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So I've been getting an issue where my computer will randomly create untitled folders on the desktop, last night as much as 12! This has been going on for weeks now.

I am a software developer and am using MacOS Sierra Version 10.12 with a Mac Pro (Late 2013), 3.5 Ghz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5 with 16GB 1866 Mhz DDR3, AMD FirePro D300 2048 MB.

I've read some issues of people having this problem here (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5555689?start=0&tstart=0), but the discussion is outdated.

1.) I disconnected from internet and left the computer on all night, the folder appearing still occurs.

2.) I have no screen sharing computer control apps

3.) I've looked into a fix where you delete the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist but that file does not appear to exist??

Please any ideas are appreciated as its very annoying how it fills up the desktop every morning. I'm not sure how to reproduce the error on command yet.

Attached is only plist files I could find. I'll upload screenshot of untitled folders tomorrow or when it happens again.

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  • Maybe someone else in the community who is running macOS Sierra can check whether the location of com.apple.desktop.plist is still at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist ? Whatever the case, knowing will help us troubleshoot this.
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Oct 16, 2016 at 8:27
  • Yup I agree, I just have no idea.
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 16, 2016 at 8:47
  • Here is a macSierra updated from El Capitan and com.apple.desktop.plist still in ~/Library/Preferences (just to be clear, ~ means home directory). If you want to create one just copy xml and DOCTYPE tags from another plist and add <plist version="1.0"><dict/></plist> and you are done.
    – Vagner
    Oct 16, 2016 at 12:22
  • ok let me try that to see if it helps
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 17, 2016 at 2:09
  • looks like its still happening, any other ideas? Although it does seem to make only '1' folder now instead of 12
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 18, 2016 at 4:02

2 Answers 2

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Ok so I finally figured out the issue (at least for me). It turns out that some games when you have multiple monitors do not use true full screen and so right clicking can create accidental new folders to appear on the desktop.

In particular the game League of Legends was culprit in this. I found out after doing some more research and noticing this only seemed to occur after the game. There does not appear to be a remedy for this yet.

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The desktop preferences you wanted to delete at: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist are not located in the root Library folder of your hard drive. Instead you need to navigate within your user home folder at Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

If you don't know how to see the Library folder, within the Finder hold down the Option key and click on the Go menu and then select Library from the menu. This will open up the Library folder for you and then you can just navigate to Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

Let us know if this works for you.

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  • I tried that already and its not there unfortunately.
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 16, 2016 at 6:44
  • Just to be clear I'm aware their are two library folders, I've checked both for the file but doesn't seem to be there.
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 16, 2016 at 6:45
  • added picture to prove I'm not stupid :P.
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 16, 2016 at 7:17
  • Maybe Mac Os Sierra calls it something else now?
    – Joseph Astrahan
    Oct 16, 2016 at 7:19
  • Haha, for the record I never said you were stupid! :) And maybe you're right - it could be somewhere else now in macOS Sierra (I haven't updated so can't check if it's the same for me).
    – Monomeeth ♦
    Oct 16, 2016 at 8:26

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