I never knowingly save files to my desktop, and yet they gravitate there as if to a black hole.. Today I mistakenly clicked what was evidently a stack of files and they covered my desktop several times over. I couldn't read individual titles because they were overlapping many times over. I've seen suggestions that iCloud has something to do with this but I rarely use iCloud. Is there a way to stop this happening?
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0
You don't have to deal with the Desktop on the desktop. Desktop is a folder like any other. If you have enabled Desktop to sync with iCloud at System Settings>[name]>iCloud>Drive
then you can see the Desktop folder inside the iCloud Drive Folder. The iCloud Drive Desktop folder is also usually available in the Finder Sidebar:
It's way easier to handle files in the Desktop folder than on the computer's desktop.
duncantho wrote:
Thanks both Richard and muguy.
I definitely am not intentionally saving files to the desktop/Desktop. When I create a file I choose a specific folder. The problem seems to be happening with PDFs downloaded through Safari. The file download location is set to Downloads. But somehow PDFs are appearing in both Downloads and on the desktop/Desktop. I.e. duplicates. Is there any way to stop that?
As for iCloud, I prefer keeping almost everything local. I use it only for syncing a very few things such as Contacts and Notes with my phone.
So test your theory. Select a PDF, and download it using Safari.
You’ll either find your theory here fails (as would usually be expected), or will find evidence of something quite odd happening here.
Also test with whatever other PDF-related tools are in use locally, such as with any installed Adobe PDF tools.
Finder Get Info can show download sources too, and maybe that helps with the quest.
If you copy a randomly-chosen file from somewhere into Downloads using Finder, does it too get duplicated?
Please download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.
Exciting news MrHoffman! I followed the path to Folder Actions and found the culprit — an action I apparently created back in March to convert various image files to jpegs. And in the workflow I designated Downloads as the folder for the job, and Desktop as the place for the jpegs to go. But of course the action was copying all files to the Desktop, regardless whether they were convertible image files.
I've changed the folder for doing the action, ending the problem. Aside from the fact the action fails to convert raw files to jpegs. But that's for another day. I obviously wasn't using it.
Anyway, I thank you very much for leading me to the solution. You've been most generous with your time!
What does Finder show, when you open the Desktop folder, and when you open the Downloads folder?
Same two copies?
duncantho wrote:
Just the one goes away, leaving the other.
Yes. Now does something other than a browser cause the same behavior? If you copy a randomly-chosen file from somewhere else into the Downloads folder using Finder, does it too get duplicated?
Please also download and run (free) EtreCheck, and share the results to the clipboard. Then open a new reply here, and press the Additional Text button that looks like a printed page, and paste and post the hardware and software configuration report here. From that, we can get a little more detail about what is installed and what is running here.
Don't save the files to your desktop. Files do not simply move there. If you have enabled desktop and documents, then anything that you see soon your desktop is synced to iCloud as well. Move the files wherever you would like to store each.
Thanks both Richard and muguy.
I definitely am not intentionally saving files to the desktop/Desktop. When I create a file I choose a specific folder. The problem seems to be happening with PDFs downloaded through Safari. The file download location is set to Downloads. But somehow PDFs are appearing in both Downloads and on the desktop/Desktop. I.e. duplicates. Is there any way to stop that?
As for iCloud, I prefer keeping almost everything local. I use it only for syncing a very few things such as Contacts and Notes with my phone.
Thanks for your suggestion, MrHoffman.
I've just downloaded a utility bill PDF and a credit card bill PDF, from two different websites. In both cases each ends up in two places — Downloads and Desktop. A search shows their roots are (me)>Downloads and (me)>Desktop.
I don't know what sort of PDF tools would be relevant here. I'm simply using Safari to download from websites and somehow the files are appearing in two places. I generally view them in Preview or Quick Look.
Get Info shows identical sources for the two utility PDFs and the credit card PDFs.
Seems like some sort of quantum physics. Puzzling!
Nope, deleting one leaves the other.
I've also just found that downloading an app in produces the same result, i.e. duplicates in two places. And I see that downloads work the same way in Firefox, so it's not limited to Safari.
Hi again MrHoffman,
Yes, copying a file to Downloads produces a duplicate on the Desktop. Obviously there's something about the way
I have the Downloads folder configured (Folder Actions? Quick Actions?) is causing this. I don't recall doing anything like that but possibly at some point I experimented. I'll have to read up about folder configuration.
Meanwhile EtreCheck has found no major issues but some minor ones. See attached. I hope I've copied the report correctly, as my version has a 'Report' button but not one for 'Share report'.
As an aside, I see that at least one other person has reported what seems to be exactly the same problem with the Downloads folder (see "Mac automatically copies all downloaded files to my Desktop - WHY?"), reporting it to the community last year. That discussion is now closed, with the poster's issue unsolved.
Yes, a folder action can duplicate files, which is why I asked if an arbitrary file placed into Downloads got copied. That test largely eliminated the browser as a potential source of the problem.
I don’t see anything particularly wrong based on the Etrecheck report, though there are a few things including a dangling plist, and a bunch of very busy apps consuming lots of memory.
If it comes to it, the Dropbox and OneDrive apps can sometimes be the cause of file system performance issues, and the Google apps have a reputation for consuming system resources doing who-knows-what, though — again — the system appears to be running well.
I found an Applescript (from Apple) for removing folder actions. It told me I have no folder actions. So presumably that's not what is causing Downloads to copy files. At this point I may try Apple Support. If I do, and get an solution, I'll report back.
Same two copies.
How do I stop files piling up on my Mac desktop?
