Problem

Solution

In the meantime, here are some suggestions from http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-149824.html in case they are helpful:

• Once upon a time I read a solution suggesting one delete some cache file, but I've forgotten which it was. The solution I use is to log out and back in again when I reach a stopping point in my work. It's purely a cosmetic problem, but yet another of the many bugs in the Mac OS X Finder....

• Kevin O. Lepard: With respect to Mr. Jaquith's icon problem, you can usually correct this sort of problem by deleting the contents of the [username]/Library/Icons folder. Delete only the contents of the folder, not the folder itself. If that doesn't work you can try Panther Cache Cleaner or Cocktail to clean out the various caches.

• David Ryeburn: ...SubRosaSoft's RebuildDesktopX? will help. Of course if the problem is with a classic application, you can rebuild the Classic desktop within the Classic System Preference.

• Bert Dufour: I too have this annoying "feature". While mostly I don't bother fixing it, Force Quit [Command-Option-Esc], pick Finder and click 'Relaunch'. That should refresh it again.

• Markus Hänchen: I also have seen several cases of mismatched cases, what helped in my case was to restart the Finder. You can do this with Cocktail, using the Terminal or Activity Monitor to kill the process, logging out and back in, or even add a quit command to the Finder menu bar.

• Davide Guarisco: ...It happens all the time. I don't worry anymore, not a big deal for me. Still, makes me wonder when will Apple finally "fix" the Finder.

-- CarlaScaletti - 10 Oct 2005