four macs that I have. All four are running the same version of the
> OS (10.3.9) so I'm guessing it's some weird configuration problem, but
> I'm stumped. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any help would
> be much appreciated.

What is the name of the file that's not showing up? Perhaps it is a
hidden file of some kind that the Finder won't show you.

Perhaps the icon is underneath another icon or somehow got positioned
off the edge of the screen. Try using the "Clean up" or "Arrange"
commands from the menu bar and see if it becomes visible.

-- David

Ron Garret <rNOSPAMon@flownet.com> writes:
>
> I am having a very weird Finder problem. The alphabetically last file
> in the Desktop directory doesn't show up on the actual desktop.
>
> This problem is showing up on only one of two accounts on only one of
> four macs that I have. All four are running the same version of the
> OS (10.3.9) so I'm guessing it's some weird configuration problem, but
> I'm stumped. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any help would
> be much appreciated.

What is the name of the file that's not showing up? Perhaps it is a
hidden file of some kind that the Finder won't show you.

Perhaps the icon is underneath another icon or somehow got positioned
off the edge of the screen. Try using the "Clean up" or "Arrange"
commands from the menu bar and see if it becomes visible.

-- David

In article <m28xyg4512.fsf@qqqq.invalid>, shamino@techie.com (David C.)
wrote:

> Ron Garret <rNOSPAMon@flownet.com> writes:
> >
> > I am having a very weird Finder problem. The alphabetically last file
> > in the Desktop directory doesn't show up on the actual desktop.
> >
> > This problem is showing up on only one of two accounts on only one of
> > four macs that I have. All four are running the same version of the
> > OS (10.3.9) so I'm guessing it's some weird configuration problem, but
> > I'm stumped. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any help would
> > be much appreciated.
>
> What is the name of the file that's not showing up? Perhaps it is a
> hidden file of some kind that the Finder won't show you.
>
> Perhaps the icon is underneath another icon or somehow got positioned
> off the edge of the screen. Try using the "Clean up" or "Arrange"
> commands from the menu bar and see if it becomes visible.

I've tried all that. It's not any obvious thing. The name of the file
doesn't matter. Whatever file is alphabetically last vanishes. So for
example, if the desktop is empty and I do "touch Desktop/baz" then
nothing shows up. If I then "touch Desktop/foo" then baz shows up. If
I then "touch Desktop/zzz" then foo shows up. If I rename zzz to aaa
then foo vanishes and aaa shows up. It's one of the weirdest things I
have ever seen. It is absolutely consistent, but only on this one
account on this one machine. And it persists across reboots.

(I've temporarily worked around the problem by creating a file called
"zzzzzz" which becomes the invisible file, but that doesn't seem like a
good long-term fix.)

rg

In article <m28xyg4512.fsf@qqqq.invalid>, shamino@techie.com (David C.)
wrote:

> Ron Garret <rNOSPAMon@flownet.com> writes:
> >
> > I am having a very weird Finder problem. The alphabetically last file
> > in the Desktop directory doesn't show up on the actual desktop.
> >
> > This problem is showing up on only one of two accounts on only one of
> > four macs that I have. All four are running the same version of the
> > OS (10.3.9) so I'm guessing it's some weird configuration problem, but
> > I'm stumped. A Google search didn't turn up anything. Any help would
> > be much appreciated.
>
> What is the name of the file that's not showing up? Perhaps it is a
> hidden file of some kind that the Finder won't show you.
>
> Perhaps the icon is underneath another icon or somehow got positioned
> off the edge of the screen. Try using the "Clean up" or "Arrange"
> commands from the menu bar and see if it becomes visible.

I've tried all that. It's not any obvious thing. The name of the file
doesn't matter. Whatever file is alphabetically last vanishes. So for
example, if the desktop is empty and I do "touch Desktop/baz" then
nothing shows up. If I then "touch Desktop/foo" then baz shows up. If
I then "touch Desktop/zzz" then foo shows up. If I rename zzz to aaa
then foo vanishes and aaa shows up. It's one of the weirdest things I
have ever seen. It is absolutely consistent, but only on this one
account on this one machine. And it persists across reboots.

(I've temporarily worked around the problem by creating a file called
"zzzzzz" which becomes the invisible file, but that doesn't seem like a
good long-term fix.)

rg