MacOS – How to make files I drag to the desktop stay where I put them

desktopfindermacos

In Mountain Lion, when I drag a file to the desktop, it's automatically moved to a neat grid in the upper left of the desktop.

But I want it to stay in the spot to which I dragged it (usually because it's one I can see, so I can drag it to another window).

I thought it might be the "sort by" setting, but it's set to "none", so that's not it.

Thanks to those suggesting I change "sort by", but it's already on "none". Here's what's weirder: the files sometimes snap to a neat grid, and sometimes appear near (but not exactly where) I dragged them, with no other changes (I literally tested a few in row from the same program). It's really bizarre since in the answer below, i cannot reproduct this and I'm trying to confirm (for others) that it was fixed by an OS update. The issue may be related to external displays being attached on systems running 10.8.2 and earlier.

Best Answer

In Finder: cmd+J ➝ Sort by: none.