Desktop Icons Disappearing - Ventura ( and onward?)

There are numerous queries on this and I've yet to see an actual answer and wondered if anyone has figured out the cause of this quirk. I was surprised to see others still posting about it in Sonoma and Sequoia, as I'm on Ventura and about to create a brand new Mac Studio that came with the latest Sequoia and hoped this hooey would be gone.


Since 2020 when I got my current iMac (which is now running the latest version of Ventura), the entire desktop of icons all completely disappear - when you are doing nothing. You can just be sitting. You can just be writing at email or reading a website. There is zero logic.


I DO NOT have Stage Manager turned on and have never used it. I tried all the other old suggested solutions about Safe Mode, Recovery Mode, deleting plist, relaunching Finder yadda yadda yadda. None of it seems to have any result in stopping this random behavior.


It is exactly the same as what this poster queried a couple of years ago:


Desktop Icons Disappearing - Apple Community


The ONLY thing that makes them come right back without having to quit and relaunch Finder is to simply add ANYTHING to the desktop - I always just make a screenshot which I have programmed to land on my desktop, and the moment there is something landed back on the desktop, the icons all return.


It is just annoying and seems to have zero explanation all these years later.


I'm just wondering if there's been a correction or if this really continues into Sequoia.


I'm considering doing a complete new rebuild of my new Mac vs. using Migration to try and be rid of these sorts of inexplicable issues. But I don't want to go thru the massive hassle of a new build if its still going to do this.


Any input?


Thanks!


iMac 27″, macOS 13.7

Posted on May 26, 2025 7:59 AM

Reply
14 replies

May 27, 2025 9:22 AM in response to BDAqua

Okay I have run this and not sure how (or if) you want me to post this whole thing up here....


I don't see any huge problem - though what it considers a "Major Problem" is that I don't have automatic updates enabled - which I update immediately when I see there is one, but I don't want updates to change things I can't control or know about.


The "Minor Issues" are things I know which are fine:


  1. one "unsigned app" which is a Windows 10 PVM
  2. one "unsigned launchd file" which is com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (not needed any longer since Skype became Teams - I can remove this
  3. a kernel ext which may not run in the future (I know this is my Parallels 18 which I dont want to upgrade until I upgrade to Sonoma/Sequoia and from Windows 10 to 11 in the PVM
  4. notifications from WhatsApp, SuperDuper and iMazing that simply notify if I got a message or that my computer and phone successfully backed up daily
  5. apps that use heavy RAM which I don't see exactly what that is but likely Safari


That's it.... as far as I can tell.


Do you want me to post this whole 10 page report up here?


I should mention that the disappearing icons have happened since Day one of this new 2020 iMac - and it was happening whether there was the parallels or PVM or not.... the entire reason for which is to run Quickbooks which I have to do for business. This is a "boring" work computer and very little of anything personal in it (not tons of games, photos, videos, movies, etc.)


Thanks for trying to help me!

May 26, 2025 4:00 PM in response to BDAqua

No - I have never used iCloud Drive.


This seems to be an oddity that happens a lot (search discussions) and people first think its a plist thing, a relaunch Finder thing, but it seems to have zero to do with any of it.


Its just an odd quirk that you can be working, emailing, reading an email, reading something in safari, doesn't matter and then behind whatever you are doing you see the whole desktop vanish and nothing is there but your wallpaper.


In fact I just came into the office area and here was my mac completely blank, while no one was in here for hours doing anything.


As soon as you add ANYTHING to the desktop it all magically reappears. Its so bizarre I'm just amazed it happens (apparently) with people on Sonoma and Sequoia as well.


Maybe I really will just bite the bullet and do a completely clean new install of everything on my new studio in the hopes that I don't migrate negative things over.

May 27, 2025 12:12 PM in response to BDAqua

Well... I have about 30+ separate POP mailboxes and zillions of folders One My Mac, and of course the usual preferences and bookmarks etc that would certainly be nice if it would just bring it over, I just don't know if migrating would bring over whatever this odd "snapshot" error hooey that appears 25 times is the Disk Utility error and says can't be fixed.


Maybe is it worth my trying to migrate and see if that passes First Aid and if not I can always start over from scratch?


Thanks so much for your input and expertise. Once this all went APFS it became an unfamiliar animal to me and moving out of Intel and into M3 will be also totally new (esp having to add updated Parallels & Windows 11 with ARM that I know zip about).... oy - LOL!

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Desktop Icons Disappearing - Ventura ( and onward?)

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