Mac OS X Mavericks contains an option to repair your installation disk and restore corrupt or missing system files without losing any of your applications, data or files. If the problem still persists, check the next solution. Check if you see the icons that were missing from the desktop. Select the “First Aid” tab and click “Repair Disk Permissions.” If you can’t select this option, click “Verify Disk Permissions” first, then attempt to repair the disk permissions. Open Disk Utility and choose your hard disk from the sidebar. Repairing the permissions is a quick and easy method of restoring file and icon displays on the screen.Ĭlick a blank area of the desktop, select the “Go” menu and choose “Utilities” from the drop-down menu. These errors can result from improperly shutting down your computer or because an application has altered some of your settings. Permission errors could prevent you from seeing icons on your desktop. This does not erase the file however, it hides or reveals files from the specific selected devices. When you remove a device, the icon disappears from the display.
Connected servers, external disks, CDs, DVDs and iPods only display on the desktop when connected to your computer. Under the General tab, check the “Hard Disks,” “External Disks,” “CDs, DVDs, and iPods” and “Connected Servers” boxes. This will open a menu of options to control the file types displayed on your Mac screen. Click on a blank area of the desktop, select the “Finder” menu and choose “Preferences…” from the drop-down menu. If you find only some icons missing from Mac desktop, adjust the settings to resolve the problem. The Finder preferences control the type of desktop icons that appear. Now sort through the grid to check if hidden icons have been revealed for easy viewing and access. Apply the settings by right-clicking the desktop again and choose “Clean Up.” The Clean Up option only shows up if icons currently appear on the desktop.
To create a quick grid organizational setting, right-click on a blank area of the desktop, select “Sort By” and choose “Snap to Grid” to keep each icon in its own space. This is an easy troubleshooting step that can quickly clean up the screen and organize the existing icons. By setting up your desktop to align icons to a grid and sorting them automatically, you can find missing icons and stop this problem from occurring again.
This results in the appearance of missing icons on Mac desktop. Keeping several icons on your desktop can lead to a situation where icons end up piling on top of other icons.
#DESKTOP ICONS FOR MAC HOW TO#
Without any further ado, let’s look at how to restore missing desktop files and icons on Mac. If your Mac desktop files or icons disappear all of a sudden, Here are some troubleshooting steps to help you restore icons missing on Mac immediately. How to Restore Missing/Disappeared Mac Desktop Files and Icons In addition, removing desktop icons that you don’t need can marginally increase the performance of your mac by freeing up memory since each icon refreshes when you access your desktop. At times, you can fix the problem by adjusting your settings and running scans to repair your MacBook. Adjusting how the Mac OS X Mavericks Finder displays desktop icons can also affect the ability to view certain types of icons. Missing icons on Mac desktop can be caused by a number of things including incorrect permissions, corrupt system files or icons piling up on top of each other. Are you experiencing a macOS problem where the desktop icons are missing and not showing up? When this problem occur, you’ll just see everything on the desktop including icons, documents, folders, files, images, and much more has suddenly disappeared.