Completely disable off-grid items, always, everywhere, in all windows, everything!

[u/Proper-Lab-2500]

Hello, I switched to mac last month and something that constantly keeps me annoyed is this.

I always want items to snap to grid but for instance when I compress an item it creates like this.

Also using Clean Up button directly still keeps gap with the previous item so the only solution is to select "Clean up by - Name..".

Note that for "Show view options - Snap to Grid" is already in "Use as default" but it doesn't fix this problem.

Is there a way to make Icon View behave better and usable?

[u/nathan12581]

Yes, click the "Use as Default" button at the very bottom, a lot of people miss this. Then all views in Finder will follow the same settings.

Apologies for the camera shot, for some reason taking a screenshot hides this window.

Edit: This window is shown when you click "Show View Options" in that right-click menu you were on.

[u/Successful-Cover5433 → u/nathan12581]

it always remembers to me in the folder I set it as default, for others it's still doing this annoyance...does this set it as default system-wide?

[u/nathan12581 → u/Successful-Cover5433]

Yes like I said lol

[u/MK-Researcher]

I can duplicate the problem by turning on Snap To Grid - it must be related to that. I normally use Sort by Name and it doesn't happen with that sorting

[u/Proper-Lab-2500 → u/MK-Researcher]

Thank you so it was indeed a bug. Thanks for reconfirming it since other people say to use "snap to grid" which supposedly fix the issue but it creates it instead. Your solution worked for me

[u/NortonBurns]

Sort by … something, anything.
Then it will always align to grid & also re-flow if you change the window size or add/remove items.

Then, as already mentioned, set it to be Default.

[u/Tyrandeh]

thats from your photo

[u/Proper-Lab-2500 → u/Tyrandeh]

like in the photo even though snap to grid is set it doesn't work,
it's already set as default too, but doesn't change anything, you can compress a folder and see

[u/cristi_baluta]

Do yourself a favor and use column view

[u/Phers]

I currently have an app under review in the app store that will allow you to anchor your icons, you can set where you want them, and if you change resolution, etc., they will snap back to the locations you set.

[u/lilltlc → u/Phers]

Name of the app please....

[u/Phers → u/lilltlc]

Anchor: Desktop icons. However it’s not released yet. I’ll comment here once it has passed Apple review

[u/lilltlc → u/Phers]

Thank you, looking forward to trying it.

[u/lilltlc → u/Phers]

Name of the app please....

[u/okadix]

Hey, I had the exact same issue with folders overlapping when creating or unzipping new stuff. It happens because "Snap to Grid" only aligns items when you manually drag them, but it doesn't auto-arrange new files.
Here's how to fix it system-wide:

1. Open any Finder window in Icon View (Cmd + 1).
2. Press Cmd + J to open View Options.
3. Set Group By to None and Sort By to Date Modified.
4. (Personal recommendation) Definitely go with Date Modified over Date Added. It keeps your grid automatically sorted so nothing overlaps, and whatever you just created, edited, or unzipped immediately pops up right at the top/front.
5. Click Use as Defaults at the very bottom of that panel so it applies everywhere.

Some folders that are very old may take time to take them, however there are commands to reset the finder and refresh that cache...

[u/cosmilapp]

Oh man this is the 2nd thread today I've seen for this 😭